The Government recently announced its 2022-23 Budget. Like most years, the Budget announcement occupied the news cycle in the days following its release and you may recall news coverage of a range of proposed measures to help in rebuilding our economy as we continue pandemic recovery and other measures targeted at assisting with cost-of-living pressures.
Estimating your future living costs when planning for retirement can be difficult. As your lifestyle changes some expenses will be reduced, for example mortgage repayments are hopefully cleared and you may be able to cut down on your insurances. It is worth doing a bit of a deep dive into possible expenses that may crop up for you as it’s wise to have some flexibility and wriggle room to cope with life’s unexpected events.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has thrown policymakers, companies and markets into an inherently uncertain world.
Although the Russian invasion has jolted markets, history tells us that geopolitical risk has had little impact on markets in the long term. Historically there has been little correlation between major geopolitical events and market upheavals.
The caveat of looking back on history for guidance is that nothing is ever guaranteed.
What is it about Birthdays that makes us take stock? At a recent review meeting Brad told us that he had recently turned 60 and it had prompted him to think about retiring. The idea of not having to work anymore was suddenly very appealing, but he was concerned that he wasn’t going to have enough to fund a comfortable retirement.
The current volatility in the market is being driven by several factors including geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine, Omicron and a pandemic driven supply chain crisis. However, one of the key contributors for the fall, is the expectation of rising inflation. The Federal Reserve has changed its tune and has clearly indicated a rise in interest rates is imminent.
