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  • 📈 Australia will ban dynamic pricing | Adviser's tips for managing Superannuation as a couple

📈 Australia will ban dynamic pricing | Adviser's tips for managing Superannuation as a couple

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Part-time DJ, full-time CEO of Goldman Sachs, David Solomon, will be celebrating after the investment bank reported a 45% increase in profit this quarter.

Here’s what you need to know today

  • Earnings season has kicked off in the US with the major investment banks. Goldman Sachs was the standout, reporting a 45% year-over-year increase in profit. Combined investment banking fees across Goldman, Bank of America, Citigroup and JPMorgan rose 27% to $6.5 billion. (Capital Brief)

  • Earnings season also continues in Europe. Luxury giant LVMH reported a 3% fall in sales, with the fashion-and-leather goods division which includes brands including Dior and Louis Vuitton seeing sales fall by 5%. (Euro News)

  • Dutch lithography giant ASML accidentally released their Q3 earnings a day early. Unfortunately for the company, the numbers disappointed and shares dropped as much as 18%, their biggest one-day drop since 1998. (Reuters)

  • Australia will ban ‘dynamic pricing’ for concert tickets, where prices change in response to supply and demand. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the pricing strategy “dodgy”. (Guardian)

  • Google is following Microsoft’s lead and directly engaging with nuclear energy generators to power their AI ambitions. The tech giant has commissioned several new small modular reactors from Kairos Power. Microsoft’s deal with the Three Mile Island nuclear plant is expected to add 800MW to the US electricity grid. Google’s deal is expected to add another 500MW. For context, AGL’s Bayswater coal-fired power station in NSW has a maximum capacity of 2,640MW. (Quartz)

  • Are the Australian mortgage wars back? Macquarie has fired the first shot, cutting their fixed rate mortgages almost 100 basis points lower than their competitors. Analysts expect the Big 4 banks to respond. What does this mean? The major banks all expect interest rate cuts to come thick and fast later this year or early next year. (AFR)

  • Boeing announced plans to raise up to $25 billion by selling more shares and raising debt from investors and also announced a $10 billion credit agreement from several banks. The aircraft maker is facing an ongoing strike of 33,000 workers has reportedly cost the company more than $1 billion, and continues to cost $50 million a day. (Capital Brief)

What the…?

Ozempic and its peer GLP-1 drugs have seen some amazing results, not just in weight loss but in helping patients manage addiction, improving heart health and reducing sleep aponea to name just a few. But the UK Government is pursuing a new and novel line of enquiry: how Zepbound (a drug similar to Ozempic) impacts a user’s employment status.

If it is found that these GLP-1 drugs can help get people back to work, expect a whole lot more government funding to be unlocked (as the cost of the drug will be far less than the cost of long-term unemployment). (Quartz)

Investing is a lifelong journey

Here’s what you can learn today.

Question from the Equity Mates community: Split families - my wife took time off work for maternity leave, but is back at work, and has a lower super balance (below $500k). What options do we have to get her back on track? 

We put this question to Dylan Pargiter-Green, Director and Financial Advisor at Bold Wealth

We generally look at superannuation as a joint asset when assessing a family’s overall assets. Whilst it’s important to consider the individual balances, superannuation is an asset that you will jointly draw an income from in retirement. It only begins to matter when your balance begins to near the $1.9 Million tax free pension cap, and now the $3 Million additional tax on high balances, recently introduced.  

The $1.9 Million Cap is important because this is as much as 1 person can contribute to their account based pension (income stream from super) where earnings remain tax free. Once you exceed this cap, the earnings go back to the accumulation rate of tax at 15%. 

Both members of a household can have up to $1.9 Million in super and draw a tax free income stream – so this is $3.8 Million in total, which should provide an approximate after tax income of $250,000 for life, using relatively conservative investments. 

If you’re keen to even out the balances, and the balance of the fund is under $500,000 you can look into additional contributions using prior years unused Concessional Contributions, also known as Carry Forward contributions. This means you can use past years where you have not contributed to super and claim these in the current financial year. I’d highly recommend seeking advice if you’re going down this path though, because with careful tax planning, you can maximise the tax benefit through the use of these contributions over a number of years rather than using them all at once.

Want to speak to Dylan or one of our hand-picked financial advisers? Fill out the form on our website and we’ll put you in touch.

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