John Cameron's personal blog

'Securing Your Future' was the most viewed material on The West Australian’s website yesterday. It’s the online version of The West’s financial planning supplement. 

The West Australian newspaper published a financial planning supplement yesterday 'Securing Your Future' (Monday 22 August 2016). I contributed an article to the supplement and participated in a video for The West's website. You might like to read the articles online - there is some useful material. 

Click on this link to view my article and video about different investment returns in various decades: https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/32389394/sequencing-and-retirement-income/#page1 

One of the issues that repeatedly crops up when dealing with clients is, “How well placed are you to deal with unforeseen expenses?” 

The expenses can range from relatively minor things such as an appliance suddenly failing, a minor car accident or a leaky roof, through to things far more catastrophic – a major illness, death of your partner, loss of job, marriage breakdown or any of a whole host of other things.

I started thinking along these lines, on reading a story in the Financial Review on 1st July. The story reported a survey carried out by the US Federal Reserve, to assess the resilience of American households if some financial shock occurred.

Unfortunately, much of what passes for financial advice today, amounts to little more than a box-ticking exercise.

For many of the bigger institutional advisor groups, the process goes something like this:

• Fill out a risk profiling questionnaire, and go into a risk profile box. Tick

Just what does a Financial Planner do?

Coming up with a suitable strategy and recommending suitable investments is an obvious job, and is the one that attracts the most public attention.

However, another job that can be just as important, is helping clients make better financial decisions. Your financial planner should be able to engage with you on a range of issues, help you clarify the different options that are available to you in a given situation, and choose between the alternatives.

Should they stay or should they go?

Oliver Hartwich | The New Zealand Initiative | 17 March 2016

I wrote recently about the political implications of the UK's forthcoming referendum on EU membership. Let's take a closer look at what the British are voting on, and why your columnist is not sure what to wish for.