Welcome to the May edition of The Adviser’s Notebook. This month we feel a high sense of optimism as we move into the last few weeks of Autumn.

The recent budget updates will be covered off separately, however, overall it’s a budget the Government is pushing as a big-spending Pandemic budget intended to force unemployment lower.

With Vaccines rolling out globally, many of the restrictions that have been imposed have started to ease, with the exception of India and other third world countries who are going through second and third waves.

As Australia slowly opens its borders with our neighbour, New Zealand, and as politicians are now discussing the prospect of doing the same for international students, we're also looking forward to the time when international travel will finally be permitted. The latter question seemed to have been addressed as Finance Minister Birminghan issued a statement saying that our international borders may remain closed until later in 2022.

Until that happens, our tourism and hospitality industry may have to endure and find ways to spur local tourism. However, as the Government and our industries work to keep economic activity going, issues are now surfacing.

First of which is the issue of debt, as reflected in the results of the Cost of Living survey conducted by news.com.au. The second is the timing for buying property. Earlier during the lockdown, analysts predicted that there may be a slowdown in the property market as vendors are uncertain and buyers will try to compete with each other amidst the impending limited supply.

However, with the property market seemingly having bounced back with house prices increasing, the only question that remains now is: will this trend continue? If it does, until when?

Third, and speaking of housing, the Building Stronger Homes Roundtable has issued its recommendations before the Government as regards the durability of homes in Australia. It can be recalled that the country has seen natural devastation successively occur last year, with both resulting in the loss and destruction of property, and a spike in insurance-related transactions.

Finally, the limelight shifts to our retirees as recent studies revealed that retirees are exhausting their retirement savings at least four years before their deaths. This trend has raised the question: is Super alone a secure source of retirement income? If not, what can be done to ensure the financial welfare of our retirees?

The team at Your Wealth Hub Advice wishes you a wonderful May.

Gavin Glozier, AdvFP
CEO & Principal Financial Adviser
P 1300 763 498 • M 0408 155 140
Level 33, 264 George St NSW, Australia
Life the life you want to live.