Empower Blog Property & Financial Investment

Inflation hits the property market

Ben appeared on Sky News Business Weekend with Ross Greenwood to chat about property owners and buyers face a dilemma with the prospect of higher interest rates taking the edge off price rises. ...

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Meet Victor Dao

Victor is a Financial Planner at Empower Wealth who has more than 10 years’ experience in the financial planning industry. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the Australian National University majoring in Accounting & Finance, a Diploma & Advanced Diploma in Financial Planning, and is a Certified Financial Planner ® with the...

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RBA Cash Rate February 2022: Biggest Sure Bet Prediction for Property this year

It’s the first RBA Announcement of the year so there are lots to catch up on folks! The last update was exactly two months ago and a LOT has happened since then (take the inflation rate for example!) so tune in for some jam-packed economic update. Here are the key themes for this month’s economic update: The global Omicron wave of th...

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Meet Sage D’Costa

Sage is a Financial Planner at Empower Wealth with over 7 years’ experience in the wealth management and financial planning industry. Sage holds a bachelor’s degree in Commerce (Finance/Financial Planning), Diploma of Commerce (Management) and a SMSF Accreditation Certificate with aspirations to attain further post graduate qualification as CF...

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Principal Place of Residence CGT Exemption

The recent increases in housing prices make it more important than ever to ensure you home is fully protected from Capital Gains Tax (CGT) by your main residence exemption. Afterall CGT is really just a tax on inflation.  If your home misses out on the exemption you are unlikely to have enough left to buy another home after you pay the tax...

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Tax Deductions When Working From Home

Don’t forget to keep all the records you will need to be able to claim the associated costs as a tax deduction. None of the claims listed below will affect the CGT main residence exemption on your house. The CGT main residence exemption is more a factor of whether you see the public there or that it is advertised as a place of business. If yo...

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Retirement: where to start

While many of us dream about the day we finally get to give up work and reap the benefits of our blood, sweat and tears, we often struggle to plan for it. After all, in the scuffle of immediate priorities, saving and planning for retirement don’t always make it to the top of the pile. But there’s a good chance you could be spending almos...

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Merry Christmas & What A Year!

Good day, Ben Kingsley here, for what has become a bit of a tradition with our annual Christmas message. I'm getting a little bit older, I think, and now having to wear the glasses. I probably look a little bit more like Santa Claus, probably just need the gray beard. But it's coming, everyone. I just wanted to say, it has been a pretty in...

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RBA Cash Rate December 2021: Has the Property Market Lost its Bullish Mojo?

It’s the final RBA Announcement for the year so there are lots to catch up on folks! The most important question is… are we finally seeing an end to the property market’s bullish mojo? Tune in to this episode where Ben unpacks that and three other key themes for this month’s economic update: Should we be preparing ourselves for th...

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RBA Cash Rate November 2021: Lending Standards To Change?

It’s Melbourne Cup RBA Cash Rate Day folks! In the past, the Reserve Bank of Australia tends to change the rate on race day. Did they change the cash rate as well this year? Most definitely NOT. They simply can’t afford to make any changes to the cash rate yet. Why? Tune in to find out more where Ben unpacks three key themes for this ...

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The Top 5 Tax Planning Rules Every Property Investor Must Understand

Talking Property Tax with Julia Hartman: Episode 1 You can’t avoid it, so you might as well learn to understand it. Better still, the more you know about it, the more you can ‘work’ with it, instead of working against it. What are we talking about? Tax. Getting the right tax advice can result in vastly improved financ...

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RBA Cash Rate October 2021: Lending Standards To Change?

G'day. Ben Kingsley here with my October economic and RBA update. There's lots to explore with the key themes around how the pandemic is continuing to rule over sustained economic recovery for both the world economy and also our domestic economy. China's now on an economic watch. So, we'll talk more about that. And then finally, we'll round th...

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RBA Cash Rate September 2021: Australia’s Planned Recovery NOT So Predictable?

Good day everyone, I'm back with the update, the economic and RBA update for September 2021. It's been a while, but let's get into it. We're going to talk about the Delta disruptor. We're going to be looking ahead to the $64 million question about how consumers will respond once our two biggest economies open up? We're also going to see ...

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