What we need to know about the Federal Budget

Online finance toolsChanges to superannuation, university funding and health care, plus a predicted increase in unemployment in the 2013/14 Federal Budget will force many of us to review our finances in the coming months.

This week Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan delivered his sixth budget.

Director of AMP Financial Planning practice Jade Financial Group, Dianne Charman said there was a number of measures in this Budget that would potentially affect our cash flow.

Raising rental returns

Home environmentBy AMP Financial Planner Claire Esmond*

 A friend told me this week that she’s apprehensive about increasing the rent on her investment property because she feels sorry for the tenant and doesn’t want to lose her.

“She’s a really good tenant and keeps the property well-maintained – I can’t afford to lose her, my last tenant was dreadful.  And I feel sorry for her as she’s young and just starting out on her own so probably couldn’t afford to pay more,” she said.

Mother’s Day blues

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By Harriet Upjohn

Every year, in the first two weeks of May, the commercial juggernaut that is all things “mother” goes into overdrive as those with something to sell cash in on the opportunity to pile pressure on families to spend up big on Mum. Sometimes the Mother’s Day gift ideas are too insulting for words – suggestions on one store’s website include an ironing board and a rubbish bin. A rubbish bin? Seriously?

But amid all the hullaballoo it’s easy to overlook those for whom the day is a reminder of lost love and emptiness. People who, for whatever reason, do not have mothers or children to celebrate with and who, rather like lonely hearts on Valentine’s Day, miss out on this mass giving and receiving of love. 

Mother daughter conversations you should have

Mothers DayWritten by Rhonda Garad, Health writer

Talking with you mother about ‘women’s business’ can be a tricky thing. I remember my poor mother trying to have the ‘getting your period talk’ with me and failing miserably. She grew up in an era where discussing such things was taboo, so our mother daughter talk consisted of her handing me a packet of pads and saying, with an unnerving eagerness: “You will need these soon when your very special visitor comes each month”. I remember being a little excited at the prospect of a special visitor and wondered who it might be (Kylie from Neighbours?) and whether I should hand them this packet of pads!

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Giant Steps and The Great Gatsby

Suzanne Wangmann and I outside Giant StepsWell what a week it’s been…starting with the private screening of The Great Gatsby, interviewing Toby Maguire and Joel Edgerton for the Foxtel Movie Show (Monday nights, Arena), spending a couple of hours touring ‘Giant Steps’ in Sydney (a learning facility helping kids with Autism) , running off to a Business Chicks lunch with Bob Geldof as speaker, attending the Australian premiere of Gatsby and the amazing jaw-dropping after party and finishing today hosting a corporate lunch at The Ivy in aid of Odyssey House  and raising money for their parent and children rehabilitation program. Phew! (more…)

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