Michael Barker

Business Update for Aspirations Wealth Group

Aspirations Wealth Group, as a current Genesys member firm, will now join Charter Financial Planning.

 

In 2014, Genesys Wealth Advisers completed a strategic business review which resulted in a need to rationalise with another licensee to ensure our clients continue to get the very best advice and service. This means that Aspirations Wealth Group, as a current Genesys member firm, will now join Charter Financial Planning. This change will come into force as of 30 April 2015.

 

This will have no effect or impact on our client relationships or the advice we provide to our valued clients.

 

Please see this link for more information on what changes and what remains the same. Business Update Aspirations Wealth Group (PDF)

Aspirations charity day with Dandelion Network

On Friday 5th September, the team at Aspirations Wealth Group spent the day volunteering at the Dandelion Support Network, as part of our commitment to give something back to our community.

 

The Dandelion Support Network is based in Caringbah, and accepts donations of good quality second hand child/baby clothes, toys and equipment, which are then checked for safety and distributed to families in need. So the boys (Rik, Mark, Mike and Chris) spent the day erecting cots, beds and change tables so that they could be safety checked. Once approved, we dismantled the equipment to be ready for shipping.  The girls (Marie, Jo, Sheri, and Jenny) spent the day sorting through donated clothes to remove dirty or worn items, and ensure the clothes donated to families were in excellent condition, and nicely folded.

 

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the day and the team at Dandelion were greatly appreciative of the work we did.  We would encourage all local businesses to get involved with their local community as it’s a great win-win for everyone.

Chris and Rik - Cot

 

Jo Folding clothes

 

Mike working, Mark ......

 

 

Asset allocation is always important

When putting together your investment strategy, it’s helpful to keep in mind the age old saying that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. Investment portfolios that are invested in a number of asset classes work together to even out performance in both bull and bear markets, taking into account your risk tolerance and time horizon. Please see attached link for more information:

Asset allocation is always important (PDF)

The US Government Shutdown

US Federal Government Shutdown

You may have seen in the news that the US has been unable to reach an agreement on the Federal budget and the US government will be in partial shutdown from 1st of October.

What is a shutdown? Effectively around 800,000 US federal government employees will go on leave without pay until the politicians can stop bickering over who is to blame and fix the problem.

Below we provide our view on the potential impacts to you, the markets and the US economy.

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  • Historically, US government shutdowns have been a non-event for investment markets with the average shutdown lasting around 10 days and the share market falling around 1.4%.
  • The US has to raise its debt ceiling, which is currently around $17 trillion dollars, in order to fund the federal government going forward. They have raised this ceiling 79 times since 1940.
  • The impact on the US economy should only be minimal, as long as a resolution has been implemented within a reasonable time frame. The outlook for the US economy is still good going into 2014. However at some point in the future the US needs to stop borrowing and start reducing government debts.
  • We see any short term market volatility as an opportunity for you to potentially increase exposure to quality growth assets at a lower price.

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We will continue to watch this situation closely and keep you updated. If you have any questions or would like to know more please contact the team at Aspirations.

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