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    • 25 Years of Whitt & Wisdom
      For more than 25 years, finance expert Noel Whittaker has helped thousands of Australians manage their personal finances with wit and wisdom via columns in some of the country’s best-known publications. This hand-picked collection of shrewd insights chronicles the rollercoaster ride of both global and local economies over the last quarter century. There’s a treasure trove of financial knowledge between these pages — start digging! BUY IT NOW    
    • The Torch (Free Download)

      The Torch

      Many successful people credit their success to the books they have read in their life. In this chapter  The Torch  from my book Making Money  Made Simple  traces the  the history of success books. Why not download it now? DOWNLOAD IT NOW  
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      The 20 Commandments Of Wealth

      by Noel Whittaker

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      The 20 Commandments Of Wealth for Retirees

      by Noel Whittaker

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      Noel's Action Plan

      by Noel Whittaker

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      for Making Money Made Simple

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      • The 20 Commandments of Wealth
        by Noel Whittaker .
        1. Practise the guaranteed secret of wealth.
        2. Keep in mind that income seldom exceeds personal development.
        3. Have adequate insurance.
        4. Use the magic of compounding.
        5. Understand the basics that never change, and take advice on the things that do change.
        6. Use the Rule of 72.
        7. Take advice before the deed is done – not afterwards. It’s hard to rewrite history.
        8. Always judge an investment on its merits – any tax benefits should be regarded as the cream on the cake.
        9. If a person contacts you by phone with an offer of an investment, or even to help you pay your mortgage back faster, hang up.
        10. One of the most expensive evenings you can go to is a “free” investment seminar.
        11. Borrowing for investment is a great strategy because it puts assets at work for you early in your life. But keep in mind that it speeds up whatever is going to happen – wealth or poverty.
        12. It’s better to get rich slowly than go broke quickly.
        13. Becoming wealthy depends more on how you manage your money, than how much you earn.
        14. Don’t pick a fight with the tax office.
        15. Make sure you set goals – they are the essential ingredient in your success.
        16. Remember that financial winners borrow for investments that grow in value – the battlers borrow for consumer items that depreciate.
        17. Every year assess your net worth.
        18. Ignore the prophets of doom – they are always with us and usually wrong.
        19. Don’t follow the herd and back last year’s winner – that’s a recipe for disaster.
        20. Never stop learning.
          Download Noel’s 20 Commandments of Wealth as a PDF  
      • The 20 Commandments of Wealth for Retirees
        Download Noel’s 20 Commandments of Wealth for Retirees as a PDF 20-wealth-retirees by Noel Whittaker
        1. Ignore the prophets of doom – they are always with us and usually wrong.
        2. Make sure your children have adequate insurance. It’s much more affordable than your funding their misfortune.
        3. Understand compounding, and appreciate that the rate of return your portfolio can achieve will be a major factor in how long your money will last.
        4. Understand the basics that never change, and take advice on the things that do.
        5. Take advice before the deed is done – not afterwards. It’s hard to rewrite history.
        6. Always judge an investment on its merits – any tax benefits should be regarded as the cream on the cake.
        7. If a person contacts you by phone with an offer of an investment, or even to help you pay your mortgage back faster, hang up.
        8. Don’t have all your eggs in the one basket – diversify across the major asset classes and certainly have some international exposure.
        9. Involve your partner, if you have one, in all your financial decisions. This will make it easier if one of you passes away or becomes incapacitated.
        10. Don’t panic when the share market has a bad day – volatility is the price you pay for the unique benefits of shares.
        11. Make sure your wills are up-to-date and include a testamentary trust if that is appropriate.
        12. Give Enduring Powers of Attorney and an Advance Health Directive to trusted people. And make sure they have copies and can locate the originals when needed.
        13. One of the most expensive evenings you can go to is a “free” investment seminar.
        14. Be extremely wary of going guarantor for any of your children – especially if they are in business.
        15. Don’t spend unnecessarily just to maximise your Centrelink benefits. Further cuts to benefits are possible.
        16. Investigate if you should have a Binding Death Nomination in your super fund. Keep in mind that what is appropriate in one situation may not be appropriate in another.
        17. Each year assess whether it is to your benefit to stay in super. In some cases you may be better off to withdraw the balance and invest outside the superannuation environment.
        18. Don’t follow the herd and back last year’s winner – that’s a recipe for disaster.
        19. If you decide to take on a reverse mortgage involve family members in the process and have them pay the interest if possible. This will stop the debt increasing.
        20. Finally – keep in mind that your potential worst enemies can be the media who focus on the negative, and well-meaning acquaintances who may give you information that may be half right.
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        Ask Noel - Tuesday, 17 November 2020
        December 12, 2020
        Question I am 58 and my husband is 65.  We both work full time and salary sacrifice the maximum into super.  I earn $120,000 a year, and my husband earns $113,000 a year.  He has $470,000 in super and I have $450,000.  We still have a mortgage of $367,000 on our family home worth $1.6 million.  My husband hopes to
      • READ MORE
        Ask Noel - Thursday, 26 November 2020
        December 12, 2020
        Question.  I’m reading your new book Retirement Made Simple and hope you can clarify something I’m confused about. I thought, irrespective of whether you are  income tested or asset tested,  you could only earn $300 a fortnight as a pensioner couple . We will be asset tested and I have
       
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      Welcome to Noel News. Thanks for all your kind comments. Please continue to send feedback through; it’s always appreciated and helps us to improve the newsletter. You can subscribe to my newsletter in the footer area below. And don’t forget you’ll get much more regular communications from me if you follow me on twitter – @NoelWhittaker. noel_sig Noel Whittaker
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    • About Noel

      Noel Whittaker is Australia’s Financial Wizard of Oz.

      Not only does he write weekly columns in the Sunday Mail and the Courier Mail, but, by some strange magic, he has the entire Australian continent covered from the Cairns Post in the North to the Hobart Mercury in the South, to the Perth Sunday Times in the West. He also writes in Australian Doctor magazine.

      You’ll hear Noel on Fairfax radio and see him on Channel 10.

      He has written 20 bestselling books that have sold over two million copies around the world. His book “Making Money Made Simple” set sales records across the country and was recently named in the top 100 of the most influential books of the last century.
      In 1988, Noel was named Australian Investment Planner of the Year. In 2003, he was awarded the Australian Centenary Medal in recognition of his services to the financial services industry and, in 2011 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day Honours List.

      Noel is a Fellow of CPA Australia, a Fellow of the Taxation Institute, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management

      He is a Certified Financial Planner, a member the Australian Securities and Investment Commission Liaison committee, and is currently an Adjunct Professor and Executive in Residence with the Faculty of Business at the Queensland University of Technology.

    • Testimonials
      I just wanted to say thank you for changing my life. In 1999 I came over from England and visited my brother who went to live in Australia. I was staying with him and travelling around for three months. He worked in a cafe in Canberra. One day he came home with a book and said that an author had been offering it to the workers. He brought home a copy for me. The book was 'Getting it together.' It became my bible for the next few years and I went on to read other great books of yours. I was in a dead end job and always struggling financially. Your book taught me to take control of my money and go to university so I could do something fulfilling. I was also very lucky to meet my future wife at university who is super shrewd when it comes to finances as well as a great many other things as well. I now have fantastic job which I love, I am financially secure. I have a loving family and I've self published two science-fiction books of my own, with two more in the pipeline. My dad said today that I'm very lucky. I'm not sure what luck is. All I know is that I was always ready I just needed the right people to guide me. You were one of them. I just wanted to give you a big thank you for everything you've done for me, without even realizing it. Thanks Noel.
      A beginners Guide to Wealth
      Hi Noel, I always enjoy your articles in the Sunday Mail and over the years your advise has been a great help to our family. We read Making Money Made Simple in the late 1980's and I have re-read the book many times since. I have also given copies to a number of acquaintances and have had the pleasure of watching some of them follow your advise and prosper. The book was a "Light-Bulb" moment for my wife and I, with small children and a mortgage, we were puddling along but with the knowledge you gave so freely on those printed pages it focused out direction and gave us the confidence to put what you had suggested into action. Now, after nearly 30 years we can retire in comfort, our children and grandchildren have carved out their futures based on the foundations you laid and none of us will ever need the support of social security. I guess I'm saying thank-you for having the guts to put into plain English the knowledge you had gained. I have had a young fellow working with me over the school holidays and he has shown a depth of character and willingness to learn than I rarely see in someone of only 15 years. I would like to give him a few pointers as he starts his journey in life and I recall you mentioned in your Sunday column a few months ago about a Managed Fund or ETF for beginners. The product had it roots in the US and was recently been offered in Australia, it has only small management fee and very low minimum contribution amount to suit young investors. If you are able, I would appreciate the name of the fund to pass onto him. With my sincere thanks, Peter.
      Light Bulb Moments
      Hi Noel, I just stopped by to sign up for your newsletter.  I've been following "Ask Noel" on the SMH for then years, since I moved back to Australia in 2006 at Age 35.  I was a bit of a late bloomer, financially.  At the time, my super balance was about $5,000 with personal debts also.  My husband had no super, although he had some properties that he envisaged to be his "retirement plan" but we I assumed I'd have to work until I dropped. Thanks to your excellent guidance and advice, we're now own our home, and have about $400k in super.   Your advice has always been clear, sensible and straightforward and I wanted to say thanks for making sense of investing Kind Regards, Sally
      Expat with no Super
      Hi Noel, I just wanted to thank you for everything have done, and the amazing books you\'ve written. I started off with the beginners guide to wealth, when I was 19 and earning around 55k per year. I then read more money with NW, and have followed the principles in that ever since, and I'm now 22 years old, earning between 100-110k and about to buy my first investment property! Thanks for all your help. Matt
      22 and well on my way!
      Hi Noel,  I always read  your column in the Sunday times WA and love your newsletters.  I have read one of your books and have just purchased 2 more and so excited to start reading them.  I just can't get enough!  I plan to have a "masterclass" with my 2 children who are in their 30s and impart some of your wisdom, then I hope they too will read your books.
      Passing down good financial decisions to our kids
      Thanks also for your advice over the years. The most important advice I followed was to live on one income when the wife and I
      had two incomes coming in, it has enabled us to accumulate wealth in-spite of some bad decisions.  I always tell people this is the easiest thing we did money wise, but by living on one income and putting the rest into the bank, mortgage, superannuation etc, has also been the most  effective.
      Thanks
      Michael
      Living on one income
      I've started reading your latest book and I'm very impressed so far. Thanks for consolidating all of your best articles, they'll make a good history lesson for our boys when they are older. It's also a very enjoyable read and your write very articulately.
      New book well received
      I did contact you a few years ago to let you know how profound your book 'Making Money Made Simple' was for me. I first read this at Christmas in 1992, as a naive
      20 year old. This book changed my life, even though i didn't quite realise it in 1992. I realised early on that I had to start saving early so I had little time to waste. I didn't start earning a proper income until 1996 due to travel and study, but between 1996 and 2015, I paid off my first home in 2002, did the same with my wife in 2008 after selling the first home for a substantial profit, and we now have a very, very healthy portfolio of shares and a few managed funds. Our life would have been substantially different if I hadn't read your book and figured out that investing was something that had to be taken seriously and from a young age. I just wish I could have started much earlier than 1996!
      Saving since 1996
      5 Dec 2015 Dear Noel I have been a practising taxation accountant for over 35 years. During that time I have given enough of your books to clients to almost make me a silent partner. I have read every book you have authored and I have just finished your latest 25 years of Whitt & Wisdom I consider myself financial savvy and am currently a SMSF auditor. I also have given a copy for Christmas your book to my son who is a practising CPA as the life lessons you talk about are spot on. It is interesting to note that I agree 100% with your opinions without exception and the advice I have given clients over the years are simply the same as your recommendations. Especially to clients the advice “if it seems too good to be true it is” Once again Noel congratulations you will never know the vast amount of people your books have helped people secure their financial future  and it is comforting to know that ethically run business’s with prudent investment programmes should set people up for a comfortable retirement. David S
      I started reading Noel's earlier books in the late 1980's and have since read every book that he has ever written. It is not an exaggeration to say that in my case at least, he has made me aware of information which has earned me millions of dollars!
      Yes that's right; millions of dollars.
      I also attended a seminar in Perth at the end of 2002 which he and Margaret Lomas, the property guru, hosted. The seminar cost $49, lasted all day and included lunch and books (written by Margaret) to the value of $200.
      As a result of that day's information, I purchased a property in Perth which doubled in value over the following three years and the rest is history, as they say. Noel and Margaret didn't recommend any properties or so called advisers, they just made us all aware of time honoured investment principles and it was then up to all of us to overcome inertia and procrastination in order to go ahead, do our own research and then purchase something.
      If you know any young people who may benefit from this book or any other books that Noel has written, then please pass on the newsletter to them or buy the book as a Christmas gift.
      You may wish to buy the book for yourself, even better; it will probably be the best $50 you have ever spent!
      Merry Christmas
      Peter K
      Peter K Makes Millions!
      Dear Noel, it was such a pleasure to catch up with you as guest speaker on the 2nd December at Wealth Connexion client dinner. As mentioned I thank you for the early financial  guidance after my position as Expo88 Piazza Entertainment Producer and the times you and the family attended performances at Carindale. It is thanks to you and over many years Jeff Stella and Randall Corless both influenced by your expertise that I have continued investing and am in the excellent financial position I enjoy today. I look forward to reading your new book and passing on good financial habits to my 19 year old nephew Jayedan who along with my sister Rosalynd and mother Betty benefited from your informative presentation. Congratulations on the many lives you have touched and remaining the gentleman that you are. Kindest regards, David
      David H
      Hi Noel
      I have just ordered your latest book and would like to thank you for not only writing the book, but for helping me so much over the past 40 years years.
      I would have ordered all your other books as well, but fortunately for me, I already have them!!!!!!!!
      Wishing you good health and continued wealth for the festive season and many more years to come.
      Best Regards
      Peter K
      Peter
      Dear Noel,
      This is the third time I’ve read Making Money Made Simple and More Money (and I don’t think I’ve yet to fully digest it).  I find it helpful to re-read them every time a significant change is about to happen in my life.  I’m 32, I first read yours books right after I graduated from uni, again before I started my specialist medical training/buying my first home, and now in my final months of training before I start work as a specialist proper.   I first came to Australia as an overseas student for medical school on the back of my parents’ funding topped up by quite a few significant study loans.  I graduated medical school in 2007 with a huge debt and just enough money leftover for a deposit on a car.  Your books and I together have got to 2015 with most of the loans (the interest-bearing ones anyway) paid off, a car owned outright, and almost enough in my offset account to make my mortgage payments interest free (albeit with the help of a legacy along the way).  Oh, and with no credit card debt and all relevant insurances in place as you have always advised.  Thank you.
      I think that before I embark on this next phase of my life, it is time for me to consult a financial planner as I will soon have extra money for investment rather than just plowing straight into my offset account.  I seem to remember reading in one of your earlier newsletters of you offering  to help point me in the right direction re: who to talk to?  I live in Perth.  I would really appreciate it.
      Thank you again!
      Kind regards,
      Jia
      I read ‘Making Money Made Simple’ in 1987 and was horrified by the chapter ‘Why only 8% Make it Financially’ (I checked that title in the 2007 version - the stats were definitely there in 1987, but maybe the title has changed).  I’m one of the 7% retired on a liveable income thanks to your advice.  I’ve given copies to both my kids as well.
      Greg
      I would also like to thank you for the assistance books and news articles have given me over the years. Working as a part time GP with young children they provided me with the knowledge to make sensible investment choices that have served me well. Recently my son (a 23 yo Graduate engineer) purchased Making Money made simple on my recommendation and has started his investment journey, having recently placed his savings into a well run managed fund!
      Anonymous
      Noel, I read "Making Money Made Simpl​e" in 1987 when I was 27, and couldn't put it down. I remember wondering why the various subjects covered were not taught, or at least mentioned, when I was at school. (Maybe I wasn't paying attention!) To cut a long story short, I took out a basic AMP investment portfolio (on the advice of a good friend who had no time for spruikers, but had been impressed by a local AMP rep in Bendigo), and over 10 years earned enough from that and my occupation (firefighter) to buy a house and have it paid off in 5 years. I have since recommended to a number of friends and colleagues that they buy your book and read it. Thanks for your efforts and advice over the years, your information has been priceless.
      Mark
      Hi Noel, Just a quick email to say thank you. I've just finished reading Making Money Made Simple (I bought the Kindle version), and I'm now feeling very enthusiastic about making a positive change. I'm 33 years old and in my final year of study (I'm mid-career change). Up until now I've been terrible with money - I rent, own no assets, and have not saved a single cent. Recently I've felt discouraged by the thought that I've left it all too late to get anywhere, until a friend recommended your book. I'm now putting aside 10% of my gross income for investments, no exceptions. While I'm studying it's not a lot of money, but I know it will change from next year. I can now see that each day counts, and putting things off only sets me back. 10% is 10% no matter how much you earn. I feel inspired and optimistic about the future. So, thank you. PS. The challenge is now getting my partner on board!
      L.
      Years ago I met you at a money show in Adelaide. I have three of your books, followed your advice and am now financially independent and retired. My wife and I now spend our time doing what we wish to do - going on holiday, visiting restaurants and the theatre, etc. We still save 10% of our income. Taking charge of our own destiny was the best thing we did. Thank you.
      F.M.
      Sensible people everywhere should be building monuments in your honour for the principled way you have set about educating us all in how to secure a reasonable financial future. I have bought several of your books and your Wealth Building kit and have found them to be invaluable.
      R.S.
      I first read ‘Making Money Made Simple’ in 1992 and it was really a life changing experience in that it made me pay some attention to our personal finances. I now have been keeping a balance sheet and a profit/loss account of sorts for about 10 years. More importantly, we are investing first and "consuming" what is left over, rather than the other way around. Thank you for writing this and your other books as they have all been immensely helpful.
      N.M.
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      Due to his heavy commitments, Noel no longer does personal consultations, but, if you’re looking for financial advice, and don’t have an advisor, we are happy to recommend an advisor to you.  Just email Noel on …

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All Returns Aren’t Equal

All Returns…

All Returns Aren’t Equal

September 2, 2016August 29, 2016 by Noel Whittaker

All returns aren’t equal

“Wealth flows from energy and ideas.” – William Feather

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