macy

Is yours stashed away in a long term deposit account or is it playing the stockmarket?

We are considering putting ours into a long term deposit account.......

Just let us have the money now as we have tons of ideas of what to do with it

Any pros/cons with long term deposit accounts apart from the dismal interest rate.... is it better to be safe than sorry??

Sherlock Holmes

Several points here:

1) Whatever I or anyone else says, it will probably pay you to get some advice from an independent financial advisor. You can usually screw one bit of free advice out of them.

2) Assuming that you are slightly risk averse, then consider spreading your money about a bit.

a) some in a fixed term deposit. Choose the shortest term with the highest rate. You should be able to find 6% at the moment. Don't forget, unlike England, tax is not deducted by the banks. You have to declare bank interest on your tax return.

b) keep an accessible emergency fund. Internet savers are good for this. Some interest but instant access.

c) drip feed some into an Aussie Super Fund. By setting up a monthly transfer you can achieve what is known as dollar cost averaging. You pay in say $100.00 per month. Lets say for easy maths that the units you buy are a dollar each. If the stock market goes down, the value of your fund goes down but next month if the units are worth 90 cents, your hundred dollars buys more units. When the market goes up again, those extra units you bought help the value of your fund to rise.

d) see if you qualify for the co-contribution scheme. You need to be PR for this. http://www.ato.gov.au/super/content....tent/42616.htm

macy

Thanks for that, we are going for the "independent" financial advice but yours was good to know thank you.