Blog

This blogs purpose is to provide personal everyday stories to about the five tenets of what we believe are the foundation building blocks of a successful life. These being Family, Health, Leisure, Business and Money. We hope you enjoy our stories.

More4Life supports SurfAid

Last Friday 11 November, More4Life took part in the annual SurfAid Cup at Manly beach. We raised just under $3,000 out of a combined total of $95,000. I commandeered the best surfers for our team – my son Jack, his friends Winter Vincent and Ethan Dodson, and our pro surfer Christo Hall. We came fourth […]

Look After Yourself

There have been countless articles written about how much is sufficient to retire on. The table below is thanks to Super Consumers Australia and illustrates what a low, medium, and high spender will spend, and the corresponding lump sum that is needed to enable them to draw this type of income in retirement. In our […]

The Wealth Conundrum

The baby boomers are retiring far wealthier than previous generations. The average retiring household has over $1 million in wealth, with much outside super (Grattan Institute). Peter Gell, Master Tax Lawyer, has noticed a sizeable difference in estates over the past 5-7 years. He only sees the Estates getting even larger as property values increase [...]

Findings of the Royal Commission and Client’s reply

This is what James Walker-Powell sent to all MLFS clients…   Findings of the Royal Commission The findings and subsequent media battering of the financial planning industry is both disturbing, uncomfortable and unfortunately predictable. While there have always been campaigns by certain sectors of the media to discredit financial advisers, what is different now is the […]

My day as an expert witness…

Mid-2017 I was approached by a Solicitor-client of mine to prepare an expert witness report for an intellectually disabled client of his. The facts of the case were as follows; The client was a 57-year-old man with an intellectual disability His wife was age 70, and she also has an intellectual disability The client’s father […]

Generational Inequity…August 2016

The government will spend around $154 billion on social security and welfare payments – around 35.4 per cent of total Government spending – in the 2015/16 financial year. Of this, more than $60 billion, or 39.4 per cent, will be spent on assisting

Bitter Battle of Conscience…March 2016

It felt as if, as a Mother, I was facing the toughest decision of my life, harsher than the decision to move our family 11 058 kilometres across the Indian Ocean. Should I return to work full-time and satisfy my disposition for intellectual stimulation,

Your More4Life Portfolio…January 2016

Between 31 December 2015 and 15 January 2016 the Australian share market lost 7.6% (as measured by the ASX 200 index), while global markets fell 8.4% in local currency terms and 3.1% in Australian dollar terms (as measured by the MSCI ex Australia Index).

New Year’s Eve Lessons Learned…January 2016

Around mid-November last year (2015), I was doing what I’d been doing every Monday evening for years…wrestling at Langs Mixed Martial Arts Gym. Halfway through the class, I felt a slight back pain, and as a precaution decided to call it a night. After trying

More4Life – Its Beginning, Its History…January 2016

When I was a young boy, a friend’s father revealed to me a secret about money which has stayed with me until now: “It’s not about how much money you earn but what you do with it that matters.” It was a startling revelation to a kid who had grown up