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Monthly Archives: September 2021

What Happened To Gold And SMSF’s In 2020

September 2, 2021   Business

Saving for your retirement is important. There are various ways that you can go about doing it but the Superannuation is a common way. Superannuation is compulsory for most people who are tax-paying employees. The employers will set aside a percentage of your salary and put it into a super fund to have financial support on your retirement.

How does it work?

If you are an 18-year-old employee who works more than 30 hours a week and you earn over $450 a month, your employer is obliged by law to pay 10% of your earnings into a super fund. Once your fund receives your contributions, it looks after the money until you retire.

A Self-Managed Superannuation Fund (SMSF) is exactly what the name implies – A Do-It-Yourself super fund. This is a superannuation that you as a member control. You make the decisions on how you want your money to be invested, you can also buy SMSF gold bullion or contribute more. These sorts of decisions have certain tax implications-paying more or including gold in your portfolio could potentially mean less tax – so you will have more money when retirement comes along. A popular reason for setting up an SMSF is that you aren’t limited or affected by the poor performance of a lot of public funds that exist in Australia and you can always choose the best financial planner or accountant to handle your investment portfolio.

According to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), there are over 600,000 SMSFs in the country with over 1.1 million members.

Getting the most out of your Super

The primary motivation why people choose Self-managed Superannuation Funds is control. When you have control over your fund, you can decide how to diversify your investments. You want to buy SMSF gold bullion because it is a great hedge against economic or political risks. Gold has intrinsic value that fiat currencies don’t have. The price of gold rises in inflationary economies. It has been a valuable asset for many centuries.

Gold has the ability to balance out portfolio returns. It can do this because it has negative correlations to the equity market. When equities fall, the price of gold rises. For instance, in 2020, the Australian stock market plunged 30% in a single month because of fears around COVID, the price of gold rallied by more than 20% which helped protect investor portfolios and in particular those who had gold in their SMSFs. In 2020, gold was arguably the highest performing asset, because it is largely uncorrelated with other types of equity. In the months that global equities and Australian shares fell, the price of gold in AUD rose.

But how much gold should investors add to achieve the maximum benefit?

Economists and financial planners advise that investors should hold 2-10 percent gold in gold to get the maximum benefit from their investments. You can then mix your investments to include property, equities, fixed interest, etc.

Self-Managed Superannuation Funds allow you to structure you’re your pension features to line up with your goals and objectives. Another reason many investors include a permanent allocation to gold – safety and health returns.

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Create a Winning Strategy

September 1, 2021   Articles
At its most basic level a company can differentiate its offering or compete on cost. Strategies that blend the two create earnings headwinds. Resources are channeled inefficiently. The productivity of the strategy is maximized when a company is solely a differentiator or a cost leader. This is referred to Michael Porter as competitive positioning.
 
The synchronization of the various value chain activities creates good strategy. These activities should be consistent and reinforce each other. The whole of the activities must be greater than the sum of the activities. A company’s resources, capabilities, and systems are the main factors along the value chain. Prashant Kale has provided comprehensive research on this topic. How these factors work together determines the effectiveness of a firm’s chosen competitive positioning.
 
For a company to lead with costing, the entire system of moving parts must be engineered to eliminate waste. Failure to do so will result in operating margin pressure. Walmart and Southwest are two good examples of cost leaders. Both offer low costing and make money because their entire ecosystem exists to reduce costs, inefficiencies, and poor throughput.
 
Differentiators create a unique solution to a consumer problem. Consumers recognize, appreciate, and expect the value-added elements and are willing to pay a premium price point. Tiffany’s and Apple are both examples. The products they offer are aesthetically and/or technologically advanced. Every step of the chain adds additional value and differentiation, from sourcing, marketing, retail operations, to customer service.
 
Creating a winning strategy can be a time-consuming process when you’re just starting, but fortunately, there is help at hand. Synergy Strategy helps small businesses launch new strategies and succeed in the marketplace. Find out more today.
 
A full service small business consulting firm, Synergy aspires to provide the tools and resources small businesses need to transform and win in the marketplace. Our core values of integrity, work ethic, and client service are the core of everything we do. From data analysis projects to comprehensive business plan proposals, Synergy offers clients a full menu of solutions to maximize productivity, earnings, cash flow, and sales growth.
 
Since he was a little boy, Kyle Proctor, the Founder, was immersed in small business. He is a third generation small business owner. After undergraduate studies in California, he moved to Houston, TX where he began his professional career in the consumer packaged goods industry. After 12 years of industry experience and a MBA from Rice University, Kyle started Synergy Small Business Strategy in 2018.
 
Kyle loves working with small business owners and is blessed to have been given the opportunity to play a role in strengthening the roots of the U.S. economy. Kyle lives in Florida and is married with three beautiful children. Synergy brings over 25 years of collective professional experience spanning multiple Fortune 100 corporations. The diversity of the team creates the right mixture of talent to best deliver to client expectations. Upholding our core values and producing remarkable results have enabled Synergy Small Business Strategy to help fulfill its mission.
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