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There is a basic human principle that we should always remember: financial competition is usually bad news for the competitors. Avoid if possible!

If you have been travelling overseas for any length of time, you will have noticed how easy it has become to transfer Australian dollars into the currency of whichever country you are in. But, what actually happens when money is ‘transferred’ overseas?

Power is one of the biggest costs for households and small businesses. And the costs are rising. The good news is that many Australians can simultaneously improve their personal finances while reducing their use of fossil fuels.

You may have seen the recent news that an American Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, collapsed. This raises two important questions: what happened? And, could something similar happen here?

It has been a while since we last wrote about self-managing your super. Self-managing super can be a lot of fun and, if done well, can be very cost-effective as well. So, this week, we thought we would take a quick look at expenses that an SMSF can and cannot pay for.

You may have seen recent commentary about a new cap on large super balances. It has caused a lot of discussion, but the changes will not affect that many people. Most of us do not really need to worry.

If you have a debt, you are probably making repayments. Each repayment you make is probably divided into two parts: interest and principal. Indeed, technically, you are only actually making a repayment if your regular payment includes an amount that reduces the principal of your debt.

Many people have debt. Not as many people realise that, if you have debt of any kind, then every dollar you spend is another dollar you have borrowed. That’s how debt works.