Just to add ...
Tax wise .... silly to have the loan on your house .... NOT on the investment properties.
One is tax deductible ... the other is NOT.
Lots of tax issues as to selling the investment properties ... but... unless they are too far ahead in cap gains, I suspect by VERY PRUDENT .... Very conservative investing .... NOT BLOODY TRADING .... that's a different animal ... you could get 5% INCOME and identical if not better capital gains over time via shares putting you say 5% INCOME ahead on say 400k you extract from selling ONE of the investment properties.
Debt wise .... get the loans all on the investment property .... RUN it as a loss ... basically a 100% of equity loan and put the NEW NO debt on the home you live in up as security. Having an identical sized loan ... but having an extra 20k or so tax deduction will put 10k in your hand each year.
Same on salary sacrifice ... or similar ... putting it into a super fund and paying 15% tax is far better than close to 50% ... again ... its a long term or short term saving plan.
Try and NOT incur cap gains tax if you can .... selling your own house you miss that .... move into an investment one for a year or so ... you miss it I think ... again issues.
As for the REST ... DON'T trade ... trading is a game where VERY few win ... few have the skills or temperament or discipline, Sure it looks easy in a bull market or a few years of 15-25% gains where even rubbish goes up. As I mentioned on another thread, some people boasting about this years returns .... which yes, has been kind, but if you were able to get 20% returns after tax ... for a mere 15 years on 400k .... well you would have 15 times your money at the end.
Part of this .... a lot of retirement planning IS about tax ... and avoiding it ... the rest is about prudent INVESTING... NOT trading or speculating but taking conscious deliberate well researched LOW risk ... higher return decisions to ENHANCE ... your retirement income.
TRADING .... will not and does NOT do that unless your a freak and someone who is an exception ... the one in 1,000 candidates we hire .... of them one or two out of 100 are that .... SHORT term and then they usually burn out at 10 years of high pressure trading and that leaves 1-2 ... so less than one in a million !!
Whilst on paper ... your assets look great and MUCH better than most I got handed when asked similar questions .... sadly no one thinks about retirement or income or where the money is coming from till they get to say your age of 55 and have a mere 50k in their retirement assets and say pwn their own home and ASK .... how can I fix that ?
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Between you and your I am sure lovely wife, Your position is a lot better ... it does need RADICAL work. Maybe your investment properties DO have great capital gains potential ... MAYBE they do ... but if they don't and you can exit with no or little tax ... DO IT. Put all the loans on the single one you have left.
Whilst ... having I think missed the boat on shares with a longer term perspective .... buying at 5,500 in the ASX 200 v 6,800 .... a mere 6 months latter speaks for itself ... ONLY idiots can not see the difference. Whilst I think we may go a lot higher ... its ALWAYS a game of timing and wait till there is some scare, and BUY into that dip ... always. The world WILL not and does not end despite it feeling like it.
Maybe you do nothing ... but tax wise ,., you can save yourself 10-20 k a year just by arranging your affairs ... by removing the least favorable investment property ... or selling your home ... taking cap gains and moving into one investment property ... over say 10 years your adding in real terms to your retirement pile a REAL 200 plus k . That's 20% PLUS any cap gains you get ...
Freeing up cash and hopefully the shares ... good ones keep pace and beat inflation ... by a decent margin ... and you just reinvest the 20k income at 5% on 400k freed up ... another 20k ... each year ...
your adding another 200k .... or 20% More to your nest egg ... over time.
Add the two together .... and compounding it with INCOME on the side ... and 400k becomes DOUBLE that so about 80% MORE in the retirement nest egg.
It is NOT about magic .... let me be blunt ... most idiots THINK its easy or boast about returns, most however would not know returns if it bit them in the arse. If they did and only starting at say 100k and making 20% after tax over 30 years, well one would be 237 TIMES more well off .... or 23.7 Million.
Most outside of extreme bull markets cant make money and DON'T make money trading. Eventually they put too much risk in one share and SPLAT .... they are gone ... all their assets are gone and well ... its sad. Go to the TAB .... or local betting shop on a Saturday and as an exercise .... have a drink or two, a flutter or two. small but watch, find the most desperate and clearly thinking the can win person and take TIPS from them, WITH THE REST of your life and that is what trading and hot tips and charting and some idiotic ideas you will find likely parroted by most accountants an investment advisors and certainly MOST traders.
There are old traders and there are bold traders, but there is NO such thing as an OLD BOLD TRADER. Reason being, is that they blow themselves up. EGO ... is needed to be a trader, being bold, but the good ones and they are rare ... may be bold ... may appear brash or dismissive and they have to be, reality is most think .... think they know about market or trading but most are in fact like the idiots at the TAB who are desperate to WIN and back the horse ... have more hope of success at lotto than they do at trading.
Sorry harsh .... but ... I am well qualified and have shared on various sites now for over 25 years trying to at times hoes down idiotic tenancies of people for the latest fads and conversely get them to BUY quality on market selloffs.
Human nature and futility .... usually I speak to myself on some threads of decent stocks when I used to bother. Ones that are 40-60 times where they were 10 years ago ... NOT penny dreadful s ... but decent companies.
BE an investor .... NOT a trader.
Now I sent you to the TAB ... next trip ... LOOK and find some homeless person and SIT and study them, and elderly one ... and ask yourself DO you love your wife ? Do you love yourself ? Have a good look ... a very good look ... and remember less than 1% of traders actually make money over time.
Be an investor, its boring ... and 99% boring and 1% sheer terror as the world appears ending and you BUY ... Not sell like the lemmings .... BUY into a market falling like a stone because whilst the lemmings were all buying at the other end of the world, you were reducing into their madness and going, thanks and reducing risk and taking it off the table.
Sobering ... but a good dose of it is likely a waste of time. I have tried over the years, loving a share when its say at 35 cents, hating it at $8 when the research pays off and its trading as though the next 20 years of what appeared likely would occur. It didn't ... and I still have not entered again. It appeared a sure thing .... but when already paid off for a sure thing, paying CGT ... tax ... on a massive gain ... even at the 50% discount so 25% is a good thing. Doesn't happen often but sometimes rarely ... it does.
Trying to conversely explain to a devoted following of drooling believers on some share that's at its highs is a ponzi scheme and worthless ... and most small shares ARE worthless, likely never paying a dividend is a loosing game and waste of time for the current crop of idiots from the TAB soon to join the ranks of the homeless poor.
Sorry but we, or you are asking about your retirement and if you have say 400k ... I would insist, if I could than no more than 5 % of that went into any venture or company than did not and had not paid a dividend or made a profit. Sure, maybe .... you get a goodie ... and that 5% split into 5 lots of 1% .... if you happened to get a monster and they do occur, MAY go up 10 fold .... and 1% becomes 10% of your portfolio ... more often sadly over time, the balance will not perform as well, they WILL NOT pay you 5% each year in income and hopefully if your very wise and patient make 5-10% above inflation ....
So that 400k or likely 800k you have been compounding via tax arrangements .... if you get 10% above inflation over the next 10 years .... on your 400k in the markets ... you basically DOUBLE your retirement nest egg, DOUBLE your retirement income and well .... don't end up living in a cardboard box.
I sound blunt ... but its a game for mugs ... investing and trading. I will try and sell you something worth $1- but offer it to you for $2- and if you buy it, I will ask if you want another ? up until ... well you have it full invested ... and your really HALVED your assets.
Lots of learning I suspect you need, some decent books ... not stupid ones like rich dad poor dad or some other moron ... ones about valuation and investing, not trading. Read lots of brokers reports on shares, read the best returning fund managers in shares and various classes of shares and what they hold ... and eventually it will sink in.
Sorry but I am blunt at times, once young brash and aggressive ... the highest compliments a young trader can ever have on their assessment, nowadays its a computer that does the trading and follows trends and cuts losses and so on. Whilst it appears exciting the returns, the ASX will not add 20% every year, in fact at some stage it will likely be minus 40% ... and that's time to buy quality. Since your not invested, its a game of getting that 5% income and hopefully 5-10% above inflation over time ... so sitting at 1% in a cash account WILL NOT work and possibly one might have to accept a not so great first entry. BUT you need to be invested, all be NOT here .... NOT at all time highs and yep despite me thinking we go higher over time, you will at some stage when the euphoria and new crop of idiots and drooling TAB punters have spent all their cash on worthless crap, there is always a correction and NEW level to enter the market.
Anyhow, likely I have insulted many who are reading this, shared some wisdom for those who are honest and those who feel insulted, go look at your returns over time and be HONEST. Most sadly are not
Its an aside, a delusional one ... for most. Horse two race two .... at the TAB.
Good luck