Part of our philosophy in designing financial strategies is to control what you can, because so much of investing activity cannot be controlled. Minimising taxes and costs represents a key opportunity to make a major difference to your investment returns and risk over both the short and long term.
Pre-tax returns, usually the main focus of newspaper headlines and a lot of marketing, is almost meaningless to individual investors. What matters is after-tax dollars.
Achieving tax efficiency requires a complete view of your financial structure, as it is now and how it can best be put together. It requires the ability to focus on tax in all investing and borrowing decisions, and the ability to integrate your income generation and investing activities. It requires that your goals be properly planned for, particularly as long term objectives creates incentives for long term investments, and potentially a bias against buying and selling investments. Your objectives also play a role in the structuring of your investments to minimise unnecessary taxes.
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