December magazine

Now into our 11th year, Money Magazine’s annual Best of the Best issue has narrowed down Australia’s best financial products, services and investments for 2012. With thousands of products from hundreds of different institutions, Money - with the help of our research partners - has identified 101 gold winners to help ease your financial worries as we approach the New Year.

Also in Money this month

LEARNERS GUIDE

The easy guide to Medicare

Story Maria Bekiaris

Chances are you’ve heard of Medicare. But do you really know how it works? What is the Medicare Safety Net? Maria covers the ins and outs of Medicare and how it’s funded.

IN YOUR INTEREST

Could Australia become another Greece?

Story Paul Clitheroe

This was a question put to Paul during a conference. While it was greeted by much laughter from the crowd, Paul thought it deserved a thoughtful answer. While Pauls suggests it will not be us in the short to medium term, it can easily be in the longer term. Paul explains.

At 20, am I doing the right thing?

Story Paul Clitheroe

20 year old Rachel is a full time student, working part time. She lives at home and pays her university fees upfront. I contribute $1000 to super to receive the co-contribution and direct debit $200 a month into a savings account. Rachel asks, “am I on the right track?” Paul delivers his verdict.

Roger Montgomery finds a company that ticks just about every box

Imagine owning a business that you kicked off with no debt and $1.5 million of your own money in 2002. In that first year, imagine you earned $400,000. How would you feel if, without borrowing at all and without tipping in any fresh capital, those profits grew by 16% pa to $1.5million today? In total you would have earned $8.5 million in profits after tax over the past 10 years from your $1.5 million investment. Roger reveals that this scenario is not imaginary - it’s actually a little listed company.

Marcus warns that your money could easily go with it

Story Marcus Padley

Last month we heard about MF Global going bust. It turned out that one of the world’s largest CFD (contract for difference) and futures platform providers had taken a $6 billion punt on Greek bonds on its principal book. Net effect: one of the biggest bet-taking institutions took the wrong bet. .

STAYING THE COURSE

Ross Greenwood’s investing strategy means sticking with his long-term view

Story Ross Greenwood

One of the hardest things this time of year is trying to gain a feel for the year ahead. After the year we’ve had it can be hard to step back and make assessments about your next move. Ross explains how he’s been thinking this year and you can make judgements about him and perhaps more importantly, about yourself.

Meaningful analysis

Story Chris Walker

Trying to choose the shared to buy, hold or sell, some of the many bits of information you’ll encounter, particularly in the daily share pages and stock reports, are sharemarket ratios and indicators, including PE ratio (price-earnings ratio), NTA (net tangible assets), EPS (earnings per share), and dividend yield. What do they mean? Chris lifts the veil on the daily jargon.

• Book of the month: Wiley Trading Guide Volume II. We’re giving away 10 copies to our readers.

• Subscribe to Money and you could win one of 10 holidays of a lifetime to beautiful Hawaii! Each prize is valued at over $12,000. Subscribe online to double your chance to win

• Money’s Letter of the Month gets a 12-month subscription to Money magazine.

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