Our population is ageing, due to baby boomer generation, and within 30 years there will be so many retired people, compared to number of working age people, that it will be economically impossible for government to afford to provide any reasonable source of monetary assistance for elderly.

The government has realised this, and that is why they introduced compulsory employer paid superannuation scheme and are even now beginning to give financial incentives to Self-funded retirees.

Most of us have never sat down and even considered ramifications of why compulsory super was introduced and for many of us it is a matter of too little too late. Even for young women in our society - who have a full working life ahead of them, they still cannot rest assured of a comfortable retirement.

Why is this? It is because that unfortunately even with contributions at current level of less than 10%, someone on an average wage who works continually for 30 years, is still going to find themselves trying to survive on an income equivalent to less than $20,000,00 per annum in today's dollars.

You will notice that I said continually working for 30 years. This is another reason why women are particularly disadvantaged, firstly because they often have to take up to ten years leave from workforce to raise children, secondly because women in general earn less than their male counterparts and thirdly because an enormous proportion of women in Australia, will never have received any previous superannuation contributions, prior to compulsory superannuation being introduced, and will therefore not have had contributions made over their entire working life so far, giving them even less to fall back on by time they retire.

Many women may previously not have thought of lack of superannuation contributions as being a problem, as their husbands may have been contributing to super since they first began work. Unfortunately though with high number of divorces in this country, it is unwise to rely on fact that your partner's superannuation will be there for you in your retirement years and even if a large proportion is awarded in a settlement - that it will be sufficient to sustain a comfortable retirement for any length of time.

All of these factors are why women now more than ever, need to begin taking action to build up a source of ongoing income, that will grow to such an extent, as to be able to provide a secure and happy future for themselves and their children.

It needs to be a source of income that is unrelated to physical work...that is an income that is generated from income producing assets - and not from our personal efforts. One of best sources of creating this ongoing income stream is to begin building an investment portfolio property, also aptly paraphrases as bricks and mortar.

We need to start collecting income producing assets now, so that they will have time to grow and develop so that we will be financially independent for our retirement years.

Property is one of best types of income producing assets, mainly because through gearing, which is borrowing other peoples money to supplement our own, we are able to control assets of a far greater value, and benefit from growth on overall value, including borrowed portion, in contrast to only benefiting from growth on small portion of our own money contributed.

Recently IRS came out with this press release:

IRS Increases Interest/Dividend Threshold Source: Associated Press Publication date: 2002-09-26

WASHINGTON (AP) - More than 15 million taxpayers will be able to skip filing a separate IRS form for interest and dividend income next year under a move announced by tax agency Thursday. Beginning with 2002 returns due next April, most taxpayers won't have to file separate schedule with their 1040 forms if their interest and dividend income is $1,500 or less. That replaces current threshold of $400, which has been in place since 1974.

Taxpayers who file 1040 forms use Schedule B to list interest and dividend payments. Under new rules, millions of taxpayers will simply report their interest and dividend income without filing separate forms.

Charles Rossotti, Internal Revenue Service commissioner, estimated that 15 million taxpayers will be no longer have to file extra form.

"We will continue our efforts to reduce burden on taxpayers and simplify tax code," said Pam Olson, acting assistant Treasury secretary for tax policy. END OF PRESS RELEASE

Now, aren't you just thrilled to hear that IRS, in it's infinite wisdom and undying compassion for American taxpayer, has decided to make life easier for you by changing rules regarding filing requirements for one tax form know as Schedule B? Give me a break!

In case you were just dying to know, Schedule B is a form that you must file with your personal tax return if your total interest and/or dividend income exceeds $400. Now, you only have to file Schedule B if your investment income exceeds $1,500.

By way, no matter how much investment income you have, ALL taxable investment income must be reported on your tax return. The issue here is whether or not you have to provide a detailed itemized listing of your investment income.

Example: Let's say you have $1,000 of interest income. Under new rules, you can just put $1,000 right on Page 1 of Form 1040. And that's it.

But if you have $2,000 of interest income, you have to complete a separate form (Schedule B) and list each source of that interest income, i.e. name of each bank account or other financial institution and how much interest or dividend income you earned from each source.

So because of this simple rule change, about 15 million people will not have to file Schedule B.