One thing you learn early as a short to medium term trader is to TAKE PROFIT EARLY and free carry if there is potential for further gain. Exiting loss makers is another discipline learned through the school of hard knocks. There is nothing wrong with paying tax on a profit but that's not the way dividend spruikers and a large percentage of financial advisers tell it.
What I am saying is that excessive portfolio emphasis on franked dividends WILL be ruinous for many.
On Telstra. The company simply could not afford to pay the dividends it previously paid in what is now a highly competitive market. Telstra isn't a bad provider and their wireless network can for the time being give the NBN disaster a run for its money. That said they need to REINVEST in technology and infrastructure if they are to have any hope in Hell of remaining one step ahead of the competition. The crazy so-called dividends NEARLY KILLED THE COMPANY along with the portfolios of the dividend collectors.
Tax on retirees? It will increase steeply and with absolute certainty because those who saved and lived within their means must pay for those who did not. Frig the phoney dividends. Again the franking has everyone investing in the wrong stuff (as I see it).
