Financial Planning, Investment & Insurance Solutions

  • Covid- 19 Update

    Covid- 19 Update

    We’re deep in a global pandemic. The positive? Governments are responding. Unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures. Interest rates to near zero. Governments putting money into bank accounts. Financial support for business. Government quickly realised the time for half measures was over. President Trump especially. He’s got an election to win at the end of the year. Previously he’d been coasting to victory. With the US economy pummeled, Trump’s no longer on a victory lap. Trump’s big stimulus may not be the last. On an individual level, the important thing is getting through this. Physically and mentally healthy. If you…

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  • Don’t Fall for It – A Short History of Financial Scams

    Don’t Fall for It – A Short History of Financial Scams

    Released back in January was an interesting new book by Ben Carlson. Carlson is a portfolio manager at Ritholtz Wealth Management in the US and also runs the popular financial blog, A Wealth of Common Sense. The book itself is a handy primer on scams. What are scams really? Psychological manipulations of our weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Losing your hair? Can’t lose weight? Unable to conceive a baby? Need a financial fix? There’s always an unknown cure for whatever ails us. Someone’s always available selling something almost too good to be true. The victims span the average person to Hollywood and…

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  • Risk Management: Second Level Thinking

    Risk Management: Second Level Thinking

    While your investment portfolios may be very well diversified have you ever thought about other areas of life where you might be financially exposed to risk? One key objective of diversification is to reduce single stock/security risk by spreading your money over hundreds of different securities. Imagine one or two blow-up. There is minimal impact on your portfolio. This approach means you are not concentrating your exposure in any one sector or security. But what about other areas of life? Could you be exposed in other ways to sectors or industries that are higher risk and subject to the cycles…

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  • A Message On Recent Market Falls

    A Message On Recent Market Falls

    When the market falls 7% in a day… There’s no sugar coating it. It’s very painful. What now? We’ve been through this many times before. Our experience tells us to do nothing. With every previous market fall there has been a recovery. Every financial adviser has a story. It’s the person who panicked. There was an event. There was a large market reaction and a client demanded to exit their portfolio and sit in cash. These clients never get back in. They sit in cash as the market recovers.  Then it pushes higher. Too proud, they refuse to reenter. Often…

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  • Coronavirus & You

    Coronavirus & You

    The Corona Virus. For weeks there was calm. Then suddenly there was panic. Admittedly, it was surprising. Markets have been moving upwards without a hitch for a while and initially they shrugged the Coronavirus off. Australian investors, getting little joy from cash, may have been pushing into the market. The US has been offering solid economic growth to underpin its market. So normally the panic would have started earlier. With the market panic started, the question becomes: what now? Endless words are dedicated to how to behave when things go south. We regularly remind investors about the worst. Hopefully it…

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