If you’ve spent any of your time listening to talkback radio or reading discussions online you’ll know wading into politics can be a dangerous game. Hot-headed people escalate arguments at the drop of a hat over the fortunes or criticism of their side. So when politicians wade into our own industry or our areas of expertise we tend to keep our commentary muted. Except to say despite their posturing, neither side knows much about regulating financial planning, and like everyone else who doesn’t own a crystal ball, politicians know absolutely nothing about economic & investment forecasting. For the most part,…

There are all manner of ways you can be sold diversification, but one of the worst is the lie that you can enjoy diversification by owning one company. And for evidence of this you should look no further than BHP Billiton, the world’s largest (or second largest depending on who you listen to) diversified mining company. If you’ve ever bothered to read an analyst or broker report on BHP you’ll inevitably read terms relating to its diversification within various commodities and energy as a positive, but it overlooks the issue that its business is still 100% a resources company with…