Financial Planning, Investment & Insurance Solutions

  • Don’t Vote with Your Portfolio

    Don’t Vote with Your Portfolio

    The recent re-emergence of market volatility has stoked some fears. Specifically in the investors who take their politics a little too seriously. Financial markets moving around is nothing new, but some investors, without a coherent investment philosophy, are quite happy to replace it with an incoherent politico-investment philosophy. Whatever happens in financial markets can be directly attributed to their political side or their political opponent. This position makes investing incredibly difficult. Every time a government changes, it means their portfolio’s structure is up for consideration. The long term only exists if their team is in charge. If the other team…

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  • Blame Canada

    Blame Canada

    How are you coping with President Trump? Depending on where you get your news, the transition to the Trump administration will be portrayed as great or horrific. Regardless of any bias, there is one constant. Things are moving at a breakneck speed. This is apparently going to continue. The Trump team is dismantling and remodelling a system they believe is wasteful, inefficient, and has the wrong priorities. Others may disagree, but whoever has control sets the policy agenda. Some things being done seem quite sensible. Trying to eliminate waste and nonsense is one. Trump supporters have pulled out old videos…

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  • Beyond ESG

    Beyond ESG

    What’s the easiest assumption you can make about the future? Assuming what’s just happened will continue to happen. It was only a couple of years ago we thought we’d seen the back of a certain US President forever! It’s a handy reminder about extrapolation or recency bias on anything. Politics exists on a pendulum. Things swing back and forth. It’s generally the incumbent party’s power to lose. Be that through incompetence, hubris, or staleness. Power then shifts back to the other side of politics. With investing or business, things are always moving forward. Not side to side. The analogy might…

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  • 2024 Q4 December Quarter Review

    2024 Q4 December Quarter Review

    Economic Overview Q4 2024 was somewhat mixed for Australian investors, but it rounded out what was a positive year across all asset classes. The falling Australian dollar was a tailwind for unhedged investors over the quarter, while the Australian sharemarket was slightly negative. For the year, unhedged global shares, hedged global shares, and Australian shares, all notched double-digit returns. The most notable story across the quarter was Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election. This was accompanied by a “red sweep” which saw the Republican Party take control of Congress. As with President Trump’s 2016 election, markets were buoyed…

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  • Fiddling with The Future Fund

    Fiddling with The Future Fund

    The Future Fund has a new statement of expectations and new investment mandate. From the government press release: The new Investment Mandate will require the fund to consider Australia’s national priorities in its investment decisions, where possible, appropriate and consistent with strong returns. These national priorities are: Some are saying it’s just wording and won’t mean much. Others have suggested there wouldn’t be a change in wording unless the government was intending to lean on the Future Fund and direct them into the areas specified, specifically whatever their pet projects were. Plenty have opined if such investments were worthy, then…

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