This piece is not original or revolutionary. It is a distillation of various discussions and illustrative of a current somewhat unique situation. Post commencement of writing this article, the author has read an excellent piece by David Merkel in the Aleph Blog, http://alephblog.com/2015/04/21/on-negative-interest-rates/. This explains negative interest rates perhaps more eloquently than the current. In […]
Tongue in cheek, this post illustrates how the accessibility and ease of setting up an SMSF has the unintended consequence of increasing systemic risk. We also explore how this might be mitigated. Read on…… Nowadays, it’s easier than ever to setup and run a Self Managed Super Fund or SMSF. Sick of those fund managers […]
Property Rentals and Securities Lending. A Non Literal Discussion. I was in a seminar recently, where the merits of securities lending were being debated. Some quite divergent views were on the table. The following analogy occurred to me: In the current environment, there is wide focus on financial products being transparent, having risks and fees […]
Common wisdom and common practice is divided. Before I present my views, I ask another question: Is it ok to not receive interest on your cash… Clearly, the answer to the latter is a resounding NO. So, if we ask: How do you earn interest on your cash? The answer; by lending it to a […]
I came across this article courtesy of Marc Faber at Calibrated Confidence. All the charts therein are interesting and worth a look. What caught my eye was this one – Median Household Net Worth by Age Group (1989-2010): The chart very visually illustrates the decline in median household net worth in the USA over approximately the last […]
Sometimes I wonder just what goes in to creating a headline. Analyse exactly what the words of a headline say, and you may be left incredulous. Are they an accurate reflection of what is going on. Are they an accurate reflection of the article that follows, or are they just devices to attempt to capture […]
Recently, I have noted several instances where conventional wisdom is challenged. It is worth repeating these. The reader is welcomed to add further examples, comments or criticisms. Inverse Glide Paths Common wisdom for retirement planning dictates that the asset mix in a retirement portfolio varies such that the riskiness (or volatility, or potential capital loss […]
This is anecdotal, but seems to be a recurring theme as I go about the markets: Super funds in general have suffered over the last 5 or so years, predominantly due to under performance of listed equities This has led to many stakeholders (including those with $200k to $1m) leaving the managed sector and setting […]
Musings on what gets measured gets made. Humans are fascinated with metrics and measurement. The mere act of measuring something is enough to influence behaviour, sometimes in ways unexpected. Examples from sport, technology and finance are used to illustrate this. Full post: On the Measurable July 2012.
Did you know that the combined value of assets in the Australian Superannuation wallet is larger than the market capitalisation of the Australian Stock Market. Some facts: From an ASFA Research and Resource Centre report published in July 2012 The ASX is capitalised at about AUD1.2 tn (Source ASX) The global pension pool is about USD19.3 tn […]
