Many, many people get hung up on whether houses are better than shares as long term investments and vice versa. Logic would dictate that over the long term, houses are a depreciating asset requiring substantial capital to buy or maintain with high transaction costs, and therefore are likely to underperform listed equity, which should overcome these hurdles. However, this ignores key characteristics of the property market as well as issues specific to Australia…
Noise – it’s all just noise..!
My brother sent this photo yesterday. It is the view from his current workplace, in Laos. Here is my view… Sometimes the hustle and bustle of the day-to-day can stop us from seeing and thinking clearly. When considering money issues, this is the most common cause of mistakes being made. It may sound easy to…
Protected: Traders’ Update
Things to consider when buying shares
This article is an extract from a discussion on the merits of purchasing shares in Rio Tinto. It covers some of the points that would impact on such a decision. It is not exhaustive but it is a good start.
World Sharemarkets – a look at the long term…
Vanguard have released a brilliant interactive chart on their website. In this post we look at some of the results from the chart and highlight just how much fun can be had in the nerdy world of money.
Protected: Trading Update – Stockmarket analysis
Should we rethink traditional approaches to home ownership?
“Too many people bought too much house for too many years”. That is a quote from a New York Times article, published recently. The article looked at the impact of housing on the financial crisis from the point of view of a person in the United States. From here in Australia, the “seven new rules”…
Why Industry Funds are good “Default Funds” in awards
There has been quite a bit of debate in recent times on various clauses in various “Awards” as they relate to superannuation.
Some argue that this takes away “member choice” and that it unfairly promotes “industry funds” (i have not used capital letters, as i have not investigated whether all awards with these provisions specifically relate to funds that are members of the Industry Funds marketing group). However, i would argue that this is in fact a very good basic step to take in many cases….
“Industry Funds” – Compare the pair
Just a moment please, while i don my titanium-lined protection suit… Members of the super fund industry are particularly sensitive at the moment, so anything that i may say here will undoubtedly be taken incorrectly, misquoted or distorted in some other way. Previous attempts to bring a bit of plain English to the super funds…
Trouble with the Law?
No, it’s not what you think… In my experience, the legal profession has a similar problem to the financial planning profession – lots of people are scared to make an approach to use the services on offer. This could be the result of bad publicity, unrealised expectations in the past or bad experiences of friends…
