Thoughts on money, from a Financial Planner in Perth
A place for Michael to vent on issues, actions and intentions that make his day less fun. Remember that none of this is advice – it’s just Michael getting it off his chest!
Word from the street is that HSBC is “near $1.9 billion settlment over money laundering”. The US government is cracking down on money laundering generally, and HSBC is a high-profile target after some subsidiaries revealed less-than-appropriate dealings. Standard Chartered “agrees to settle Iran Money Transfer Claims” is the headline of a New York Times article that … Read more
Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives in France and is going through passport control. “Nationality?” asks the immigration officer. “German” she replies. “Occupation?” “No. Just visiting.” No really… is anyone else finding it hard to think of European political attempts to fix economic problems without resorting to chuckles? Europe – lessons in moving at the pace … Read more
Famous words, made all the more famous’er by the late but very great Douglas Adams, in his 4 book trilogy “Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy” (although the actual number of books that make up the trilogy is subject to some dispute). Douglas Adams was referring to the great cosmic guidebook produced by Megadodo Publications. “It … Read more
Marketing is often most effective when it glosses over the smaller details and focusses on just one or two key points… does that lead to better outcomes or is it misrepresentation?
Yes, that’s right. You heard all about it here first. The good news of the day is the successful launch of Fosters’ wine business as a company of its own – Treasury Wine Estates. I for one, intend to celebrate that with a lovely glass of red at the earliest convenience. And while i’m at … Read more
Much has been made over the last year on the relative merits of a “mining tax”, which has also been called a “super profits” tax. Very learned folk have invested a lot of time and energy into looking at Australia’s economy and trying to work out how to better spread around the benefits of the … Read more
Everyone has a form of bias built into their decision-making processes. It could be based on bad outcomes from past experiences or better than expected results from one activity over another. It may be that you gathered your relevant knowledge from a source that itself contained an inate bias. The trick is to know how … Read more