Last week, the Morrison Government announced that it would allow cash strapped Australians that have lost their jobs to access up to $20,000 in savings from their superannuation fund.
Most superannuation funds, and especially industry funds have significant balances in unlisted assets. Many are telling you that these assets haven't lost money, or are only down a little despite sharemarkets being down close to 30%. This gives rise to perverse incentives for superannuants:
In his masterpiece, The World in Depression, Charles A. Kindleberger concludes the major cause of the Great Depression was a paralysis of leadership caused by the decline of the UK and the immaturity of the US. Neither was able to provide leadership and put themselves forward as the economy of last ...
I don't think investment performance fees help. Actually, I suspect performance fees probably do more harm than good.
Chant West returns released its returns for superannuation funds for last month and a preview of the March massacre. Our funds beat the benchmarks by up to 3.7% in February. In March returns to date our funds look to be beating benchmarks by closer to 10%.
One factor I have been watching closely is the spread of the coronavirus through summer or tropical countries. For most of February, it appeared travellers brought COVID-19 to summer or tropical countries, but the spread within those countries was limited. That looks to be changing.
Last week I published our monthly performance report. I addressed the question of when do we look to start deploying our cash & bonds back into stocks. My throwaway line was effectively "wake me up when the stock market is down 30%". Embarrassingly, we arrived at this point a little faster than ...
For a few weeks in late January and early February, stock markets suspended belief. Pundits on every channel emerged, suggesting a small economic dip followed by a massive stimulus package meant it was time to bid expensive stocks even higher. Meanwhile, in the real world:
Don't be fooled by the dividend yields that you might see for the major Australian banks. They are reflecting a rosy vision of the future that is far from certain, and in my view are a value trap.
Chris Martenson ran this chart on his podcast over the weekend, suggesting that Thailand may have just rebranded their COVID-19 cases. Chris has been very good on the coronavirus outbreak, but on this one, I'm not convinced.
Most studies agree that asset allocation adds way more over time than stock selection. They also agree that private investors cost themselves a lot of money over a cycle by buying after the market has risen and then selling after it has fallen.
The markets have finally woken up to the threat of Coronavirus on global growth, what does this mean to you?
COVID-19 has been an issue for weeks. The bond market realised it. Forex markets realised it. So don't give me the "Italy changes everything" bullshit. And spare me your "black swan" nonsense*.
In the last three years, Australian houses have gone from boom to bust and now back to boom again. I have written in the past about how crazy the property cycle is, and recently, a buying frenzy has pushed prices back toward previous highs. Many are calling the market up 10% over the next year, but ...
We're pleased to announce the official launch of our brand new Property Calculator.
