Your Wealth

India: the investment opportunity too big to ignore?

India is the world’s third largest economy in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms. It has the best performing stock market in the world over the last 5 and 20 years and generates GDP growth of 7.4% pa. Yet, it does not feature in the MSCI World Index, and has only a 10% weighting in the MSCI Asia. Most investors, consequently, have little to no exposure to this powerhouse economy.

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Disrupting the disruptors

The dynamic of investment markets has been highly disrupted over the past two decades, with technology companies now making up 7 of the top 10 companies in the world ($ market capitalisation).  Now that these disruptors have climbed to the top of the ladder, how do investors pick tomorrow’s winner?

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Inner Circle: Opportunities and Threats from the Experts’ Perspective

Sky Business and podcast favourite Mark Todd recently hosted the Kanga Conference: Fixed Income Beyond the Institutional Sector. This summit brought together senior Treasury executives, fund managers and investors to discuss key developments in fixed income and equity markets across the globe.

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SMSF strategies, benefits and traps you need to know

Self-managed superannuation funds make up 30% of the $2.3 trillion total superannuation pool and there are more than 1.1 million SMSF members, according to the Australian Taxation Office. From gearing to renting out vintage wedding cars, SMSFs offer investors the ability to deploy a wide variety of investment strategies and the structure provides various tax and other benefits. However, investors need to understand the complexities and obligations involved in running an SMSF.

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Crazy Rich… The Why and the How of Investing in Asia

With the Asian region expected to host 4 of the world’s 5 largest economies in less than 12 years, investors are starting to take note of our northern neighbours. Despite the fierce growth and positive demographics of the Asian region, global indices under-represent its key markets, and most Australian investors have little to no exposure at all.

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Women and Money: Why gender matters and what do about it

Former Financial Review journalist Bianca Hartge-Hazelman created the Women’s Index in 2017 to track women’s financial progress over time – the wage gap, tertiary enrolments, board representation and more. The data isn’t positive – in one telling statistic, women in Australia retire with just 73% the superannuation balance of men, despite living an average of four years longer.

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The Rise and Rise of Technology – from the DotCom bubble to FANG and more

The growth of technology stocks over the last decade has completely reshaped investment markets, and investor returns - the technology-based NASDAQ index is up an astonishing 240% over 10 years, while the tech-lite ASX200 still languishes below its pre GFC highs. The technology sector itself, however, is diverse and complex, ranging from producers of core components to disruptive innovators.

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Australian Interest Rate Outlook: What it means for your portfolio

With the official cash rate at just 1.5% for the past two years, many Australians have become used to historically low rates on their mortgages – and their deposits. In addition, at the peak, 40% of all home lending in Australia was originated on interest only terms. Warnings of rising rates may feel overblown as the RBA maintains a neutral stance, and yet the funding pressures on lenders are increasing. So what does this mean for your portfolio?

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Gold, Silver, Platinum and Palladium: Investing in Precious Metals

In a recent podcast, a respected investment strategist said that increasing downside risks were forcing him to allocate a proportion of his investment portfolio to gold – and he hates gold! So what can precious metals offer your portfolio?

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Ethical Investing – How to have a positive impact with your portfolio

Appetite for ethical and sustainable investments has increased dramatically in recent years, as investors increasingly seek to avoid harmful corporate behaviour and support positive industries such as renewable energy and green alternatives to traditional waste management. While there are some universal values to which investors subscribe (such as avoiding modern slavery and cluster munitions, for example), however, the range of ethical investment choices can seem infinite to the uninitiated.

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