Firstlinks is a publishing service providing content written by financial market professionals with experience in wealth management, superannuation, banking, academia and financial advice.
Authors of articles in Firstlinks are investors and market practitioners with long careers in senior management positions. Firstlinks shares both their knowledge and their battle scars. Our community discusses ideas from an informed and impartial point of view, without pushing products or promoting services.
Firstlinks is supported by long-term sponsors not one-off advertising or paid promotions. It was acquired by Morningstar Australasia in 2019 to enable an expansion of its services and audience.
Firstlinks does not provide financial advice, and we do not know the personal or financial circumstances of any of our readers. We believe there is a strong need for investors to access quality financial writing, both to hear the different sides of any investment opportunity, and to improve their financial literacy. We provide strategies and guidance rather than trying to time the market, picking stocks or selecting next year’s star fund manager. In particular, we aim to inform investors about markets, regulations, structures and useful ideas.
Our target audience is ‘engaged investors’, particularly those who manage their own money, and financial market professionals.
Firstlinks operates with the following basic principles:
* Superannuation is an important part of every Australian’s long-term savings plan and financial wellbeing.
* The aim of every investor should be financial independence and creating lifestyle options for later stages of their lives.
* We are not advocates for any specific type of superannuation fund, as the merits of various structures such as pooled super funds (commercial funds, industry funds, corporate funds) and self-managed super funds depend on individual circumstances.
* We do not promote any particular form of holding securities (direct or managed funds, listed or unlisted, active or passive) as we believe they all hold a place.
* Financial advisers should play an important role in the savings, retirement, estate planning and protection strategies of the majority of Australians, especially as they approach retirement.
* There is no one correct investment strategy for anyone, and like any life skill, investors need to be as financially literate as possible to participate in their own investing.
* Investors should match their assets to their risk appetites, since the ability to cope mentally with volatile markets is as important as the financial performance.
Firstlinks focusses on investment strategies and ideas with a medium to long term market horizon. We encourage readers to take a ‘through the cycle’, risk-aware perspective.