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Welcome to Cuffelinks Fifth Anniversary Edition 232

21 December 2017

Chris Cuffe's favourites from the first five years

Five years ago, Chris Cuffe and a few friends established a financial newsletter where market experts share their ideas with an online community. Cuffelinks is now a leading source of insights on investing, superannuation and many social and demographic issues.

Our website includes a searchable archive of 1,500 articles from about 500 writers, the subscriber base is 22,000 with over 30,000 unique visitors a month who have made 3 million pageviews. Some of our articles have been read over 30,000 times, and subscribers have made over 5,000 comments. Please keep them coming.

Chris has chosen 10 of his favourites which have stood the test of time. These articles have not been 're-edited' and should be read in the context of the date they were written.

Click here to download the free ebook, Fifth Anniversary Showcase.

Please share this free ebook with friends and encourage them to subscribe for more great reading next year.

Two 60th birthdays

Two notable birthdays, at least for me, your Managing Editor. The S&P500 turned 60 earlier this year, and it's my milestone this week. S&P produced this graphic on how the world has changed in my lifetime. Very kind of them. I have gone from being one of 2.9 billion people to one of 7.4 billion. The S&P US Index increased from 44 to 2,396, showing the power of long-term investing. The number of industrial stocks in the S&P500 has fallen from 425 to only 68.

Source: S&P Dow Jones Indices. For footnotes, see Indexology, December 2017 edition.

While the S&P500 will outlive me, according to this longevity calculator, my life expectancy is 92 years. So even at this 'mature' stage, my investment horizon is at least 32 years, requiring a decent allocation to growth assets. We will also have amazing medical breakthroughs in the next decade or so that will extend life expectancy beyond our wildest estimates. If you want to comment on life and investing from 60 and beyond, please go here.

Summer series of Cuffelinks

Throughout January 2018, to celebrate five years of publishing, five prominent industry executives have each chosen five of their favourite articles from our archive. These guest editors will explain why the insights in these articles stood out for them.

We'll be back with new content and new ideas soon. Have a great Christmas and holiday season from all at Cuffelinks.

Thanks for coming on the journey with us over the last five years. Thanks also to our sponsors who enable Cuffelinks to be distributed free to subscribers and other readers.

Graham Hand, Managing Editor
Leisa Bell, Assistant Editor

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