8 July 2026

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Home / Author: Duncan Burns

Duncan Burns

The simplicity of this investing method hides its power

Despite the perception that successful investors nimbly navigate each zig and zag in the market, the evidence suggests otherwise. This approach can help an investor avoid self-harming their returns.

Duncan Burns
13 August 2025
8

Blending active and passive into a winning portfolio

When looking at long-term equity index charts, it’s easy to forget the individual stocks underpinning the indices don’t move as a unified block. This has important implications for how you try to extract returns from markets.

Duncan Burns
6 December 2023
5

Does currency hedging provide an edge?

A growing number of Australians are choosing to hedge their international equity exposures. Currency movements are difficult to predict so investors should treat currency hedging as a way to manage risk, not to add return.

Duncan Burns
4 October 2023
2

Five reasons to hold your investment nerve

Financial markets have been volatile of late, and it's tempting for investors to seek shelter in cash for some or all of their nest egg. While that may seem a sensible strategy, it can also be a costly one.

Duncan Burns
21 June 2023
2

What happens when an index is rebalanced?

An index rebalance occurs when the composition of an index changes. Fund managers must buy and sell stocks to match the rebalanced index and to achieve their index-tracking objective, but there are consequences.

Duncan Burns
28 September 2022
5

Choosing an index fund is more than just the expense ratio

Popular belief is that all index funds are the same, but it pays to follow this framework, which shows there is more to consider than the cheapest management cost. Replicating an index is not easy.

Duncan Burns
3 June 2020
6

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Ranking three common retirement strategies

The defining challenge of retirement isn't just about building wealth, it's about converting your lifetime savings into sustainable income. A holistic understanding of different strategies can improve long-term outcomes.

Mark LaMonica CFA
8 July 2026

Economy

Was life really better in the good old days?

Are we worse off than previous generations? Lately, there seems to be a heightened level of angst that economic conditions are getting harder and that the two-party political system (and maybe democracy too) is failing voters.

Shane Oliver
8 July 2026

Retirement

Australia has saved $4.5 trillion for retirement. Here's what matters more

Most Australians approaching retirement can tell you the exact dollar value of their super account. But success depends on more than a sizeable balance. Here's four key questions to ask yourself at the start of the financial year.

Dwayne Fernandes
8 July 2026

Who gains in an AI-supercharged economy?

AI is already reshaping the economy, but companies building transformative technologies rarely capture the greatest long-term value. Instead, those benefits accrue to the users. We may well see this pattern reproduced.

Joe Davis Ph.D.
8 July 2026

Taxation

Div 296's million-dollar reset worth $25,000

The 'cost base reset' for the new super tax is being sold as protection for pre-July gains. A worked example shows $1M of protection is worth about $25,000, and the real deadline has not passed.

Trevor Schmid
8 July 2026

Latest from Morningstar

The forecasting fix that Wall Street missed

Asking whether markets are overpriced may be the wrong question. New research suggests that traditional valuation metrics used to forecast returns may have been misread. Here are five takeaways for investors.

Larry Swedroe
8 July 2026

Investment strategies

Should a fund manager invest their own money differently?

Investors often like the idea that fund managers should invest client money exactly as they invest their own. But reality is more complicated. Unique circumstances make a different approach rational and, at times, beneficial.

Joe Wiggins
8 July 2026

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