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5 December 2025
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Models, statistics, historical data and forecasts can paint a picture of the average investor, but just who is average? Financial planning and investment decisions need to consider the individual.
Sit through a dozen fund manager presentations and they all start to sound the same. There's been little significant innovation in the managed funds industry in the last 15 years. Why is this and what are the consequences?
Auction clearance rates are often quoted as a barometer of the health of the residential real estate market, but do they really reflect what is happening after the bidding stops?
Future returns from different asset classes are always uncertain and subject to contrary forecasts, but there are useful lessons from the past. As Shakespeare wrote in The Tempest, "What is past is prologue."
We cannot afford to ‘make things up as we go along’. We need a plan that addresses short, medium and long term goals, and we need to take action to address those goals now, not later.
If you are between 55 and 59 years old, the merit of a transition to retirement pension depends on a complex set of variables. But it is worth doing the numbers.
In an interview with Firstlinks, CEO Mark Freeman discusses how speculative ASX stocks have crushed blue chips this year, companies he likes now, and why he’s confident AFIC’s NTA discount will close.
The ASX's performance this year has again highlighted a persistent riddle facing investors – how to approach an index reliant on a few sectors and handful of stocks. Here are some ideas on how to build a durable portfolio.
Despite three years under the retirement income covenant, regulators warn a growing gap between leading and lagging super funds, driven by poor member insights and patchy outcomes measurement.
The ASX seems a market split in two: between the haves and have nots; or those with growth and momentum and those without. In this environment, opportunity favours those willing to look beyond the obvious.
OpenAI’s business model isn't sustainable in the long run. If markets catch on, the company could face higher borrowing costs, or worse, and that would have major spillover effects.
‘Hyperscalers’ including Google, Meta and Microsoft are fuelling an unprecedented surge in equity and debt issuance to bankroll massive AI-driven capital expenditure. History shows this isn't without risk.
Leveraged ETFs seek to deliver some multiple of an underlying index or reference asset’s return over a day. Yet, they aren’t even delivering the target return on an average day as they’re meant to do.