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20 February 2026
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Stockmarket still long way to recover in real terms, life insurance costs to rise, value of life annuities, smart beta and testing Ben Graham's principles.
Life annuities should be beneficial to rational decision-making individuals in retirement, yet in Australia the number of life annuities purchased remains small, albeit with some nascent signs of growth.
Prices often diverge significantly from that which is justified by the economic performance of the business, but in the long term, prices eventually converge with intrinsic values. It's the difference between voting and weighing.
Many people are claiming that after six years, the market has recovered its GFC losses, but it's worse than that. In fact, the All Ordinaries index today is barely above its 1968 peak in real terms after inflation, some 45 years later.
Smart beta strategies are rules-based, transparent and claim to outperform the market over the long term. But investors may need to tolerate short term underperformance (Photo: Adam chats to Harry Markowitz).
Superannuation members have been getting a great deal, but this is clearly not sustainable, and many superannuation funds are finding their insurance premiums rising significantly.
What are the best ways to build a simple portfolio from scratch? I’ve addressed this issue before but think it’s worth revisiting given markets and the world have since changed, throwing up new challenges and things to consider.
The renowned investor says 2025’s real story wasn’t AI or US stocks but the shift away from American assets and a collapse in the value of money. And he outlines how to best position portfolios for what’s ahead.
We don’t have a housing shortage; we have housing misallocation. This explores why so many bedrooms go unused, what’s been tried before, and five things to unlock housing capacity – no new building required.
Nearly all the indicators an investor would look for suggest that this secular bull market is approaching its end. My models forecast that the US is set for 0% annual returns over the next decade.
The post-World War Two economic system is unravelling, leading to huge shifts in currency, bond and commodity markets, yet stocks seem oblivious to the chaos. This looks to history as a guide for what’s next.
Our cost-of-living pressures go beyond the RBA: surging house prices, excessive migration, and expanding government programs, including the NDIS, are fuelling inflation, demanding bold, structural solutions.