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6 October 2025
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Growth and market returns, real wage changes and retirement incomes, the F-words explained, LRBAs for SMSFs, margin lending caution and who's who in 'mFunds'. And happy anniversary!
Surely it's a truism that economic growth, earnings growth and growth in stock prices are directly related. When you look over the last three decades, the real world appears quite different.
The impact of real wage growth on your future retirement income depends a lot on your pre-retirement position. Will you be kept in the manner to which you have become accustomed or will some adjustments need to be made?
Dr. Jack Gray continues his irregular, irritating series of dictionary narratives, with these sagacious insights into the world of financial jargon.
Using a limited recourse loan to buy property within a SMSF sounds great but the restrictions on such arrangements will work against you when it comes to improving or developing the land.
Investments using margin loans must at least cover the cost of interest and other fees, currently around 8%. Fewer investors are using these products, but how long until we fall in love all over again?
Following up on last week's article on the ASX's managed fund services, the announcement this week of the Foundation Members shows an impressive group of institutional and boutique fund managers.
This AI cycle feels less like a revolution and more like a rerun. Just like fibre in 2000, shale in 2014, and cannabis in 2019, the technology or product is real but the capital cycle will be brutal. Investors beware.
An explosion in low-skilled migration to Australia has depressed wages, killed productivity, and cut rental vacancy rates to near decades-lows. It’s time both sides of politics addressed the issue.
LICs are continuing to struggle with large discounts and frustrated investors are wondering whether it’s worth holding onto them. This explains why the next 6-12 months will be make or break for many LICs.
Australian housing’s 50-year boom was driven by falling rates and rising borrowing power — not rent or yield. With those drivers exhausted, future returns must reconcile with economic fundamentals. Are we ready?
Younger Australians think they’ll need $100k a year in retirement - nearly double what current retirees spend. Expectations are rising fast, but are they realistic or just another case of lifestyle inflation?
This week, I got the news that my mother has dementia. It came shortly after my father received the same diagnosis. This is a meditation on getting old and my regrets in not getting my parents’ affairs in order sooner.