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8 October 2025
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Using the increased super caps, avoiding the liquidity curse, feeling chill winds from Asia, comparing LICs and ETFs, and addressing our dominant banking sector as part of the Financial System Inquiry.
It's popular to argue that the contribution caps are severe limits to the amount placed in super. But a couple can put up to $1.5 million into super in the next few months, so make the caps work in your favour.
Shares are an excellent long-term investment, but the ease with which they can be bought and sold can be both a blessing and a curse. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
Local production in some industries has become less viable due to Asia’s lower costs, and companies need to adapt. Some of our biggest producers in the fuel and cement industries have transitioned to distribution.
Professor Bird and Dr Gray highlight the dominance of the financial sector in Australia’s economy in their submission to the Financial System Inquiry and question whether bigger is necessarily better.
One-third of Australia’s top 30 companies are financial institutions, much higher than other comparable countries. In the interests of our future economic growth, it will need to change.
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.