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24 December 2025
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Most superannuation products offered to working-age Australians are now performance-tested, and there are calls to extend these tests to account-based pensions. It's likely to result in more pain than gain, though.
Harry Markowitz said that “diversification is the only free lunch in investing” as holding a broader range of assets can result in better returns without assuming more risk. This has become accepted wisdom - but it isn't true.
Recency bias often prevents investors from rationally evaluating the road ahead. We look at how to counter this common error and build a durable investment portfolio that will perform under most circumstances.
Investors have different start dates for calculating investment performance, so each investor's experience of any one manager can be completely different from the next. You can't always trust that beautiful chart of past performance.
We often assign quality in investment choice by historical returns, backed up when we see fund flows directed towards such historically well-performing funds. This is a mistake made by investors and regulators.
The YFYS annual performance test neither measures the return members achieve, nor adequately measures the risks a fund took in achieving the returns, yet it is likely to change the way funds behave.
Nobody has a clue what is going to happen with the market. When deciding what to do with your stocks today, what matters is where the business and its intrinsic value may be 10 years down the line.
Notwithstanding the wide variety of fund managers and fund structures vying for the investor dollar, some questions need to be asked of all of them. They help us determine the quality of the fund and the manager.
Every experienced investor develops a set of beliefs about how markets operate, and finds the proof points to defend those views. Managing the Third Link Growth Fund has taught Chris some unconventional lessons.
Road cycling has an enthusiastic following among the corporate set, particularly within the investment community. Investing and cycling have much in common, especially after sitting in the saddle for a few days.
Retirement isn’t a clean financial arc. Income shocks, health costs and family pressures hit at random, exposing the limits of age-based planning and the myth of a predictable “retirement journey".
The superannuation system has succeeded brilliantly at what it was designed to do: accumulate wealth during working lives. The next challenge is meeting members’ diverse needs in retirement.
Two years ago, I wrote an article suggesting that the odds favoured ASX shares easily outperforming residential property over the next decade. Here’s an update on where things stand today.
I am a professional real estate investor who hears a lot of opinions rather than facts from so-called experts on the topic of property. Here are the largest myths when it comes to Australia’s biggest asset class.
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.
What should you do if you think this market is grossly overvalued? While it’s impossible to predict the future, it is possible to prepare, and here are three tips on how to best construct your portfolio for what’s ahead.