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Tuesday, 21 September 2021
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While gold has been in a corrective pattern for the last year, a solid case can be made in the coming decade as investors with portfolios concentrated in equities and fixed income struggle for good returns.
Active rebalancing is vital to prevent a portfolio drifting strongly away from its desired asset allocation. See how 60/40 can become 80/20, and is that the correct portfolio in the face of volatility and risk?
Given gold is liquid, efficient to allocate to and has a track record of protecting portfolios during equity market turbulence, is it worth a modest allocation to gold in a diversified super portfolio?
In retirement, we still want to reduce stock volatility while generating cash flows. The two needs have not changed, but the reward expected in the old days from interest payments has gone. What should we do?
The 60/40 diversified portfolio has been the mainstay of the superannuation industry for decades. But it is built on a fundamental principle of defensive bond returns, and its time is nigh.
The tax cost of a ‘portfolio makeover’ from moving equities to a more efficient structure may now be minor compared with the benefits. The market fall is not just an opportunity to find bargains.
After a big rally in 2019, institutions are far more pessimistic about 2020, and 83% expect a GFC-type event within the next five years. They see a strong role for active investing to reduce the downside.
Cash is often seen as the residual, 'uninvested' part of a diversified portfolio, but it should form a prudent and wise amount of ballast, especially when enhanced cash improves returns.
We like a good debate, and when two opposing views argued about the role of government bonds in a diversified portfolio, a veteran of 30 years in fixed interest stepped in as referee.
Contrary to popular belief, there are significant variations in equity returns over long periods such as 20 years. Whether you will earn the 'equity risk premium' is far from certain.
Who knew? With some surprise results, the Government is on unexpected firm ground in asking people to draw on all their assets in retirement, although the comments show what feisty and informed readers we have.
The RBA Governor says rising house prices are due to "the design of our taxation and social security systems". The OECD says "the prolonged boom in house prices has inflated the wealth of many pensioners without impacting their pension eligibility." What's your view?
It's a remarkable statistic. In any year since 1875, if you had invested in the Australian stock index, turned away and come back eight years later, your average return would be 120% with no negative periods.
Never stand between Australian households and an uncapped government programme with $3 billion in ‘free money’ to build or renovate their homes. But excess supply is coming with an absence of net migration.
Picking macro trends is difficult. What may seem logical and compelling one minute may completely change a few months later. There are better rewards from focussing on identifying the best companies at good prices.
Some high-quality companies have emerged even stronger since the onset of COVID and are well placed for outperformance. We call these the ‘COVID Opportunists’ as they are now dominating their specific sectors.