Wealth Creation Blogs Worth Sharing.

So by now we all know that Australian and global investment markets have fallen significantly, it’s on the news, in the papers and I’ve been publishing recent posts about it on LinkedIn. What’s causing it?   Truth is, it doesn’t really matter.  Oil prices are down, there’s talk of China slowing, commodity prices are down and so forth.  Historically there is always something occurring on the world stage that can cause negativity in markets.  Investors start to worry, they sell their investments at low prices, lock in losses only to have someone come along, buy them up and enjoy the gains as things recover. Warren Buffet, the world’s most famous stock market investor famously said, “The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient”. And we can see this today.  As I write this, global stock markets suffered a large decline over night, with the expectation being that the Australian market would follow this morni...

It’s no secret that investment markets are being punished at the moment and we’re all seeing the balance of our super funds dropping.  Not a nice feeling? Welcome to the world of investor psychology.  Investor behaviour is for the most part counter intuitive, when markets are up we’re all happy and many of us want to invest more.  When markets are down, it’s doom and gloom and some even sell out. But if you think about it, that doesn’t really make sense.  In reality, the risk of markets falling is greater when they’re at their highs and the likelihood of them going up is greater when they’re at their lows. For most of our super funds, the longer the market stays down the better.  Most of us can’t access our super for a very long time so a depressed market is actually good.  There should be regular contributions going in to your super fund from your employer and at the moment these contributions are buying into very cheap assets. BHP, t...

Welcome to 2016!  We’re only 2 weeks in and already the media have been reporting large falls on Australian and Global stock markets.   And they’re right, the Australian stock market (as I write this) is currently sitting at almost the exact levels of 10 years ago. So what does that mean for your super fund and how can you take advantage of this situation?  Most people have exposure to the stock market through their super funds, particularly if you’re invested in a balanced or growth option within a retail super fund (Sunsuper, Australian Super, AMP the list is almost endless).  The reality is, the level of the market is only of concern if you need to access your funds. So unless you’re approaching retirement, it’s not really an issue.  Markets will recover, they always do, it’s just a matter of time.  There is however a massive opportunity with market levels so low.  There have only been a handful of times over the past century where ma...

The harsh reality of working in Australia’s mining industry is that it can be highly volatile. One minute you’re enjoying the benefits of working in your dream job, the next minute you’re left scratching your head as to why you’re no longer required.  Over the Christmas/New Year break I read plenty of news stories about Australia’s major mining houses (BHP/BMA, Anglo, Santos, Rio etc.) continuing their cost cutting measures by shedding staff and contractors.  I’ve spoken with many people who have been impacted by this personally and whilst the majority saw it coming, it’s still a difficult situation to deal with. So what should be done?  Apart from the obvious job hunting, there may be some other things you can do in relation to your superannuation and insurance.  With any change in circumstance whether it be employment, starting a family, buying a house and so forth, you should review your superannuation and insurance needs.  For example, if...