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Seven Lessons from the Global Financial Crisis for Investors

The Global Financial Crisis was the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, resulting in banks freezing lending, financial institutes requiring rescue and 50% plus share market falls.  As we enter the tenth anniversary of the GFC, Dr. Shane Oliver reflects on the key lessons for investors from the GFC:

  • The inevitability of cycles: long periods of good growth, low inflations and great returns are always followed by something going wrong.
  • While each cycle is different, markets are pushed to extremes of valuation and sentiment. Patient investors could be provided with opportunities here.
  • Higher returns come with higher risk. Risks may not be immediately apparent, but will invariably make their appearance at some point.
  • Be sceptical of financial engineering or hard-to-understand products. The GFC showed us that the biggest losses for investors were in products that no one actually understood.
  • Avoid too much gearing or gearing of the wrong sort. Gearing magnifies gains as well as losses.
  • The importance of proper diversification. While listed property trusts and hedge funds were more popular alternatives than low-yielding government bonds prior to the GFC, through the crisis they ran into big trouble, and government bonds were the star performers.
  • The importance of asset allocation. The GFC reminded everyone that what matters most to your investments is your asset mix.

You can read the full article here: Oliver’s Insights – Seven lessons from the Global Financial Crisis for investors

Dr. Shane Oliver is Head of Investment Strategy and Economics and Chief Economist at AMP Capital.

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Share The Dream

What is the “Invisible-Money Generation”? It’s a term that’s been coined to describe the younger generation who sometimes struggle to grasp the value of REAL money in a digital world. So how can we teach the next generation the value of money, when it is mostly invisible?

We recently came across the Share the Dream research report which has some interesting insights into how Australian parents are raising the next generation – the ‘Invisible-Money Generation’.

The report confirms that parents find it hard to talk to kids about money in the digital world. Interestingly, 62% of the parents surveyed believe their children’s generation will be financially worse off than they are. So what can we do to ensure our kids develop healthy money habits and skills?

For great tips and activities to help you talk money with kids, check out the How to Talk Money with Children eBook:

eBook

#sharethedream #InvisibleMoneyGeneration

 

 

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Trumponomics and investment markets – Oliver’s Insights

There is plenty of debate regarding whether Donald Trump’s presidency is a positive or negative for share markets.  In his recent article, Dr. Shane Oliver looks at the risks for investors from President Trump’s approach and policies.  The key points are:

  • So far President Trump has been positive for share markets but this year the focus is increasingly shifting to populist policies with greater risk for investors.
  • The key risks to keep an eye on in this regard relate to trade conflict and the expanding US budget deficit, although the latter is more a risk for when the US economy next turns down.
  • However, the best approach for investors in relation to Trump is it to turn down the noise given the often contradictory and confusing news flow he generates.

You can read the full article here: Oliver’s Insights – Trumponomics and investment markets

Dr. Shane Oliver is Head of Investment Strategy and Economics and Chief Economist at AMP Capital.

 

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Royal Commission Comments

There’s been significant media attention recently regarding the Royal Commission into the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry.  The Royal Commission has so far focussed on the big four banks and AMP and has exposed some serious failings in the industry.  Sadly none of this has surprised us and we are disappointed at the conduct of some people in the advice industry, particularly as it has the potential to tarnish the reputation of the entire financial advice industry.  To that end, we welcome the Royal Commission in the hope that it will raise standards within our profession and restore clients’ trust in the financial advice they receive.

We understand that you may have questions about what this all means for The Wealth Mentoring Group so we wanted to reaffirm our position:

Continue reading “Royal Commission Comments”

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Smith Family Corporate Triathlon

The team at The Wealth Mentoring Group recently turned our focus towards a completely new challenge, taking on the Smith Family Corporate Triathlon Relay Race! Competing in two teams of three, each team member took on the hefty responsibility of completing one of a 400m ocean swim, 10 km road cycle, or 4 km run leg. As the day grew closer, the spirit of friendly rivalry grew ever stronger, competing equally with the growing fear of the unknown! Although our focus was perhaps more on the tapering rather than the training, we all smashed our goals and enjoyed an amazing bonding experience that facing your fears together can bring. We enjoyed a fantastic day out, some of us more than others, and can’t wait to see if we can produce a “personal best” in 2019. It’s amazing what you can achieve if you set your sights on a goal and work towards it!

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Welcome to our new website

Our team is proud to launch our new website.  We hope it gives you a sense of who we are and how we work.

We are passionate about what we do – that is, helping our clients identify what is worrying them and developing a plan so that they can stop worrying.  We work in partnership with our clients to develop tailored financial plans.

To our existing clients – we’d like to extend a warm thanks for your ongoing support.  We look forward to continuing our partnership and supporting you in your financial life.

If you are new to us, we hope you give us the opportunity to work with you to achieve your goals.

Feel free to explore our website and if you have any questions, feedback or would like to learn more, please contact us.

Welcome to The Wealth Mentoring Group!