All Articles
October 12, 2021
Why Do Bond Markets Matter to the Stock Market?
After 10 consecutive months of gains, the Australian share market declined in September, heralding a period of volatility that continues today. There is never a single catalyst driving markets, instead there’s a confluence of views that tend to drive either positive or negative momentum. But in this most recent period of volatility there has been … Continued
Investment
October 6, 2021
5 Steps to Becoming a Millionaire
With the median house price in Australia’s two largest cities now north of a million dollars, being a millionaire isn’t perhaps as significant as it once was. As a milestone though, getting to the point where your net assets pop over the million-dollar line remains significant, and something worth taking pride in. Here at Financial … Continued
Investment
Property
Saving Strategy
September 29, 2021
Are SMSF’s still useful?
Self Managed Super Funds, commonly abbreviated to SMSF’s, have been around since the 1970’s. They were originally used by business owners who already had company and family trust structures, with the SMSF a structure dedicated to saving for retirement. SMSF adoption broadened in the early 2000’s as a result of the combination of expensive retail … Continued
Investment
Property
Superannuation
September 28, 2021
18 ways to Build Passive Income that work in Australia
I’ve been researching all the ways one might go about generating Passive Income. Unfortunately, many of those found on the web won’t work in Australia. So I’ve produced a custom list especially for those of us on the largest island in the Southern Hemisphere. Here’s what I’ve come up with: 1. Low input business 2. … Continued
Investment
Property
Saving Strategy
Self-Employment & Side Hustles
September 23, 2021
What to do when you receive an Inheritance
The okay Boomer eye roll movement came out of frustration that Australia’s wealth is disproportionately distributed to those over 60, with the sharp rise in property prices being the primary culprit. But whilst we’re all living longer, science hasn’t yet found a way to grant us eternal lives, and so eventually that wealth will be … Continued
Investment
September 8, 2021
When to use Gearing in your Investment Strategy
If you’ve been listening to the Financial Autonomy podcast for a while, and particularly if you’ve had a chance to pick up the Financial Autonomy book, you will be aware that we work to a proven framework. Within the Financial Autonomy framework there are three pathways that can be followed to get you to the … Continued
Investment
August 18, 2021
ARK Invest Deep Dive
If you ever need an example of the saying being in the right place at the right time ARK Invest would be the perfect illustration. Over the course of 2020 their assets under management grew from US$3.5billion, to US$41.5billion, growth of over 1000% in a single year, as their listed funds possessed all the stock … Continued
Investment
August 6, 2021
NEW PODCAST
Super excited to announce a new podcast to the Financial Autonomy stream. Market Noise is a collaboration between personal finance YouTuber Justin Baldori and me, Paul Benson. We record each episode live on Youtube each Monday night at 8pm AEST, and then release to podcast version later that night. Justin and I each choose 2 … Continued
Investment
July 13, 2021
Investment basics – Active vs Passive investment – what’s it about and, our approach
When I started my career in investment markets almost 20 years ago all the investment options were what we’d now call Active. We didn’t call them that at the time, it was just the standard way that money was managed. Passive investment had been around for some time, pushed primarily by John Boggle of Vanguard … Continued
Investment
June 30, 2021
Why is the best strategy also the toughest to pull off?
Accumulating wealth to gain choice is hard. As the well worn saying goes, “if it was easy, everyone would be doing it”. Why is it so hard though? For over 200 episodes now, plus the weekly GainingCHOICE emails, we’ve explored various ways you can successfully accumulate wealth. Surely it’s a simple matter of just putting … Continued
Investment
June 23, 2021
Artificial + ESG = Best Friends
This weeks piece spawned out of an item in the Brain Food section of our regular GainingCHOICE email that you are hopefully receiving (if not, go here). Ethical, sustainable, or ESG investing, it’s known by many terms, but this approach has been one that’s been a focus and embedded into my financial planning business for … Continued
Investment
Saving Strategy
Superannuation
June 9, 2021
What’s a Moat, and why do they matter when investing?
This week we’re going to explore the topic of moats. No this is not yet another weird acronym, though you do sometimes see it written all in upper case so if you’ve been confused by this you’re completely forgiven. The idea of a business moat is the same concept as a moat around a medieval … Continued
Investment