Retirement savings are currently invested via account-based pensions (ABPs) that perform multiple functions including funding income and acting as a store of wealth to draw on if needed. One problem is that retirees can be reluctant to draw on their savings due to fear their savings might run out. We think dividing retirement savings into two pots – ...
The US midterms saw a resounding rebuke of President Trump’s policies. Democrats took control of the House and the Senate, with big wins and various governorships in Republican states.
Trump won in 2024 after “cost of living” pressures turned people against the Democrats. However, his tariff and War policies made those pressures worse, causing many who ...
A long-time Firstlinks reader lamented recently that investors with assets held since the early 1990s will be disadvantaged by the new CGT rules. The changes will see the 50% discount on nominal capital gains replaced by indexation of the asset’s cost base for inflation. He argues that freezing indexation as at 30 September 1999 fails to recognise the ...
Government bond markets today look very different from the low-yield environment that followed the global financial crisis. Across developed markets, for example, 10-year yields have returned to levels not seen for much of the past two decades.
Stronger nominal growth, persistent inflation and tighter monetary policy have driven much of the shift, ...
Australia has long been a nation of income investors. From retirees funding their lifestyle to investors reinvesting distributions to build wealth, dividends have played an important role in the Australian investment landscape. After several challenging years for company payouts, there are signs the tide may finally be turning.
The August 2026 ...
This article is the second in a new mini-series, Eight Temptations of Market Lore, which explores popular investing rules of thumb and the pitfalls that can accompany them.
The first article asked whether a high CAPE means the market is expensive. This one asks what investors really want to know: does a high CAPE predict poor returns?
Over the past ...
True AI believers place their faith in the transformative powers of the technology, sound funding of the capital expenditure, and the ability of firms and investors to manage the associated risks. Unfortunately, “it ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble, it’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
First, technological progress alone ...
Tax is one of the few subjects capable of producing near-universal dissatisfaction.
For all the heat generated by ongoing debates, Australians actually appear relatively united on the outcomes they value, though considerably less on how those outcomes should be funded.
Per Capita's Tax Survey tracks community attitudes towards taxation and public ...
Australia’s superannuation system is often described as “world-class”. It is a phrase repeated by governments, industry bodies, and fund executives, and it has become part of the national mythology. Yet when judged against the basic economic principles that should guide a retirement income system, the claim does not hold.
In this piece we concentrate ...
The hardest part of transferring wealth is not only transferring the assets. It’s preparing the people who will inherit responsibility for them.
Australia is in the midst of what has become known as the Great Wealth Transfer. In JBWere’s recent Great Wealth Transfer Myth report, I set out to challenge the familiar idea that significant family wealth ...
Bank hybrids have long been a familiar source of income for Australian investors. But that source is drying up.
More than A$9 billion of bank hybrids are expected to be redeemed by mid-2027, with approximately A$30 billion more maturing through 2032 as APRA's phase-out of Additional Tier 1 (AT1) securities progresses.
So, what happens when those ...
I attended the Goldman Sachs ‘Communacopia’ technology conference in San Francisco in September with panel sessions from, among others, OpenAI, Nvidia, SpaceX and Google Cloud. These are the key takeaways coming out of the 40 sessions I attended over three days.
1. Token-cost economics
If 2025 was the year of “token-maxxing”, with corporates aiming to ...
Retirement savings are currently invested via account-based pensions (ABPs) that perform multiple functions including funding income and acting as a store of wealth to draw on if needed. One problem is that retirees can be reluctant to draw on their savings due to fear their savings might run out. We think dividing retirement savings into two pots – ...
The US midterms saw a resounding rebuke of President Trump’s policies. Democrats took control of the House and the Senate, with big wins and various governorships in Republican states.
Trump won in 2024 after “cost of living” pressures turned people against the Democrats. However, his tariff and War policies made those pressures worse, causing many who ...
A long-time Firstlinks reader lamented recently that investors with assets held since the early 1990s will be disadvantaged by the new CGT rules. The changes will see the 50% discount on nominal capital gains replaced by indexation of the asset’s cost base for inflation. He argues that freezing indexation as at 30 September 1999 fails to recognise the ...
Government bond markets today look very different from the low-yield environment that followed the global financial crisis. Across developed markets, for example, 10-year yields have returned to levels not seen for much of the past two decades.
Stronger nominal growth, persistent inflation and tighter monetary policy have driven much of the shift, ...
Australia has long been a nation of income investors. From retirees funding their lifestyle to investors reinvesting distributions to build wealth, dividends have played an important role in the Australian investment landscape. After several challenging years for company payouts, there are signs the tide may finally be turning.
The August 2026 ...
This article is the second in a new mini-series, Eight Temptations of Market Lore, which explores popular investing rules of thumb and the pitfalls that can accompany them.
The first article asked whether a high CAPE means the market is expensive. This one asks what investors really want to know: does a high CAPE predict poor returns?
Over the past ...
True AI believers place their faith in the transformative powers of the technology, sound funding of the capital expenditure, and the ability of firms and investors to manage the associated risks. Unfortunately, “it ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble, it’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
First, technological progress alone ...
Tax is one of the few subjects capable of producing near-universal dissatisfaction.
For all the heat generated by ongoing debates, Australians actually appear relatively united on the outcomes they value, though considerably less on how those outcomes should be funded.
Per Capita's Tax Survey tracks community attitudes towards taxation and public ...
Australia’s superannuation system is often described as “world-class”. It is a phrase repeated by governments, industry bodies, and fund executives, and it has become part of the national mythology. Yet when judged against the basic economic principles that should guide a retirement income system, the claim does not hold.
In this piece we concentrate ...
The hardest part of transferring wealth is not only transferring the assets. It’s preparing the people who will inherit responsibility for them.
Australia is in the midst of what has become known as the Great Wealth Transfer. In JBWere’s recent Great Wealth Transfer Myth report, I set out to challenge the familiar idea that significant family wealth ...
Bank hybrids have long been a familiar source of income for Australian investors. But that source is drying up.
More than A$9 billion of bank hybrids are expected to be redeemed by mid-2027, with approximately A$30 billion more maturing through 2032 as APRA's phase-out of Additional Tier 1 (AT1) securities progresses.
So, what happens when those ...
I attended the Goldman Sachs ‘Communacopia’ technology conference in San Francisco in September with panel sessions from, among others, OpenAI, Nvidia, SpaceX and Google Cloud. These are the key takeaways coming out of the 40 sessions I attended over three days.
1. Token-cost economics
If 2025 was the year of “token-maxxing”, with corporates aiming to ...
