Moneyandinvesting

The first thing to understand for any portfolio protection plan. Is that events like RBA rates cut, or a presidential election are KNOWN events. Unknown events like September 11 or Coronavirus are impossible to plan for as we know. However, take the presidential election as an example – you have 4 years to get your strategy together to protect and profit off what’s happening. For anyone who suggests simply ‘ride it out’ – you’re missing out on some major profits by employing various strategies. In a very strategic way, not to mention having no protection to the downside in extremely volatile

When a private company decides to go public and list through an Initial Public Offering (IPO), many investors salivate at the prospect of turning water into wine. It’s a risk vs. reward decision that can either be extremely lucrative or a devasting disaster. Their reasons for this are mostly always the same – to raise more capital in order to fuel growth and expansion. When a company decides to IPO, the stock price initially set based on their expected future earnings along with the number of shares they plan to issue – often accompanied by a large investment bank throughout the entire proces

Certainty and uncertainty are 2 of the main drivers of movement in the stock market. With geopolitical tensions, national political challenges and economic issues facing them, the US may be in store for some hefty uncertainty. Join us as we look at some of the potential uncertainties approaching in the US

It feels like recently the debt ceiling had to be raised in the US to prevent a debt default and government shut down, but we are fast approaching yet another one. Host Andrew Baxter explains that this may not be so straightforward at the moment given the Republicans hold the majority in

The Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) investigated 86 of the MySuper organizations as per the new legislation imposed in November 2020. Here, they conducted a basic benchmark performance test. To ensure these funds were up to scratch given they hold around $900B of everyday Australian’s retirement funds. Scarily, 13 out of the 86 funds failed to meet industry standards. Regardless, leaving over 1 million Australians affected. And equated to $56B of funds performing below par. To put this into perspective, APRA’s ‘benchmark’ return on Australian Equities over an 8-year period h

The fact of the matter is, most people are purely evaluating the mechanics of their investment before they hit the go button – focusing on their technical, fundamental and quantitative analysis. For traders, this is like operating a car – turning the lights on, shifting the gears into drive and putting their foot on the accelerator. Seems pretty straight forward, right? But what about if you just had a massive argument with your partner and you got in the car to drive home after an absolute bellringer…how would you be driving? In that state, you’d be swerving around, honking your horn and pro

Host Andrew Baxter explains that in 2007, Qantas received a buyout offer for about $5.45 per share and 16 years later, the stock price is about $5.65. The shareholders turned down the buyout offer at the time, believing it was not an offer that reflected Qantas’ value and all these years later we see Qantas still only barely higher than that offer. There is a vast array of different ways people analyse stocks before making a trade decision. Some that spring to mind are charting, valuation and ESG scores as they become more important. Join us in this episode as we put Qantas through the mincer

The accumulation stage in your wealth journey begins as you are starting your career. For some that is straight out of school or trade school and for others that may be university. As you are getting started a common debt people have is their HECS debt if they went down the uni pathway. HECS however, is not necessarily bad debt as it does not incur any interest, however it can increase with inflation. Host Andrew Baxter notes that a common step in the accumulation is also younger people looking to buy their first property. It can seem daunting and out of reach because the required deposits ar

For property buyers, buying off the plan can be a major mistake. You are effectively committing to buying a property that is yet to exist, putting a deposit down prior to construction starting. These are typically in highrise apartments or other apartment developments. Host Andrew Baxter explains that you are locking in a buy price down the line without any certainty of what it will be worth. If the value of the property increases from when you buy it, developers can often wriggle out of the contracts and look to sell them for more, slighting you out of a good deal. If the opposite happens

Success can be seen in many metrics – finances, family life, health, among many others. Unfortunately, being successful in your chosen area isn’t as simple as implementing a few practices and ending with success.
Doing things randomly and on a whim is not generally a good way to achieve a goal. Host Andrew Baxter explains that it’s vitally important to have some sort of roadmap in mind as any random road will take you nowhere. Without a clear goal in mind, there is no way to know whether or not you’ve reached it even if you make some positive steps in the right direction. A lack of specific

Since Covid, inflation has been the centre of attention in the finance world. We hear about the numbers on the news or in the data reports, but what do they really mean? Join us this week as we try to clear up some of the mysteries around inflation:
In basic terms there are two main types of inflation that we can see manifest in the real world. Host Andrew Baxter is an economist by qualification and explains that the two main types of inflation we see are either demand-pull or cost-push. Demand-pull entails when a substantial increase in the demand for something from consumers comes along w

Many think that having perfect timing is the key to investing but in reality, spending more time being invested is possibly just as important.Host Andrew Baxter suggests for anyone who is thinking about investing to simply get started. Many people will wait for all of the stars to align and for everything in their life to be sorted out before taking the leap to get started in their investing. It’s unlikely that everything in your life will ever be perfectly aligned for you to get started so you may just need to rise above the situation and jump in the deep end. It can even start with just a s

Becoming financially literate does not happen overnight. Many people struggle with their mindset around money and without getting started you may never instill good habits. Join us this week as we dive into the ways to build your money values

Our upbringing can have a major input into how we turn out as adults and values around money is no different. Host Andrew Baxter grew up in a working class family and attributes a lot of how he looks at money now to what he was taught growing up. Andrew’s father was frugal so growing up in an environment where one’s family is frugal, it is more likely

Some investors are always trying to gain an edge on their investments by timing things to give them an extra boost on their return. Some do not bother, and simply stay in the market for an extended period. Join us this week as we jump into timing the market vs time in the market:


When it comes to setting and forgetting, there are fewer technical skills required. If you are simply looking to buy and hold for the long-term, the skills involved are fairly straightforward as there is no intervention required over time. If you are moving down the timing the market pathway, Host Andrew Baxter

Put simply, ESG investing is buying responsible assets for the right reasons on an environmental. And social and corporate governance level. For this topic, host Andrew Baxter has called in long-time friend and fund manager from Russel Investments, James Harwood. James manages over $7B of client funds to which $3B of that is invested in ESG funds and has a huge reputation in the financial services industry with a strong track record.

In Australia, the materials and mining stocks make up around 20% of our market. Thus, finding ESG stocks that are likely to perform well is a harder task th

We are all in different stages in our journeys of life. Some are married, with kids, single or just starting out. Host Andrew Baxter says investing in accordance with your stage of life is just like buying a car – there are times when you need to change what you drive to match where the road you’re driving on. After spending over 29 years as a professional investor, Andrew tells the story of a conversation he had with a prospective client which contradicts all of the above philosophy. As a 62-year-old nearing retirement and what would be classified as a ‘low risk investor’, he couldn’t beli