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23 January 2025
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Chris Cuffe's views on risk, the paradox of living longer, the need for super funds to provide individual reporting, how to manage for real returns, and an interview with Ken Henry on opportunities for Australian businesses.
Risk means different things to different people, and there is a misallocation of resources, energy and intellect across the superannuation industry (and investment industry more broadly) to address risk.
Living longer does not necessarily translate into financial freedom. The hope is that you can work longer and therefore have more savings for your retirement, but people have less income-earning years.
There is a significant leadership opportunity for super funds to manage real return risk, where the inflation risk represents a potential erosion of retirement outcomes.
Super funds should provide a calculation of a member’s actual average return over their period of membership based on their own personal cash flow of contributions and fees experienced.
The Australian businesses likely to succeed in the Asian century are those that provide goods or services to the 3.2 billion middle-class consumers living in Asia within 15 years.
The housing market was subdued in 2024, and pessimism abounds as we start the new year. 2025 is likely to be a tale of two halves, with interest rate cuts fuelling a resurgence in buyer demand in the second half of the year.
This examines the performance of key asset classes and sub-sectors in 2024 and over longer timeframes, and the lessons that can be drawn for constructing an investment portfolio for the next decade.
The renowned investor has penned his first investor letter for 2025 and it’s a ripper. He runs through what bubbles are, which ones he’s experienced, and whether today’s markets qualify as the third major bubble of this century.
Key lessons include expensive stocks can always get more expensive, Bitcoin is our tulip mania, follow the smart money, the young are coming with pitchforks on housing, and the importance of staying invested.
Check out the most-read Firstlinks articles from 2024. From '16 ASX stocks to buy and hold forever', to 'The best strategy to build income for life', and 'Where baby boomer wealth will end up', there's something for all.
2024 was a banner year for equities, with a run-up in US tech stocks broadening into a global market rally, and the big question now is whether the good times can continue? History suggests optimism is warranted.