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25 January 2025
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Your interactive goals, smart HILDA answers, OnePath conflicts, Royal Commission darkness, franking, tax-free SMSFs, healthcare, manager share buying.
This excellent Interactive Index Chart shows market performance of various asset classes since 1970, and allows readers to compare the growth of $10,000 invested in these asset classes over historical periods.
Last week, we asked 'Are Cuffelinks readers smarter than average?'. Turns out the answer is a firm YES, but we also learned how often financial matters can be open to interpretation.
The Royal Commission heard how the sale of OnePath by ANZ to IOOF is at risk of being stranded in a minefield of internal and external conflicts, and commissions to financial advisers were again in the spotlight.
Amid the Royal Commission words like toxicity, rot, darkness and attrition, the super industry must rebuild trust with accessible, open and candid communication, and stop scoring own goals.
The 1 July 2017 changes have caused huge shifts in SMSF assets out of pension mode, and Labor's proposed franking credit refunds policy is a further hit to self-funded retirees.
Cuffelinks has published 15 articles related to Labor's proposed franking policy. In this compendium, each article is summarised and linked to, plus a 'sample letter' to his local member from an aggrieved retiree.
Watching the commitment to buying shares by senior executives and board members can be a powerful pointer to company prospects, but investors need to read the right signs.
Increasing longevity poses many challenges, including staying financially secure over a long retirement period. Retirees and governments must stay on top of healthcare costs.
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.
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.
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.