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24 January 2025
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Understand performance statistics, diversification matches future needs, bond default winners and losers, biases of goalkeepers and fund managers, and understand a re-contribution strategy.
Fund managers often quote statistics to explain their performance, but what do they really mean, and how can we make useful comparisons?
Diversification thinking has evolved from risk and correlations to a focus on matching the future expected liabilities of an investor. It can change the way assets are allocated.
Even when governments default on their debts, there is money to be made by investors who resist the temptation to panic sell in a crisis.
Portfolio managers and goalkeepers feel the need to do something, but an awareness of this action bias may help them recognise that inaction can be an optimal strategy.
A withdrawal and re-contribution strategy involves accessing your super and re-contributing some or all of it back into your SMSF as a non-concessional contribution (i.e. all tax-free).
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.