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21 January 2025
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ASFA provides a key guide for how much you will need to live on in retirement. Unfortunately it has many deficiencies, and the averages don't tell the full story of the growing gender superannuation gap.
Feeling financially stressed? The entry level for the world's richest 1% is $1.5 million including the family home. If this is not enough to fund a ‘comfortable’ lifestyle, consider that 99% of people have less.
At some point, politicians will debate how to reduce the national debt and implement measures aimed at simultaneously easing budget pressures while reducing the gap between rich and poor. Investors should be ready.
At the start of the 20th century, a 'Gilded Age' for plutocrats created vast fortunes and economic inequality surged. COVID is having the same impact now, but portfolios can be adapted to respond to the opportunities.
Many people were financially unprepared for a pandemic, but it is women who are suffering most because they earn less, have interrupted careers and have less risk-taking capacity.
High debt, wealth inequality, increasing automation, ageing population, and climate change are among the most significant structural headwinds the global economy faces today. What could this mean for equity investors?
Income taxes in Australia are over 2.5 times larger than the 'spending' taxes such as GST, excise, and stamp duties. The latest legislation ignored reforms in taxing spending over saving again.
Rising bond and equity markets and increases in profit's share of GDP at the expense of labour have created greater wealth inequity, and the resulting political risks will unsettle markets.
Economists are searching for reasons why the United States economy is growing slowly, and 'financialization', the growth of the financial sector as a share of GDP, is under scrutiny (extract from The New York Times).
Last year, I wrote an article suggesting returns from ASX stocks would trample those from housing over the next decade. One year later, this is an update on how that forecast is going and what's changed since.
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.
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.
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.
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.