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25 January 2025
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The harsh reality is that most women retire with significantly less superannuation than men. There are many reasons for the gender super gap and here are some possible solutions to fix the long-running issue.
In traditional economics, utility theory assumed that investors work off probability-weighted outcomes. Prospect theory can better explain actual investor behaviour and is a better tool for designing retirement plans.
Loss aversion means some people avoid annuities because a premature death may lead to a loss of capital, but lifetime annuities with death benefits aim to address this problem.
A common concern for superannuants is how changes to the super system will affect their retirement outcomes. In reality, the proposed changes won’t affect the majority, but poor investment choices will.
Financial risk aversion defines our attitudes to taking financial risk. Your style of risk aversion could be relative or absolute or a bit of both. It's good to recognise your own tendencies for the benefit of your portfolio.
Financial risk aversion is usually measured via a questionnaire compiled by an adviser, which provides a one-dimensional numerical measure. But this does not cover all there is to learn about a client's aversion to risk.
We may already know how risk averse we are when it comes to investing, but how much of this is affected by ambiguity aversion. A better understanding of financial products could improve the investment choices we make.
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.