2:38 AM Saturday 27 April, 2024

Expensive Mistakes

By Thabojan | March 21, 2013

by Jim Parker

dodgy salesmanThere are two ways of learning. You can be taught how to do something correctly or you can be shown the consequences of doing it wrong. In the world of investment, it’s a lot cheaper to learn from others’ mistakes.

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The Espresso Portfolio

By Thabojan | March 15, 2013

by Jim Parker

coffeeWhen you haven’t got much capital of your own, the road to financial security can seem long, hard and complex. But the truth is that wealth building is relatively simple. All it takes is time and the price of a cup of coffee.

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The Wrong End of the Telescope

By Thabojan | February 11, 2013

telescpoe backwardsby Jim Parker

An entire branch of the financial media exists to tell people what stocks to buy. For some reason, many people still think this works as a wealth management tool.

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The Basics in Understanding Aged Care

By Thabojan | February 6, 2013

aged care1At some stage, most of us will be faced with difficult decisions on aged care either personally or for a family member. Entry into a Residential Aged Care Facility can have a very significant impact on our emotional state and financial position.

 

 

 

DID YOU KNOW?

  • One third of all men and half of all women who reach age 65 will enter aged care
  • 13% of Australians are currently over age 65 (3 Million)
  • By 2056, this figure will be 25% (9 Million)

Source: Dept of Health and Ageing, Australian Bureau of Statistics

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Warren Buffett is winning a $1 Million bet against Wall Street Hedge Funds

By Thabojan | February 4, 2013

“Over a ten-year period commencing on January 1, 2008, and ending on December 31, 2017, the S&P 500 will outperform a portfolio of funds of hedge funds, when performance is measured on a basis net of fees, costs and expenses.”

That is the bet Warren Buffett made with New York fund manager, Ted Seides from Protege Partners, five years ago.  The Oracle of Omaha (Buffett) put his money on a S&P index fund, while Seides has backed five fund of hedge funds.

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Cool for Cats

By Thabojan | February 1, 2013

You’ve heard the line about stock picking being better left to blind-folded, dart-throwing orangutans. Now there’s new competition – from cats.

UK newspaper The Observer staged an experiment, pitting a panel of market professionals and a group of students against a ginger feline called Orlando in a competition to see who would have the most success in picking stocks in 2012.1

Each team invested a notional £5,000 in five companies from the FTSE All-Share index at the start of the year. After every three months, they could exchange any stocks, replacing them with others from the index.

The professionals used their experience, insights and market knowledge to select stocks. The cat’s method was rather less elaborate. Orlando simply threw a toy mouse onto a grid of numbers allocated to stocks in the index.

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2012: The Year It Didn’t Happen

By admin | January 5, 2013

- by Weston Wellington (US)

Judging by the headlines in the financial press, investors spent much of the past year anxiously awaiting one calamity after another that failed to occur. The plunge off the so-called fiscal cliff was averted. The euro zone did not fall apart. China’s economy and stock market did not crash. The bond market did not implode. The re-election of President Barack Obama did not derail the US market. The “flash glitch” in early August did not lead to further trading disruptions. Doomsday did not arrive on December 21, as some interpreters of the Mayan calendar suggested it would.

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RBA cuts rates by 0.25% – what did your bank do?

By admin | December 4, 2012

The Reserve Bank of Australia has cut interest rates by 0.25%.

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$100M Oz Lotto: What were your chances?… A Statistical Analysis

By admin | November 21, 2012

As seen in FIFTY-PLUS NEWS

Earlier this month we witnessed the largest ever lotto draw in Australia, with a Jackpot of $100 Million and a total prize pool of over $178 Million ($178,529,037.79 to be exact)!

I’ve never bought a lotto ticket myself… and I knew any chance of winning would be extremely slim.  But with the lure of the $100 Million I thought, why not try this time just for fun.

Well the bad news (for me) is that I didn’t win the big prize.  Four lucky people DID share the jackpot, winning themselves a cool $29 Million each!

Now it wasn’t all bad news for me, as my Quickpick of 12 games had one line of numbers with some matches… this qualified me for the Division 7 prize!  I couldn’t believe my luck at learning this and when I went to the newsagent to pick up my winnings I found out I’d won… $13.70.  Not bad in my first lotto game.  Perhaps the cost of the ticket of $14.20 made this less impressive.

Upon reflection, the statistician in me wanted to know what my actual chances of winning were.  So I did the calculations and came up with the following results.

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RBA cuts rates by 0.25% – what did your bank do?

By Thabojan | October 2, 2012

The Reserve Bank of Australia has cut interest rates by 0.25%.

While this has various implications for businesses, exchange rates, residential property and our economy overall, the impact on households is direct through mortgage rates.  And the big question is how much of the cut will be passed onto borrowers by the banks.

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