Finance & Fury Podcast

In this episode we look at some long-term data and explore the reason that holding the course of an investment strategy works better long term than trying to guess what will happen in the short term. We go through four key facts to remember when your emotions are telling you to sell.

In this episode, we look at the core reasons as to why markets fall, explore the economic consequences of the Russia-Ukraine conflict to determine if this is a genuine cause of concern for financial markets.  We also look at if there can be a buying opportunity through an overreaction from financial markets

In this episode, we look at Robert Kiyosaki’s comments on negative gearing. In doing so, we will cover what negative gearing is, does it really help property investors and has it led to property price increases?

In this episode we look at the average financial position of the Australian population. The aim of this exercise is to provide a bit of a wakeup call if you are below the averages, and to help provide strategies to close the gaps. But in the end, you should only compare your financial situation to yourself from yesterday and build towards your own financial independence.

In this episode we do a breakdown on the Richest Man in Babylon. We go through a summary of the classic rules of money that helped me build a solid financial foundation early in my financial journey.

In this episode, we look at an alternative method to traditional budgeting where you instead allocate your financial resources. We explore the concept of paying yourself first and the general categories to direct your cashflow to better your financial position.

Hi – hope you’re all going well and welcome to Finance and Fury. In this episode – look at cryptoasset investments and the increase in accessibility for retail investors through alternative structures – as in Western economies – US, EU, and Aus – these are becoming available for retail investors through structures like ETFs – i.e. exchange traded funds This comes off the back of Treasurer Josh Frydenberg- looking at a series of regulatory and tax proposals covering digital wallets and crypto assets – focus being on reducing scams and fraud The move could also include the introduction of an outline for central bank digital currency - which has been covered in depth already in previous episodes – may cover any actual announcement when there is more news about the actual policy In past episodes - Covered the BIS framework for what they consider cryptoassets – many have viewed this as legitimacy given to crypto – but it is legitimacy purely in the form of an asset – not a currency which was the original concept

Welcome to Finance and Fury. Sorry for the break over the past two months – been busy with moving into our newly built place – been in a process of trying to clear out lantana and fallen trees from 5,000sm – that combined with helping take care of my daughter and the excess work in a led up to the end of the year I didn’t have time to get an episode out – sorry – all weak excuses aside – in this episode – We will go through Critical thinking for making investment decisions to make 2022 your best year yet This is a great episode to start off 2022 – as this can become your most powerful ability to make correct decision when it comes to where to allocate your finite resources – everyone on earth has finite resources financially – even Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk has only so many billions they can spend – this is a massive amount – but without creating more – if they spend it all the money runs out – Your individual ability to maximise your wealth - Is based around your ability to decern the correct financial decisi

Welcome to Finance and Fury – In this episode, we will be looking at the future of property prices based around recent changes in lending assessment, bond yields and what this means for interest rates It comes as no surprise when I say that property prices have gone up a lot over the past 2 years – well above forecasts – at the same time, and in a causal manner, interest rates and bond yields have declined to record lows – but is the party coming to an end sooner than expected? As there are some emergences in the bond markets which may spell an interest rate increase ahead of schedule – putting downwards pressure on property prices - There is a bit to unpack here – do so in three parts – we will go through the current state of the property market – then what happened last week in the bond market in Australia – then what this means for central bank policy on interest rates   To start with - Looking at housing prices – Almost in lockstep – prices have increased at rapid rates across the world, reaching new he

Welcome to Finance and Fury. Currently, the prospect of stagflation is being seriously debated by economists and policy makers across most economies – the big question is – will we suffer stagflation – and if so, how do markets react? The first stages of an energy crisis are currently in the making - In Europe - natural gas prices have tripled in the last three months – with rising petrol prices across the globe – even in Aus, petrol prices are up – Why do energy prices matter and what does this have to do with stagflation? Energy is an input into everything – transportation, manufacturing, even keeping office lights on – all of this flows through into increasing prices over time Coupled with this – annual CPI currently is sitting at 5.3% in the US, 5.8% in Poland, 7.4% in Russia and 9.7% in Brazil – even Aus is at around 3.8% - so all countries are sitting above their target rates – the countries suffering the most severe inflation are those suffering from supply shortages The major concerns are that these

Welcome to Finance and Fury. I was looking at an interesting survey that is regularly conducted – so in this episode What do investment managers think the top risks to the markets are? This is a survey that Deutsche Bank regularly does where it surveys investment managers and Wall Street participants – The results help to gives some insight to the thinking of portfolio positions from those that control some of the largest levels of money flows in the investment landscape – This is interesting because of what actions investment managers take in response to their predictions – if they think markets will go down, they might be slightly more defensive in their allocation – or sell off some of their higher growth holdings – resulting in a decline of those shares - What happens to the price of assets on markets often occurs ahead of any event materialising – prices move at first due to the anticipation of an event materialising   Looking at the DB survey - One of the questions that the 600 participants were asked

Welcome to Finance and Fury. In this episode we will be looking at the Property market in China and focus on the Evergrande developments – in particular if there is actually a timebomb starting to surface – and look at the potential contagion risks to the rest of the world – such as the Aus and US Many in the press are comparing what is happening to Evergrande as another Lehman’s moment – which was one of the defining collapses of a financial institution that lead to the flow of effects culminating in the GFC – it is understandable that the media takes this route – Lehman’s is a recognisable name and fear and doom scenarios generates more clicks and sells more adds – but is this worst-case scenario true? Is the collapse of Evergrande really going to lead to another global financial crisis? A few weeks ago – we covered where the next financial collapse is likely to come from – between the USA and China - Two factors were the focus – leverage and contagion risks Looking at leverage - Credit growth is a major

Welcome to Finance and Fury. In the last episode we talked about finding meaning in life, even in the worst of possible situation. That topic leads in nicely with purpose, which we will be covering in this episode. As Finding a purpose gives life additional meaning – and having fulfilment in life through having meaning helps to fuel a purpose – which further fulfils meaning – quite a symbiotic relationship – But to build on this purpose and work towards this, goals are also important -   But Finances are important – which can also be seen in the concept of resources – as cash/money is a medium of exchange to purchase resources, or other investments – either way, having infinite resources or money without purpose or meaning is worthless – What is the point of having millions of dollars if you have no reason to wake up every day? Most of us don’t find ourselves in this position – but if we have no financial means, or resources, then fulfilling our purposes can be harder – finding meaning can still be achieve

Welcome to Finance and Fury. I’d like to start a serious conversation about the individual self and our drive for meaning within society. This relates to economics and by extension, personal finance – as economics focuses on how the individual incentives drive decision making – all with the aim to maximise our utility – i.e. gain the maximum benefit – which could mean we driven by money, freedom, or some other purpose - What drives the way that we act? - so in this episode, we will be adding a philosophical element to this topic – this episode isn’t about the property or share market, so if that is why you tune in - feel free to not listen – the purpose of this episode is more abstract – and aims to help those who want to help themselves through making sense of the current state of the world and prospering through this – To do this – we will draw on some of the teaching of the greatest philosophers through history – like John Locke, Carl Jung, and Viktor Frankel to name a few – this will be a bit of a longer

Welcome to Finance and Fury. In this episode, we will be looking at investing using a moat. Moats are an effective tool for defence historically – you would put one up around a fortified structures – such as a castle or town – can be filled with water or not, many different types and variations – but the whole aim is to make a location more defensive from attacks – so what does a moat have to do with investing? Well – in this episode we aren’t talking about defending your castle from some medieval invaders – we are talking about moats that can be identified to provide some defence for your investments – in particular – we will focus on Economic Moats - What is an economic moat? An economic moat – simply put – is the ability of a business to maintain a competitive advantages over its competitors This – like a moat around a castle - helps a company to protect its long-term profits and market share from competing firms – which in this analogy would be the attackers a competitive advantage is essentially

Welcome to Finance and Fury – For this week’s episode we are answering a question from listener David – surrounding some options to save for a home deposit “The conventional wisdom is to save for, say, a home deposit in a bank account with as high as possible interest rate. However, recently it seems house prices are rising quicker than I can save, and interest rates are lower than CPI. If my goal is to have a sufficient deposit in ~3 years’ time, what are your thoughts in keeping savings in a conservative (or even higher risk?) mutual fund instead? Wouldn't a low-risk fund be less risky than cash during an inflationary period?” This is a great question – and brings up an important point – is the long term conventional wisdom on saving for a home deposit in cash no longer wisdom but a horrible idea? Especially in the current economic environment where your cash savings are earning a negative return in real terms when accounting for inflation – so let’s have a look at this and look at some alternatives Histor

Welcome to Finance and Fury This episode, look at where the next financial crisis may come from – Will it be from the USA or from China? This is a question I was thinking about the other day – as there is a lot of talk about the Chinese economic being built on a house of cards and at risk of collapse – but if this does collapse, will it lead to a world-wide economic recession? Or, will the USA beat China to the chase and trigger the next collapse? So, in this episode – we will look at the likely nature of the next financial collapse and whether this will be triggered by economic issues in the USA or China Looking back in history - the idea of a global financial crisis is relatively new in the scheme of things it has and can only occurred in times when economies are interconnected in terms of trade, or financial reliance – in the modern era – this is coined as globalisation – but the trigger has tended to come from the economically dominant country in this economic system – i.e. the most connected nation th

Welcome to Finance and Fury. In this episode we are going to look at the different factors to consider when deciding on how you should select investments This is an interesting topic – as everyone will have different factors that influence their investment decisions – but the ultimate outcome for most people is to make money – i.e. you wish to receive a return on your initially invested capital – and do so at a rate that beats your opportunity cost – i.e. the next best use of the funds, like repaying debt But this is easier said than done though – So in this episode – we will look at the major factors that influence investments and see which one has had the largest impact on out performing the index as well as minimising volatility – in other words, what has provided the best returns over the past 20 years at the lowest comparable level of risk – we will also look at if these trends can help to provide some insights into investing moving forward I think it goes without say that this episode is not advice,

Welcome to Finance and Fury. This episode we are going to have a look at investing in megatrends. When investing – there are many different approaches people can take – people have different return requirements – hence, when constructing a portfolio of investments, you may try to isolate certain sources of return – such as capital growth or income focuses If you are retired and needing a passive income, then an income focus is more important – so purchasing share that pay FF dividends, or owning a property that has no leverage or debt on it will be the focus If you are an accumulator – you may wish to focus on capital growth, or target sectors of that don’t typically pay out high level of income returns, but have the potential for higher levels of capital growth – such as technology or healthcare shares As part of this focus on capital growth – one method that is available to investors is to target specific investment themes – or “megatrends” This is where investors focus on high growth opportunities in sec

Welcome to Finance and Fury. As you might have seen, Brisbane has won the bid for the 2032 Olympics – but is this a good thing for the SEQ economy and the people living in it? in this episode we will have a look at the economics of the Olympics – we will Look at the costs and benefits of hosting the games – to see if firstly Brisbane/QLD is going to benefit – and if there is economic gain for being the host –– Lots to unpack here – lets get into it   Introduction - The Olympics have evolved dramatically over time  From going all the way back to the Ancient Greek times – to the first modern games which were held in 1896 Over time – like many things – Olympics became more commercialised – as over the past 60 years, both the costs of hosting the games and the revenue potentials have grown rapidly – but it seems like the costs have growth at a greater rate than the revenues - sparking controversy over hosting the games – as to whether it is of any benefit to the host city A growing number of economists argue th