SMSF Investment StrategiesSharing Simple Strategies for Self Managed Super Funds
Greek Endgame Drags On
I started writing this post from the Kuching airport, after a ten day visit to my parent’s house. This visit is vastly different from my last one in March this year when I first discovered the full extent of my parents’ dementia. After the initial shock, all the siblings have put our heads together to [...]
Outlook for second half of 2011
As the 2011 financial year draws to a close, it is time to take stock of what has happened in the first half of the year and think about what could be in store for the rest of the year. As I look back at what I wrote in January, the mood then was bullish [...]
End of the road draws nigh for Greece
On May 10, 2010, the IMF/EU announced their “shock and awe” €750bn bailout package for Greece and other troubled European countries. This bailout was equivalent to allowing Greece to do a credit card “balance transfer” to a lender who was prepared to give them a special rate on existing debt. It did not solve Greece’s [...]
Too interconnected to fail
The above is a beautiful graphic from The New York Times article Europe’s Web of Debt which demonstrates the European debt crisis very succinctly. As you can see European debt is highly interconnected. If one country defaults, many others in the European Union will be affected. The size of the circles and the width of [...]
Contagion has begun
Back in February 2010 when I wrote my first blog post about the Greek debt crisis, Australian financial advisers were assuring everyone that this crisis is self-contained and unlikely to spread through the global financial system. When the Greek crisis started, everyone assumed that Greece would get bailed out and that would be end of [...]
Slow motion train wreck picks up speed
The Greek debt crisis has been compared with a “slow motion train wreck”. Everyone can see that the fiscal spending in Greece is unsustainable and a fatal crash will result if action is not taken soon. You don’t need to be a financial expert to know that if you constantly spend more than you earn, [...]
Bank for International Settlement report does not bode well for world economy
I normally don’t write blog posts on the weekends but I feel I should get this post out sooner rather than later because some of the information may be time critical. Warning: this is long blog post with few pictures. A friend of mine recently asked me why I was still bearish about the stock [...]
Rising bond yields – any cause for concern?
On Monday 5 April 2010, the 10 year US treasury bond yields crossed 4% for the first time since June 2009 (see chart of $TNX below). Bulls believe this is a good sign. Bond yields typically rise and bond prices fall when the economy improves because investors will pull money out of safe, government-backed bonds [...]
Saving is the new spending
“Saving is the new spending” is the tagline for Ubank, which is currently my favourite bank for my SMSF term deposits. I am not sure how true this is in Australia as the mood of the general public appears to be “relax, spend as the good times are coming back again”. Unemployment is down, our [...]
Should Australian investors worry about the European debt crisis?
Apparently not, if you read the local financial news. While the problems with Greece continue to dominate the headlines on international news portals, our headlines are focused on Australian company earnings. Yesterday the stock market celebrated our low unemployment rate and Rio Tinto’s great earnings report. After the Australian market had a 9% correction which [...]
