Investment Articles & Insights

For years, the rule of thumb in retirement planning was simple. Put as much as you can into a super fund.

Ready to be shocked? The bottom half of American households, some 65 million families, now own just 2.5% of total U.S. wealth. And at the other end of the spectrum, the top 1% controls wealth that outstrips the bottom 50% by more than $US40 trillion.

If you follow the news, the world is probably feeling mighty unsafe right now, with geopolitical risks dominating the headlines. Of course, the media thrives on amplifying fear, so for investors the real question isn’t whether the news headlines are dramatic. That’s always the case. It’s whether the real geopolitical risks are material, and how they might affect investors’ portfolios looking forward.

The Australian private credit market has grown rapidly in recent years. Once considered a niche investment strategy, it has become mainstream, attracting capital from a range of sources seeking yield in a low-rate world.

A unique characteristic of high-quality, defensive listed infrastructure companies is their sustained investment profile through the economic cycle. With this in mind, we look to secular trends for opportunities to enhance real growth. One such trend is investment in renewable energy, which is sustaining robust growth despite political headwinds and appears positioned for strong ongoing gains.

When we picture retirement, most of us already have a rough idea of what’s in our toolkit. How much super do I have? What’s my home or investment property worth? What’s the value of my shares and savings? Will I qualify for the Age Pension? And so on.

It’s well known that most Australian portfolios are overweight equities to the detriment of their debt exposure. It’s easy to understand why. Local and global equities have performed strongly over the long term, and particularly since the pandemic selloff. It’s also easier for most investors to understand equities than debt.

Have you ever invested in a fund with the expectation that you’ll be able to sell your stake at a fair price, only to discover liquidity was non-existent when you eventually tried to sell? Welcome to the liquidity illusion, the time-worn tendency for investors to run for the exits at exactly the same moment only to discover the exit is closed.