During Australia’s ongoing cost-of-living crisis – when everything seems to be rising at once, from petrol to groceries to insurance premiums – an easier strategy than taking out a second job is to look closely at where money is quietly…
War, petrol price hikes, rising interest rates. None of this is good for your investment portfolio. And over the past month or so, many asset classes have been in retreat – the Aussie sharemarket, bitcoin, even gold has suffered a…
There is a persistent belief in investing that markets reward discipline: analyse financial statements, identify undervalued companies, and wait patiently for the market to recognise their worth. It is a comforting idea – but, at times, a misleading one. In…
What if your bank account was no longer held at a bank? What if, instead, your money lived in a digital wallet – instantly accessible, globally transferable, and largely independent of the traditional financial system? That future is beginning to…
A long war in the Middle East might not just be an energy story – for the Australian sharemarket, it could become a cost-of-living, inflation, and interest-rate story too. The first-round winners have been obvious enough: oil, gas, and LNG…
Markets tend to move quickly when a shock hits. Prices adjust, headlines follow, and the first round of winners is usually obvious. But every so often an event reshapes prices, and positioning. The escalation of tensions in the Middle East…
For much of the past two years, the artificial intelligence boom has been defined by software – chatbots, LLMs, and the companies building them. Investors have crowded into names tied to AI applications, betting on productivity gains and new revenue…
There is a quiet pattern shaping modern financial life. It is not driven by bold decisions or grand strategies, but by something far more subtle: drift. Most people are not actively choosing their financial future. They are inheriting it. Their…
Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI) is a type of insurance required when a borrower takes out a home loan with a deposit of less than 20%. Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI) is insurance that protects the lender, not the borrower, when a…
For Australian home buyers, most lenders require a 20% deposit to avoid Lenders Mortgage Insurance. However, some buyers can purchase a property with deposits as low as 5%, particularly through government first-home buyer schemes. For example, on a $700,000 home…