By Jack Cao, Platinum Asset Management

Reading the financial press these days, one cannot help but face a barrage of negative headlines on the impending doom facing China as the country undergoes an economic transition from a fixed asset investment-led economy to a consumer-led economy. What these doomsayers fail to mention is that there is a vibrant services sector that is playing an increasingly prominent role in driving the next leg of growth in China.

My portfolio consists largely of US and Chinese technology shares plus some New Zealand companies. The US technology companies include Alphabet, Microsoft, Facebook and Apple

I recently was privileged to hear Patrick Schwerdtfeger speak. He is a business futurist specialising in technology trends and has written a book called Anarchy, inc. Technology is fundamentally changing the way we live, and it is important to embrace this. I would encourage you to read this book. Here are some snippets from it:

By Liam Dann

New Zealand Herald 17 May 2018

Don't write off the bull run just yet.

When Wall Street fell into correction territory in February it looked like the golden run might be over for stock markets around the world.

But after a volatile couple of months, the local share market at least finally roared back into record territory last week.

By David Knox | Mercer | 18 April 2018

While this article is targeted at financial advisers, it is food for thought about your own longevity and the need to consider funds lasting longer than previously thought. While it is based on Australian statistics they will be similar to New Zealand ones:

As the baby boomers approach or enjoy retirement, a fundamental question they all face is: "how long does my money have to last?" Or, to put it somewhat more bluntly, "when am I going to die?"

By Shlomo Benartzi

In The Wall Street Journal June 10, 2018

People often don’t know their true preferences. Trying them out could save you a lot of money.

On my last work trip, I learned a valuable lesson about myself while melting chocolate in a saucepan. What I learned changed my dining habits—as well as the way I think about my finances.

As you know, life changes on a constant basis and therefore you need to review your insurance regularly. I would recommend annually. I will list various types of insurance you might have and what areas you need to review:

by Sally Patten in the Australian Financial Review 13th March 2018

Every investor makes mistakes. The important part of making mistakes is to learn from them. We asked four professionals about their memorable mistakes and how they became better investors as a result.

As you will all know, if you don’t make plans your life will run a haphazard course and could be somewhat disappointing. Planning and goal-setting will provide the means with which to measure your success and milestones. The most productive time to start planning and goal-setting is when you are young, as it can have the greatest impact, however getting involved with this at any age will have a positive impact.

Harbour Asset Management March 2018:

Key developments

Following on from the same themes in January, markets continued to see strong global economic growth in February, but worried about the top risk on our list for 2018 – namely inflation risk and ultimately concerns about whether monetary stimulus will be removed in a way that is not friendly for markets.  We see the heightened volatility in financial markets in recent months as a normalisation of conditions, after a period where volatility and dispersion in markets have been remarkably low for an unusually long period.

“There is one thing that 99 percent of failures and successful people have in common: they all hate doing the same things. The difference is, successful people do them anyway.”
– Darren Hardy

“Higher success requires you to be a better version of yourself.” Prolific motivational speaker Jim Rohn said that, many years ago. “If you want to have more success, you need to become more.”

By BRENDON SKIPPER in M2 Magazine, December 2017

Selling your home is likely to be one of the biggest financial decisions you’ll make.

Once you’ve made the decision to sell, one of the first steps to ensuring you get the best price for your home is engaging a real estate agent that knows your area and the type of house you are selling. Real estate agents are experts in the process of buying and selling property and it’s important not to underestimate the value of their professional expertise. But how do you find the right agent for your situation?

Magellan Asset Management Limited OCT 2017

Sometimes the winners and losers from disruption aren’t obvious

If you look at a photograph of the Easter Parade in New York in 1900, it is full of horses and carriages. Yet by 1913, photographs show the parade was full of cars. Think about how petrol stations needed to be rolled out to enable such change over barely more than a decade. Transportation was fundamentally transformed over those 13 years largely because in 1908 Henry Ford rolled out the first Model-T Ford off the production line, which enabled cars to be mass-produced at affordable prices.

It has been a gruesome couple of months for investors in Australian stocks.

At the start of August, the chatter was whether the benchmark S&P/ASX200 would hit 6000 points. It is now mid-October and the hard reality is an index that is hovering closer to 5000 – although this week long suffering investors were treated to some hefty gains.

Often we talk of investing as a science, a predictable and measurable outcome driven by inputs and outputs. When it comes to investing, the equation is simple, or so the theory goes. The company must be fundamentally strong and growing or paying a good dividend. 

The three risks in life are living too long (i.e. running out of money), dying too soon or becoming disabled. I wish to focus on becoming disabled. One can either self-insure for this which for most people are not in a position to do or offset it by taking out disability insurance.

It has been said that people spend more time planning their next holiday than planning for their retirement. My advice is, don’t be one of those people. After all, when you consider that you have worked hard all your life, you want to be able to enjoy the fruits of your labour.

1

Jack Ma,

Founder Alibaba

“Never give up. Today is hard, tomorrow will be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine.”

2

Warren Buffett, CEO Berkshire Hathaway

“You only have to do a very few things right in your life, so long as you don’t do too many things wrong”.

3

Mark Zuckerberg, Co-Founder Facebook

“The biggest risk is not taking any risks. In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.”

4

Jeff Bezos, Founder Amazon

“We’ve had three big ideas at Amazon that we’ve stuck with for 18 years, and they’re the reason we are successful: put the customer first, invest, and be patient”.

5

Larry Ellison, Founder Oracle

“I have had all the disadvantages required for success.”

6

Michael Bloomberg, CEO Bloomberg

“You must first be willing to fail – and you must have the courage to go for it anyway”.

Ageing populations could be a boon rather than a curse. But for that to happen, a lot needs to change first, argues Sacha Nauta in The Economist

“NO AGE JOKES tonight, all right?” quipped Sir Mick Jagger, the 73-year-old front man of the Rolling Stones, as he welcomed the crowds to Desert Trip Music Festival in California last October.

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Over the last few weeks I have read several articles suggesting investment returns will be lower in the future. One article says there is a Wall St consensus that people should not make their plans expecting the high returns of the past to continue.