Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Australians Money Puzzle podcast. I'm
Speaker 1: James Kirby. Welcome aboard everybody, and welcome aboard to a
Speaker 1: special edition of this podcast because it's a pretty special
Speaker 1: day here at The Australian. We are launching a Wealth
Speaker 1: Vertical now. A Wealth Vertical is a digital unit within
Speaker 1: The Australian and it's going to be all about wealth
Speaker 1: in all its dimensions. And many of the people that
Speaker 1: you know and are familiar with from the podcasting myself
Speaker 1: and James Gerard, of course Stuart Williams. You here on
Speaker 1: Tuesday's Property podcast. You're going to see and read a
Speaker 1: lot more from them in The Australian, and you're going
Speaker 1: to hear a lot more from them in the podcast
Speaker 1: because we are widening the offering basically substantially, so seizing
Speaker 1: the opportunity to I've asked the Wealth editor of The Australian,
Speaker 1: Julianne Spragged, to come on the show. She's going to
Speaker 1: tell us about what's happening. And then when she's done that,
Speaker 1: we're going to do something we haven't tried before. We're
Speaker 1: actually going to talk about our own investing because both
Speaker 1: of us have been in financial journalism most of our
Speaker 1: lives and we have I hope, learned some very interesting
Speaker 1: things that we do want to tell you about.
Speaker 2: Hi Julianne, Hi James, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 3: Greater Have You on Marshafield has going to be Confession's
Speaker 3: going to be a confession session.
Speaker 1: Well partially confession and hopefully occasionally a part of celebration.
Speaker 1: Tell us first, what's happening with Wealth on the Australian
Speaker 1: and how our offering in all its multi media wonderfulness
Speaker 1: is going to change.
Speaker 2: It is exciting.
Speaker 3: We had some research that came through said lots of
Speaker 3: people want to be financially independent. People want to be
Speaker 3: able to have this job because they want to have
Speaker 3: a job for it to be a joy and not
Speaker 3: a chore. And the concern though, is that a lot
Speaker 3: of people aren't as financially literally as they want to be.
Speaker 3: They don't know where to go to get a lot
Speaker 3: of this information. They might see their mates or their
Speaker 3: friends and they're getting ahead, or they've got investment portfolios
Speaker 3: and things. I don't know the how, the why, the what,
Speaker 3: and so what we want to do is create this
Speaker 3: one stop hub, a place where you can get trusted information.
Speaker 3: So that's no matter what stage of the financial journey
Speaker 3: you are on. So there'll be information about investing, property, investing, superannuation,
Speaker 3: retirement planning, all those bits about that are very important
Speaker 3: for your life. But I don't know about you, James,
Speaker 3: but you just get caught up, don't you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you do. And we've always had a lot of
Speaker 1: material and there's always like there's always been a good
Speaker 1: materia coming in different ways in different parts is such
Speaker 1: a big operation. And then we have podcasts, and then
Speaker 1: we have like Baron's Top Advisors, we have videos and
Speaker 1: we haven't put them all in the one place before,
Speaker 1: so I think that's part of it. So I do
Speaker 1: I recommend all the listeners have a look at this.
Speaker 1: It's launching today and I don't think there's ever been
Speaker 1: anything quite like it in media.
Speaker 3: Can I just say true for your listeners who love
Speaker 3: to listen to you. Twice Withightly on the Money Puzzle,
Speaker 3: we have put together a video series so that one
Speaker 3: to see James Kirby in real life.
Speaker 1: We did it on before we started the show. We
Speaker 1: were just laughing. The day we did it was the
Speaker 1: worst day I can ever remember. Weather wise, I should say,
Speaker 1: but we all flew in to do this video, folks,
Speaker 1: and it was just so bad. It was unreal, and
Speaker 1: we were all late, and all the flights, the two
Speaker 1: flights before me were canceled on the two after. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was a miracle that I got actually to that
Speaker 1: session at all. But the videos will be on this site,
Speaker 1: and we've done a whole series of masterclass videos which
Speaker 1: capture some of the sort of core areas of in
Speaker 1: and I recommend them to you. They will be distributed,
Speaker 1: or at least they'll be published. To see the sequential
Speaker 1: fashion in the days of head So look out for
Speaker 1: that now, Juliane, since I've got you in the hot seat,
Speaker 1: let's do this. I've been awfully careful on this show over.
Speaker 1: I mean, we launched a show in twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: and I only kind of respond when we have listener questions.
Speaker 1: I respond, So if someone says, do you have shares
Speaker 1: in something? I'll answer. But I've never really expounded upon
Speaker 1: my portfolio on air before. I'm happy to do it
Speaker 1: on this show. We split it into shares here in
Speaker 1: the first segment, and then we might talk about property,
Speaker 1: and then we might talk about super which shares. It's
Speaker 1: interesting Eric Johnson and I were just talking in the
Speaker 1: office today. Eric's course associated her business. He was talking
Speaker 1: about it's the Compseck was launched thirty years ago this
Speaker 1: week and he'd been talking to the guy who launched
Speaker 1: at Michael Katz and it was extraordinary about Compsack and
Speaker 1: nap Trade and the other online brokers. When they came in,
Speaker 1: they changed everything. Because I don't know when you bought
Speaker 1: your first shares, but the day I bought shares the
Speaker 1: first time, I bought two shares five hundred dollars to
Speaker 1: each one Pacific Dunlop and National Australia Bank, and I
Speaker 1: had to go in. I was twenty five. I had
Speaker 1: to go in and sit in the reception of Potter
Speaker 1: Warburg in Collin Street, and some unfortunate stockbroker came out
Speaker 1: and talked to me about what I was doing. And
Speaker 1: the diversification of my portfolio was that I bought two
Speaker 1: shares rather than one, and one was terrific National Australia Bank.
Speaker 1: It doubled in price and the other one went almost
Speaker 1: to nothing. So it was a very good early adventure
Speaker 1: in shared trading. Can you remember your first shares.
Speaker 3: I can remember the first discussion about shares. It was
Speaker 3: my dad and I think I was eighteen or nineteen
Speaker 3: at the time, so of an age where shares had
Speaker 3: little value to me. You know, it was it was
Speaker 3: you know, it was a time where you're studying university
Speaker 3: and out at the pub and it was I'm trying
Speaker 3: to remember which iteration it was, but it was Telstra. Oh, yes,
Speaker 3: Now I don't know if yeah, I don't know if
Speaker 3: it's T two or T three.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one of the floats.
Speaker 2: It was one of the floats.
Speaker 3: And Dad was saying to me, you've got to get in,
Speaker 3: You've got to get these shares. And I said, well,
Speaker 3: how much do I have to spend? And he said
Speaker 3: two thousand dollars and I just I can still remember
Speaker 3: just saying.
Speaker 2: To him, you are crazy.
Speaker 3: That is a lot of money and I'm not going
Speaker 3: to be doing that. I look back and think, well,
Speaker 3: just as well, that was Telstra. Imagine if he was
Speaker 3: recommending CBA or something to me. I wish that I
Speaker 3: had spent the two thousand dollars on CBA back then.
Speaker 3: So I didn't buy shares. I came to it later.
Speaker 3: I remember one of the first shares.
Speaker 2: We ever bought. My husband and I it was.
Speaker 3: And we'll get to property soon, but we were Actually
Speaker 3: it was sort of boom times in Perth. It was
Speaker 3: to two thousand and six, two thousand and seven around.
Speaker 1: Them, the mining boom.
Speaker 3: Mining boom was in peak property prices. It felt like
Speaker 3: they were doubling every few weeks. They weren't, but that's
Speaker 3: what it felt like when you were here. We were
Speaker 3: trying to get our first place, and so we were
Speaker 3: at a housing estate. It was roughly about thirty kilometers
Speaker 3: north of Perth, and you had to camp out to
Speaker 3: get the land. Wow, it was seven nights in the back.
Speaker 2: Of a ute.
Speaker 1: Wow like plots, I know, Yeah, that's like a story
Speaker 1: from the gold Rush.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent. It was one hundred percent. And I
Speaker 2: just remember seeing that.
Speaker 3: The property developer of the estate that we were buying
Speaker 3: in was Pete and I was seeing this and I
Speaker 3: could just I was like, day, I'm making so much
Speaker 3: money and I can't believe I have to be sleeping
Speaker 3: in the back of a You ticket land, we should
Speaker 3: buy shares, and so we did buy shares in the developer.
Speaker 3: I look back on that now and think that's probably not.
Speaker 2: The smartest thing to do. I was probably doubling down.
Speaker 3: On the investment.
Speaker 2: We bought the land and he bought the developer.
Speaker 1: I probably should have for people to do that, though.
Speaker 1: They gravitate towards what they understand. If the factory at
Speaker 1: the corner over your street seems to be going great,
Speaker 1: and you realize it's on the stock exchange, then if
Speaker 1: I don't you, it's like bottom up investing. I actually
Speaker 1: had a marvelous example of bottom up investing. I was
Speaker 1: involved in a startup which was called well Mid Clothes,
Speaker 1: and it was an online clothing retailer. They had been
Speaker 1: going for a while and they got in a widget
Speaker 1: basically a piece of software called after pay, and they
Speaker 1: put it on, they installed it or whatever one evening,
Speaker 1: and the next morning they got all these orders that
Speaker 1: they'd never got before. And I remember thinking, that's very interesting.
Speaker 1: There's like hard evidence from the ground bottom up, if
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I knew the top down,
Speaker 1: and I knew the story from top down, and we
Speaker 1: all know that the view of the market or whatever,
Speaker 1: you know, the big picture. But when I heard that,
Speaker 1: I remember thinking, this is no joke. This after fably
Speaker 1: is something and that was an example. I remember getting
Speaker 1: into after Pay and it went really well and it
Speaker 1: was a really good investment. And that was something that
Speaker 1: came through almost like you know the street. But that
Speaker 1: doesn't happen very often, can I.
Speaker 2: Ask you though? And sorry, we're going to go down.
Speaker 2: We'll go down different rabbit holes.
Speaker 3: But say so, if you got on too after pay early, goodbye,
Speaker 3: good tip by you. What happened then in the pandemic
Speaker 3: after pay dropped, there was a it just dropped like
Speaker 3: a star. I can't remember exactly what it went down to,
Speaker 3: about eight dollars or something like that, that's right. And
Speaker 3: I remember being pretty smug because I didn't buy after pay,
Speaker 3: and I remember thinking, hah, I knew this was all
Speaker 3: sort of smokes and mirrors and this is all going
Speaker 3: to be cactus and toast. And then it just rebounded
Speaker 3: nothing else because ye locked down and everyone started shopping.
Speaker 3: That's right, you know, ended up at one hundred bucks
Speaker 3: or something.
Speaker 1: To it was magnificent, stark. That is a magnificent trade. Really,
Speaker 1: I mean it was always wild and I didn't stay
Speaker 1: till the end, you know, so you always leave something
Speaker 1: out of the table. But was probably what are the
Speaker 1: best stocks they ever bought from me? I probably got out.
Speaker 1: I did get out too soon, but it was a
Speaker 1: terrific stock. I did well, you did well.
Speaker 3: I did well, So to your point, and maybe that's
Speaker 3: the lessons here for people if they want to start
Speaker 3: investing in stocks, is maybe it is smart to invest
Speaker 3: in what you know or have a sense of what
Speaker 3: the market is. So the one I did well on
Speaker 3: was coals. So this was before West Farmers bought Coals,
Speaker 3: and I remember going there Coals. I still have my
Speaker 3: coal's name badge from my university job on the delicatessen.
Speaker 3: No one will slice purtidos thinner than I can slice it.
Speaker 1: Fel oh, very fantastic.
Speaker 3: But it was went gym up so before West Farmers
Speaker 3: had bought Coals. Obviously it's on its own ownership now,
Speaker 3: but it was in the Doldrums. It wasn't a great supermarket,
Speaker 3: and I can just remember thinking this is a duopoli,
Speaker 3: that this there's not enough supermarkets in this country and
Speaker 3: it's not going to be down in the Doldrums forever.
Speaker 3: So I remember getting in early and the West Farmers
Speaker 3: came in and then spruced her.
Speaker 1: Up best farmers come in and paid an enormous amount
Speaker 1: for it, right smack at that two hours before GFC.
Speaker 1: So I think one of the things that's useful folks
Speaker 1: about share investing is ideally if you can if you
Speaker 1: do understand the stock, it helps enormously at least your
Speaker 1: connection to it is better. Anyone can start and play.
Speaker 1: Basically you can buy a stock or two stocks this.
Speaker 1: You can always buy exchange traded funds as well, which
Speaker 1: is what I generally meant. If someone says to me
Speaker 1: what stocks should I buy and they don't know anything,
Speaker 1: they've never done anything, I always say, buy an exchange
Speaker 1: traded fund by the AX.
Speaker 3: I'll ask you about that now, though, because I'm in
Speaker 3: this basket where I think I need to do better
Speaker 3: with my stocks.
Speaker 2: You know, I've just sort of almost.
Speaker 3: Played with them rather than proper investing anythink and ATF
Speaker 3: the way to go. Atfs have exploded so much that
Speaker 3: I now find them incredibly confusing. There's almost too many ETFs.
Speaker 3: Which one are you're back?
Speaker 1: Yeah, they've drifted from the original proposal. Absolutely. The original
Speaker 1: proposal was really good, you know, it was by the market.
Speaker 1: Just buy the ASX two hundred or buy the S
Speaker 1: and P five hundred plus vanilla, and whatever happened to
Speaker 1: that market happened to your ETF. So if you both
Speaker 1: the ASX two hundred ETF a year ago, you'd have
Speaker 1: made fourteen percent, because the ASX two hundred med fourteen
Speaker 1: percent in the twelve months to June thirty, being you know,
Speaker 1: ten percent plus four percent for your dividends. I think
Speaker 1: that's still the dominant model. The problem is with these guys,
Speaker 1: you know, Julianne, they can't sit down and leave good alone.
Speaker 1: They got to keep coming up with things, right they
Speaker 1: you know, there's seven hundred people in Vanguard. What did
Speaker 1: they all do? Well? Guess what? They get new ideas
Speaker 1: and they go into the boss and they say, hey, boss,
Speaker 1: guess what, I've got something in mind that would be
Speaker 1: really good. And so that ETF thing is drifting. So
Speaker 1: I think when we talk about ETFs on the show,
Speaker 1: certainly I always make the points plain vanilla ETFs, and
Speaker 1: I would say to most people most of the time,
Speaker 1: if you're starting with shares, ETFs are great. And if
Speaker 1: they had been around when I was starting buying shares,
Speaker 1: it would have been so much better than buying two shares,
Speaker 1: one of which turned out to be great and one
Speaker 1: of which turned out to be useless, and you don't
Speaker 1: that's the sort of risks you don't want to take.
Speaker 3: If you could go back in time, just pretend that
Speaker 3: ETFs where they, you would have bought an index ATF
Speaker 3: I would.
Speaker 1: I would suggest to anyone starting get some ETFs, hold
Speaker 1: them for a year, start to understand how it all works,
Speaker 1: Watch how you get your dividends come through, and how
Speaker 1: it works with tax and everything else, and get a
Speaker 1: handle on it. And you've you know, you're taking very
Speaker 1: little risk because you're just taking you're just buying the market.
Speaker 1: And then after a while, when you're a bit more
Speaker 1: sure of it, it doesn't have to take forever. It could
Speaker 1: take six months, it could take a year. Then you
Speaker 1: can start to strike out and you can say, okay,
Speaker 1: this time, I'm going to buy direct shares because personally,
Speaker 1: I think ten shares is about as much as anyone
Speaker 1: should have. That's as much as you can hold in
Speaker 1: your head. Really, I should be if you've got I
Speaker 1: always say, if you've got chairs, I should be able
Speaker 1: to ask you what are they and how much are
Speaker 1: they today? And unless you're you know, got a photographic
Speaker 1: memory or something. I reckon about ten shares is about
Speaker 1: as much as the one should have, and it is enough.
Speaker 1: It can really you can diversify. You can buy banks
Speaker 1: and miners and tech companies and everything else. That's something
Speaker 1: I would say. The other part I would say is
Speaker 1: that at a certain point you've got to get serious
Speaker 1: about shares if you're a long term investor, especially if
Speaker 1: you're thinking of building your own portfolio or your self
Speaker 1: managed super fund, and at that point then you don't
Speaker 1: have to have a connection with them. It's all about
Speaker 1: the numbers, you know, It's all about is this share
Speaker 1: good value? At the moment it's the old Roger Montgomery
Speaker 1: thing about value and Roger of courses. Another person's off
Speaker 1: and on the show rights for the Australian will be
Speaker 1: involved in our new vertical. He's whole thing that you know,
Speaker 1: you're buying a piece of a company, you're buying a
Speaker 1: little TV bit of the company. So what really matters
Speaker 1: is their company and how is the company going.
Speaker 3: My problem, I reckon is because we're in newsrooms and
Speaker 3: we cover a lot of stories. We cover a lot
Speaker 3: of stories about stocks that go absolutely bananas. They deliver
Speaker 3: incredible returns. But for every one of those stories, we're
Speaker 3: all doing stories or when things go wrong, yes, and
Speaker 3: we should when he's a collapsing and share prices are tanking,
Speaker 3: and so it does leave you sort of kind of
Speaker 3: clinging to the sidelines because you don't know which way
Speaker 3: to go.
Speaker 2: You know too much, You almost know too much.
Speaker 3: I have threatened to do it, and maybe for this
Speaker 3: new vertical I should. I was going to create a
Speaker 3: list of when I had met a billionaire or rich.
Speaker 2: This does.
Speaker 3: My former job was editing rich lists for the Financial Review,
Speaker 3: and I look at some of the share price growth
Speaker 3: and I think, if I had bought shares when I
Speaker 3: met that rich list, yes, would I be in fact
Speaker 3: talking to you on this podcast today at the book, James,
Speaker 3: I'm not sure. I was with Andrew Forrest in the
Speaker 3: Pilborough in two thousand and six having a look at
Speaker 3: what would become four to Skew Metal screwp. He's looking
Speaker 3: at the dusty Pilborough.
Speaker 1: And oh, what a great story, Yeah, and.
Speaker 3: Asking me whether it is the most beautiful thing I've
Speaker 3: ever seen. And I'm looking at a concrete pylon in
Speaker 3: the middle of nowhere, and I'm thinking I've seen prettier things,
Speaker 3: you know, but I could see why he.
Speaker 1: The share is republic a dollar or something at the time,
Speaker 1: I think that could have been less.
Speaker 2: Yeah, pretty sure. I emailed someone just.
Speaker 3: The other week actually, just to get a comment for
Speaker 3: a story, and I said, oh, I just want to
Speaker 3: look back the last time, you know, we'd spoke properly,
Speaker 3: and it was a couple of years ago. And if
Speaker 3: I had bought shares in that particular company, Promedicus, I
Speaker 3: think I worked out if I bought a thousand shares,
Speaker 3: I would have my three hundred thousand dollars. You know
Speaker 3: what I could have should at James.
Speaker 1: Well, as you say, the thing is, it's all about risk.
Speaker 1: So if you buy the ETFs, this is the minimum
Speaker 1: risk approach to shares, and then after that it's a
Speaker 1: question of the more risk you take, then the more
Speaker 1: likely you will have volatility. And volatility, as you know, folks,
Speaker 1: basically means it's going to go way up or way down.
Speaker 1: So for every pro Medicus, there's ninety nine little medical
Speaker 1: device companies that go nowhere. And maybe we'll leave it
Speaker 1: just there, because that's the point we really want to
Speaker 1: make about shares. We'll have a break and we will
Speaker 1: come back and we will talk about what everybody loves
Speaker 1: to talk about. Property. Back in a moment. Hello, Welcome
Speaker 1: back to the Australians Money Puzzle podcast. James Kirby here
Speaker 1: with Julianne Spragg. Julian is the Wealth editor of The Australian,
Speaker 1: and we are talking on the occasion of the launch
Speaker 1: of a new Wealth vertical on The Australian, which is
Speaker 1: going to be really terrific and I'm delighted to see
Speaker 1: it because it's basically putting a lot of effort and
Speaker 1: investment and people into the area that we've been working
Speaker 1: on here for some time on the Money Puzzle, and
Speaker 1: the Money Puzzle too actually, as I say, is effectively
Speaker 1: being relaunched inside this Wealth vertical. This week you'll see
Speaker 1: a lot more episodes, some new voices involved here, and
Speaker 1: we'll do some shows a wider nature than we've been
Speaker 1: doing to this point. Now. As you know, Tuesday's Property
Speaker 1: Show is becoming very popular and I've dealt with property
Speaker 1: for a long time and one of the things I
Speaker 1: want to talk to Juliane about is again something of
Speaker 1: a confessional in the way that we talked about shares there,
Speaker 1: and by the way in the first part we were
Speaker 1: all very smart talking about how the shares we had
Speaker 1: that were great and that there were big winners. I
Speaker 1: do want to mention that I've had some absolute duds.
Speaker 1: I had Great Southern Plantations, which was one of the
Speaker 1: worst shares in the history of the world. And even
Speaker 1: at the moment in my little ten portfolio, I have
Speaker 1: I think a dud, and I just won't sell it
Speaker 1: because it keeps teasing me that it's going to get better,
Speaker 1: which is Ramsey Healthcare hearing me loud and clear, Ramsey Healthcare.
Speaker 1: Now on the property, you can't make mistakes on property
Speaker 1: like you can make mistakes on shares, can you, Julianne,
Speaker 1: It's a different story. It's a big commitment. That's the
Speaker 1: first thing, isn't it to explain to people. It's a
Speaker 1: big commitment. It's illiquid, it takes a lot of effort,
Speaker 1: it takes a lot of commitments. I mean, you needed
Speaker 1: an almost like you almost need like a settled lifestyle
Speaker 1: and a really clear model to do property. You can't
Speaker 1: play with it like you can play with shares.
Speaker 3: I think also it's the sums of what's involved. At
Speaker 3: the beginning our shares, you might be able to sort
Speaker 3: of do five ten thousand or build up to a
Speaker 3: fifty thousand or one hundred thousand portfolio. As I mentioned earlier,
Speaker 3: when we brought out the shares and the property developer,
Speaker 3: we were camping out for this block of land at
Speaker 3: the time. And I know people who are looking into
Speaker 3: property now will be thinking, oh, heavens, I wish I
Speaker 3: could get a block of land for that. But I
Speaker 3: think the block of land was around two hundreds, two
Speaker 3: hundred and twenty thousand, something like that, and that, just
Speaker 3: for me in my twenties was an extraordinary sum of money.
Speaker 3: The loon hadn't built the house on it yet you
Speaker 3: got to build the house, and it's what I just
Speaker 3: remember thinking, this is so much debt and how are
Speaker 3: we going to manage every little penny.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're taking on a burden. You are taking on
Speaker 1: a burden when you buy a house. It's really hard.
Speaker 1: I mean, in my family, we're at that point where
Speaker 1: my adult kids are starting to look at the property market.
Speaker 1: And you know, the thing is the course, the prices.
Speaker 1: When I say the prices, I'm not saying that in
Speaker 1: a vague, sort of simplistic way. What I mean is
Speaker 1: the price of property as a multiple of the income
Speaker 1: that they are making, or anyone is making, has changed
Speaker 1: so immensely that it really has changed the game. I
Speaker 1: met out that the first house a boat in Melbourne
Speaker 1: as a home was an inner city cottage basically, and
Speaker 1: it was three and a half times my income income.
Speaker 1: My income at the time was fifty grand and I
Speaker 1: could buy a house in inner city in Melbourne for
Speaker 1: three and a half times my income the same house
Speaker 1: to buy that house stay, which is there, if someone
Speaker 1: wanted to buy it at three and a half times
Speaker 1: their income, they'd have to make three hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 1: a year. And the thing is, how many people make
Speaker 1: three hundred thousand dollars a year? Not many. And so
Speaker 1: the point I'm making is it's become so expensive, and
Speaker 1: I mean that in a very thorough way. I mean
Speaker 1: that as a multiple of income, as a measure internationally,
Speaker 1: as a measure historically. And you've did something recently, bar
Speaker 1: was it UBS where they were making the point that
Speaker 1: our wealth is so tied up now in property.
Speaker 3: Yes, so UBS sort of tracked global wealth and in
Speaker 3: one of their most recent reports. It does highlight Australians
Speaker 3: really are some of the wealthiest people on the planet.
Speaker 3: And I find this really interesting when you read it,
Speaker 3: because I think if you talk to most people and said,
Speaker 3: you know, you're really rich in global terms.
Speaker 2: People you don't feel rich.
Speaker 3: It is because it's all tied up in these assets
Speaker 3: and you've got debt attached to it and all those
Speaker 3: sorts of things. But what ubs that They made the
Speaker 3: point that there's a disproportionate amount of wealth tied up
Speaker 3: in property for Australians without property prices are some of
Speaker 3: the highest in the world, and so our wealth is
Speaker 3: tied in to that. And then we have this conundrum.
Speaker 3: So as you mentioned, so you were able to get
Speaker 3: into property three four times your earnings, your kids now
Speaker 3: have to have ten eleven times earnings.
Speaker 1: That's right, And how.
Speaker 3: Do we fix that? How do you fix that problem?
Speaker 3: And so I'm approaching this so my daughter's much younger,
Speaker 3: orders six, and if property prices keep going how they
Speaker 3: have been going, I love her daily, But does that
Speaker 3: mean she's with me for life, for the end or
Speaker 3: what am I doing?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 1: Their deposit will be larger than the value of the
Speaker 1: homes we bought. I mean, that's happening already. It is.
Speaker 1: It's really tough. And I mean, and my guys do
Speaker 1: turn around to me and they say yeah, yeah, and
Speaker 1: they're saying like, I don't know if I want to
Speaker 1: do this, And of course I am saying you must,
Speaker 1: because it's not going to get cheaper. I'm sorry, but
Speaker 1: it's not going to get cheaper. Well.
Speaker 2: I spoke to a property developer.
Speaker 3: This was before I actually had my daughter, and he
Speaker 3: said to me, he said, oh, are you planning to
Speaker 3: have kids? And my face must have had This was
Speaker 3: such a random thing to ask me for you know,
Speaker 3: we're doing this news interview. And said, I don't need
Speaker 3: to pry. I'm just the reason I'm asking is that
Speaker 3: you need to have a plan. So for every child
Speaker 3: you have, you should have an investment property for that child,
Speaker 3: because then you'll need to sell that investment property to
Speaker 3: provide the deposit for your children to get into the
Speaker 3: property market.
Speaker 2: This was his thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean, it's a terrible, brutally rational way
Speaker 1: to approach it, but it's true.
Speaker 3: So I just had one child and I haven't bought
Speaker 3: the investment property, but we are looking into it because
Speaker 3: it's sort of thinking about where to go.
Speaker 1: With that, and in a way, we're chasing our tails,
Speaker 1: so we all run off and we stretch ourselves to
Speaker 1: buy investment property so that we can catch up with
Speaker 1: the property prices. We are pushing the prices higher by
Speaker 1: investing in property, but we're doing it because we're worried
Speaker 1: that prices will be so high for our own kids
Speaker 1: when they go to buy home. It's hard work, but
Speaker 1: I'm a pragmatist at heart, and I think that's it, right,
Speaker 1: that's the game. So the game is there, and what
Speaker 1: we're hoping to do on the show always is help
Speaker 1: and inform people what is going on out there, insights
Speaker 1: into what you can really how you can play it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, with everything that we've just spoken about, so these
Speaker 3: are conversations that happen around dining room tables across the country,
Speaker 3: and it's not lost on the politicians. And I do
Speaker 3: wonder if you've got labor in control. They obviously a
Speaker 3: few years back, tried to float, you know, run up
Speaker 3: the flagpole different ideas on changing capital gains tax and
Speaker 3: yet a whole bunch of other things, and it didn't
Speaker 3: go down. Very well. I do wonder if we're in
Speaker 3: an environment. You know they're going after now super and
Speaker 3: we'll get to a super discussion soon. But whether you
Speaker 3: think that some of these tax leaders and trying to
Speaker 3: work on a policy sense to get properly markets tamed
Speaker 3: will be on the agenda.
Speaker 1: I mean, they've been re elected with an enhanced majority.
Speaker 1: If they are ever going to tackle this issue, this
Speaker 1: is the time to tackle it. I think there's an
Speaker 1: appetite for it, and I think even people who are
Speaker 1: totally pro investment know that the system is terribly upside
Speaker 1: down and it favors older Australians against younger Australians. The
Speaker 1: super system does, but so does the property system, and
Speaker 1: it favors homeowners over renters beyond a doubt. You can
Speaker 1: have a ten million dollar house on Sydney Harbor. You
Speaker 1: can have a twenty million dollar house on Sydney Harbor
Speaker 1: and you can get the pension that is. So that's
Speaker 1: something that could be reassessed and we know Tanya Plipper
Speaker 1: six Social Services Department is looking at that. We know
Speaker 1: that they're looking at the Labor Party is looking at
Speaker 1: capital gains tax. Again, that's property if you hold a
Speaker 1: property for more than a year, you only have to
Speaker 1: pay twenty five percent CGT. That discount is I think
Speaker 1: that I think these are I think these are sitting
Speaker 1: ducks actually, Juliana. I think that this is where they're
Speaker 1: gonna this is where they're going to peel wealth taxes from.
Speaker 1: And it's all again it's around property. And of course
Speaker 1: it's around property because going back to what you said
Speaker 1: at the start, that's the cornerstone of our wealth. But
Speaker 1: you know, we are getting to a point where it's
Speaker 1: I would say it's backfiring. But if you are an
Speaker 1: investor now and you buy an apartment in Sydney for
Speaker 1: a million dollars and you're getting two percent rental yield
Speaker 1: and you're that's hopeless. It's hopeless. I mean as an investment,
Speaker 1: everyone loses, the rental losers they're paying so much. The
Speaker 1: investor loses, they're paying so much for the property. The
Speaker 1: yield is going to be really low, and then the
Speaker 1: game becomes almost exclusively a game of hoping you get
Speaker 1: the capital gains tax at the end. So I think
Speaker 1: something has to crack here.
Speaker 3: I agree, Yeah, I think it's just going to be what, Yeah,
Speaker 3: what is it?
Speaker 1: Going to be well, we will be covering that very closely. Indeed,
Speaker 1: don't you worry, we will not miss a beat on
Speaker 1: that one on property and property taxes. But you know,
Speaker 1: I've had lots of people on the show. We talk
Speaker 1: about tax and we talk about the restraints if you like,
Speaker 1: that are in place for investors, and you will always
Speaker 1: have restraints. And when you have a labor government in
Speaker 1: particularly for a second term, they have a very clear
Speaker 1: agenda and often that agenda is not pro investor. Occasionally
Speaker 1: it can be. Under certain under the Keating regime, he
Speaker 1: managed to do both. I don't think it's pro investor
Speaker 1: at the moment in any way under say Jim Chalmers.
Speaker 1: But when you have people on the show that I've
Speaker 1: talked to, the one thing that I find with the
Speaker 1: is they kind of whatever the obstacles are, they're determined
Speaker 1: to overcome them. They will say I'm going to do
Speaker 1: it anyway.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So with what we know, and there's probably changes of that,
Speaker 3: there's going to be political pressure to do something. And
Speaker 3: you mentioned so you've got your there's adult kids.
Speaker 2: In your house and one of them is looking at property.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, indeed, what's your.
Speaker 2: Advice and how are you trying to guide them?
Speaker 1: My advice always is that that there's two entirely different
Speaker 1: issues in property. One is buying a home and one's
Speaker 1: buying an investment in property. If you're buying a home,
Speaker 1: a lot of things that we talk about on the
Speaker 1: show are have to be seen through that filter, because
Speaker 1: there's this enormous thing if you buy a home. Number one,
Speaker 1: you're not paying rent anymore. If you buy a home,
Speaker 1: you immediately enter the privileged arena of the property owner.
Speaker 1: In Australia, where there is an where there's exemption from
Speaker 1: capital gains tax, where even when you get when you're older,
Speaker 1: there's an exemption from the pension. The whole system is
Speaker 1: loaded in favor of the homeowner. And that's why I
Speaker 1: support things that some people think are controversial, like, for instance,
Speaker 1: tapping super to buy a home. But the way I
Speaker 1: look at it is the system is so tilted in
Speaker 1: favor of the homeowner. It would be much more important
Speaker 1: to own a home than to have an extra twenty
Speaker 1: or fifty grand or whatever in super. If it's coming
Speaker 1: down to that, then really the home is so important.
Speaker 1: So I kind of separate that very and you can
Speaker 1: buy an apartment. The point I'm making there is that
Speaker 1: we know houses are much much better investments and apartments
Speaker 1: in the main, But when you're buying a property as
Speaker 1: a home, the first thing, and the major thing is
Speaker 1: to just buy it. Do it, do it, don't be
Speaker 1: I was thirty three when we bought our first home.
Speaker 1: Because I'd lived all around.
Speaker 3: The world, I would say that I agree with you,
Speaker 3: But because when I look back, I think, gosh that
Speaker 3: one of the top tips for people would be to
Speaker 3: talk to me about when I'm buying property and then
Speaker 3: run the other way.
Speaker 1: I have this.
Speaker 3: Uncanny ability to buy at the top.
Speaker 1: That's perth for you.
Speaker 2: No, it's very sickly, it's perfectly.
Speaker 1: It is notoriously so.
Speaker 3: But if I look back, it doesn't really matter, because
Speaker 3: it does. I would have made a lot more money
Speaker 3: if I had not bought at the top. But it
Speaker 3: goes down and then it comes back up again, and
Speaker 3: it goes up, and then it goes down and it
Speaker 3: goes up. So if I had never have gotten on
Speaker 3: the property ladder, it would be eyewatering to think about
Speaker 3: trying to do it. Now.
Speaker 1: That's right, I know, it's really that is the thing
Speaker 1: I'm saying to people on the show all the time,
Speaker 1: just start and as you say, if it's a home,
Speaker 1: it's so different. Okay, you know you've got a mortgage. Okay,
Speaker 1: last year was really good. For what's happening this year.
Speaker 1: All prices are down. You don't care about that. It's
Speaker 1: your home. You're living there and years past and you know,
Speaker 1: guess what, every five years it's higher than it was
Speaker 1: at the start of the five year period. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a different things.
Speaker 2: And you get in.
Speaker 3: I still remember that very first distill mentions. It was
Speaker 3: twenty five thirty k's out of Perth. You know, it
Speaker 3: was a frontier types. The fences hadn't even been built yet.
Speaker 3: You know, the first week in this house, this is.
Speaker 1: Everyone did everyone have a rifle of a rifle beside them?
Speaker 3: It was Actually, it was so fantastic because you got
Speaker 3: to know your neighbors in this camp at this random situation.
Speaker 3: We've got seven nights out to get the land, and
Speaker 3: then you all built the houses together and there's this
Speaker 3: real camaraderie. But I remember the first summer in that house.
Speaker 3: It's person it's the out of suburbs, and so we
Speaker 3: didn't have money for the air. We had no air
Speaker 3: conditioning for the first couple of years, and for summer
Speaker 3: we so I bought these two dollars water bottles, the
Speaker 3: spray water bottles, and we had a pedestal fan at
Speaker 3: the foot of the bed and you would just lie
Speaker 3: back and you'd wait for the fan to just kind
Speaker 3: of get near you, and then you go sprits.
Speaker 2: It splits the water bottle and.
Speaker 3: Then you just get this spray of water to try
Speaker 3: and help you sleep, you know, in those forty degree days.
Speaker 1: Good for you. So you did it the hard way,
Speaker 1: telling us you did it. You did it the hard way.
Speaker 3: You know sometimes and I know this gets thrown around
Speaker 3: a little bit, but you sort of think it's just
Speaker 3: you do sort of sometimes you've got to kind of
Speaker 3: roll up your slaves, do it tough for a bit
Speaker 3: and get in and then find your way.
Speaker 2: Now we're not still in that.
Speaker 3: We sold that property and you know we've moved to
Speaker 3: Melbourne and Sydney and back again. Many properties down the
Speaker 3: line now. But we do talk to people gens to
Speaker 3: get frustrated that there's a sense that everything has to
Speaker 3: be perfect.
Speaker 1: Yes, and Stewart Williams on the show has said more
Speaker 1: than once. He doesn't say this young he doesn't stand
Speaker 1: back and say this younger generation aren't prepared to do
Speaker 1: it tough. But what he does say is that people
Speaker 1: are much more skeptical and cautious about the renovator opportunity
Speaker 1: than they used to be. That's because, among other things,
Speaker 1: there was a shortage of treaties in COVID and some
Speaker 1: people got terribly caught, and there was a thirty percent
Speaker 1: inflation of course in building materials. But that is over now.
Speaker 1: But is that part is over broadly, But there's still
Speaker 1: that fear in the market about not just about renovating
Speaker 1: a house, but whether your plans can be execut in
Speaker 1: the way that you think because of both shortage still
Speaker 1: some residual shortage of trades and the price going up
Speaker 1: all the time.
Speaker 3: In defense of the younger generation, I will say in
Speaker 3: our coverage coming up in this new Wealth body of
Speaker 3: call that we're launching, keep an eye out.
Speaker 2: We've got a story. We've chattered this. I want to say, kid,
Speaker 2: but it's twenty six. He's not a kid. He's twenty
Speaker 2: six year old, and he has made sacrifices.
Speaker 3: All of his friends have gone out and you know,
Speaker 3: there are music festivals and are off doing things or
Speaker 3: they've got new cars, and he hasn't done any of that.
Speaker 3: He's sort of head down the backside up, and he's
Speaker 3: got quite a few investment properties and counting.
Speaker 2: He's just really rolled up his slaves. So we'll yeah,
Speaker 2: story to life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, look forward to seeing that one. All right, Now,
Speaker 1: what we might do here. We've talked a little bit
Speaker 1: about shares and starting and shares and what you must
Speaker 1: do to get going in the share market. We've talked
Speaker 1: a little about property and how to start in property
Speaker 1: and that, as I say, there enormous division between a
Speaker 1: home and an investment property. And we didn't talk much
Speaker 1: about investment property except to say obviously investment property is
Speaker 1: a different game out together. It's just basically about the price.
Speaker 1: So the price you make your profit when you buy.
Speaker 1: You manage it as best you can for as little
Speaker 1: cost as you can, and that is a different game
Speaker 1: than buying a home. In the last second, if we're
Speaker 1: going to talk about super because this is often where
Speaker 1: it all rose for everybody. The reason you are investing,
Speaker 1: as Julie Anne said at the start, and I do
Speaker 1: sincerely believe this. It's a great way to be. You
Speaker 1: can enjoy your job a lot more if you don't
Speaker 1: have to worry about whether you need to be paid
Speaker 1: or not. That's one thing. The second thing is that
Speaker 1: we're all going to need super. It's become extremely expensive
Speaker 1: for what the country. As Julie Anne said at the
Speaker 1: start of the show, what sort of super are you
Speaker 1: going to have? How are you going to start it,
Speaker 1: how are you going to approach it? Let's talk about
Speaker 1: that in a moment ago. Hello, Welcome back to The
Speaker 1: Australian's Money Puzzle podcast. James Kirby, Associate Editor Wealth on
Speaker 1: The Australian, talking to Julie An Spragg, the Wealth editor
Speaker 1: of The Australian, on the occasion of the launch of
Speaker 1: our Wealth vertical on The Australian, which we, by the way,
Speaker 1: have been working on for a long time. Julianne has
Speaker 1: been working on this since April April, and it's now.
Speaker 3: About that very first I came across worked at the
Speaker 3: Financial Review and then had a since talkback radio believe
Speaker 3: it or not, James, and then took up this opportunity. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it feels nice to be back on the tools to
Speaker 3: be honest with the mar headphines, it's.
Speaker 1: A wonderful thing that journalism has that sort of widened,
Speaker 1: that we can do videos and we can do podcasts
Speaker 1: and we can write as we always did. And this
Speaker 1: is what this vertical is all about, getting you the
Speaker 1: reader or the listener or the viewer, and getting what
Speaker 1: we know through in different ways. Now this segment, I
Speaker 1: just want to talk about super And the first thing
Speaker 1: you need to know, folks, is that I have gone
Speaker 1: separate ways on super She's with big super, a big
Speaker 1: super fund, which just sends her a statement every now
Speaker 1: and again. Or she can go online and she says, oh,
Speaker 1: there you are. It's gone up again. Isn't that nice?
Speaker 1: And I do my own So I have a self
Speaker 1: managed super fund since two o sixty year before the GFC.
Speaker 1: Who I caught it tights, Yes, So.
Speaker 3: So then I mean, you know where you live, so
Speaker 3: you can send your own statements this that's fair enough
Speaker 3: because this is real confessional time. This is such a confession.
Speaker 3: I don't think I've got a statement from my super
Speaker 3: fund in probably three years because we moved.
Speaker 2: Yes, So that gives you.
Speaker 3: An understanding of how little I have paid attention.
Speaker 1: And you would be in a very large group of
Speaker 1: people who are not engaged, as they say, with their
Speaker 1: super fund.
Speaker 3: Why what would I be when I have so much
Speaker 3: going on in my life, James?
Speaker 2: But what I love about this job.
Speaker 3: So I've started here, We're building the New World vertical,
Speaker 3: getting across a lot of this information. And what's coming
Speaker 3: across clear to me is people start to really care
Speaker 3: about their super when they hit the mid fifties, because
Speaker 3: in your mid fifties, you're thinking about we want to
Speaker 3: retire and what.
Speaker 1: Is that balance? What to do?
Speaker 3: And I think we have a real I don't know
Speaker 3: if it's an issue because I think there's a compulsory
Speaker 3: superannuation system was set up that there's now a lot
Speaker 3: of people are younger people who will have these balances
Speaker 3: going forward. But I do feel like there's this moment
Speaker 3: where we have to get people a little bit more
Speaker 3: interested and engaged because you can make all these little
Speaker 3: micro decisions along the way that can really reckon.
Speaker 2: And I've on evenly focused on it. I reckon because
Speaker 2: of this job.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, well, And the other thing is people, Yeah,
Speaker 1: as you say, look, you can try all you like,
Speaker 1: but you know, when I was twenty five or thirty
Speaker 1: or probably thirty five. As for super, I didn't care.
Speaker 1: I did not care. I mean, to me, it was
Speaker 1: unimaginable that it would ever be an issue. As you say,
Speaker 1: I think around maybe when you have kids, well maybe
Speaker 1: when you have kids you sober up in so many ways,
Speaker 1: but you certainly sober up in terms of money, and
Speaker 1: you say, ooh gosh, I'm going to have to have
Speaker 1: money if I want to. You know, it's almost My
Speaker 1: approach had always been I want to have money because
Speaker 1: I want to get that out of the way. I
Speaker 1: just don't want it to be an issue. I don't
Speaker 1: want to be worrying about that. I don't want There
Speaker 1: are plenty of other things I want to do. I
Speaker 1: don't want it to be an obstacle because in my
Speaker 1: experience I often found that people it was people who
Speaker 1: actually didn't manage money very well that talked about it
Speaker 1: the most.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I come at it from a point
Speaker 3: of view of I'm a fiercely independent person. Anyone who
Speaker 3: knows me will tell you that. And I also so
Speaker 3: I feel like carry that with money habits in that
Speaker 3: I don't want to have to rely on anybody else.
Speaker 3: I don't want to have to rely on the government
Speaker 3: to provide a pension for me. Right, if they want
Speaker 3: to throw money my way, we can have a whole
Speaker 3: other conversation. I think there needs to be quite a
Speaker 3: big overhaul some of it, particularly that the middle class
Speaker 3: welfare that goes out. There's this sense I feel like
Speaker 3: we've bred entitlement, you know, through GFC and then the pandemic.
Speaker 1: This sent majority of every situation depends on the system.
Speaker 1: Two and a half many people get a pension.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would like to be able to just be
Speaker 3: confident enough that we've got things sitting there.
Speaker 2: But I will say that I think you're right. I
Speaker 2: think in your twenties.
Speaker 3: Or thirties, it seems like it's this sort of it's
Speaker 3: not fake money, but because you don't get to see it,
Speaker 3: touch it, feel it, it gets quarantined. You can't touch it
Speaker 3: until you're back. When you're in your twenties, you feel
Speaker 3: like you have to be a real old person. And
Speaker 3: then you sort of, as you mentioned, you have kids,
Speaker 3: you get focused on it, but you've got to raise children,
Speaker 3: and you might then now be in a situation where
Speaker 3: your kids are a bit older. You've got aging parents,
Speaker 3: you need to look after them. The superannuation system, James,
Speaker 3: I think it's actually quite complex. It's simple but complex
Speaker 3: at the same time, it's not simple.
Speaker 1: It's it's absolutely battery in its complexities, and it's full
Speaker 1: of interns.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's some simple there's some simple things you can do,
Speaker 3: but there's there's complexity of the system. And I think
Speaker 3: because it just seems all too hard and we're all
Speaker 3: too busy, then you just sort of push it in the.
Speaker 1: Yes it's too hard basket. But as you say, yeah,
Speaker 1: and certainly I think the irony is, of course, if
Speaker 1: you certainly get interested in fifty five. I don't want
Speaker 1: to say it's too late, but it's there is a
Speaker 1: danger that it's too late, because it's all about compounding
Speaker 1: and it's all about it's all about starting early. And
Speaker 1: that's one thing about the compulsitory system, which I by
Speaker 1: the way, I think twelve percent is too high, but
Speaker 1: because everyone must buy law, I do, yes, Why do
Speaker 1: you think it's too hot? I think at that point
Speaker 1: we are getting to a level where people should have
Speaker 1: more control of their own money. I think a compulsory
Speaker 1: system was good. I thought it was useful. I think
Speaker 1: it's climb too high at this stage. There's no way
Speaker 1: it should go any higher than this. There's still you know,
Speaker 1: there's still talk it was supposed to go to fifteen
Speaker 1: percent in the area and it's not. You know, I
Speaker 1: think in some ways there's all sorts of other things
Speaker 1: around it, that there are other issues that people should
Speaker 1: be able to spend their money on. Well, there's an
Speaker 1: element of sort of patriarchal sort of thing here. You know,
Speaker 1: we know what's good for you, but it is actually
Speaker 1: their money.
Speaker 3: It's more the what you want is these nest eggs
Speaker 3: at the end, right, you want to make sure that
Speaker 3: we have enough money?
Speaker 1: Yes, at the end?
Speaker 2: Gosh, where do we go?
Speaker 3: And all these conversations. I think there needs to also
Speaker 3: just be an overhaul of the oversight of Super. I
Speaker 3: think Super was set up as this retirement saving scheme
Speaker 3: and now it's what is it, four point two trillion
Speaker 3: dollars under management?
Speaker 1: That's right, with no regulator.
Speaker 3: We've seen the collapse of first Guardian and Shield and
Speaker 3: I honestly the pits of my stomach that's not going
Speaker 3: to be the last. And less governments and regulators start
Speaker 3: to really pay closer attention.
Speaker 1: There are the falling over each other. But the problem
Speaker 1: is there isn't actually someone, There is no single regulator
Speaker 1: charge with watching super and it's a four trillion dollar
Speaker 1: system anyway, So we digress.
Speaker 2: But so let's go back to I'm not in my fifties. Yeah,
Speaker 2: thank you for noticing.
Speaker 1: So what's look at you?
Speaker 3: So now now that I think, now that I'm thoroughly engaged,
Speaker 3: what should I be doing then with my super?
Speaker 1: Well, I really do think you should. Well, first of all,
Speaker 1: make off your mind how you want to live when
Speaker 1: you're older. Are you happy? You don't have to do anything?
Speaker 1: You can just you can have a government pension if
Speaker 1: you want it, I know, but it's there. So I
Speaker 1: think about how much should you have in super? Well,
Speaker 1: actually you don't have to have anything, right as a
Speaker 1: government pension that's not enough for most people. After that,
Speaker 1: then it's a question of how much do you want?
Speaker 1: I mean, I say, the twelve percent is I think
Speaker 1: the limit really on compulsory super. But having said that,
Speaker 1: I would have always contributed over and above the mandatory
Speaker 1: level because personally I wanted to have as much SUPER
Speaker 1: as possible in my.
Speaker 3: So now that makes more sense to me because I
Speaker 3: thought you were sort of advocating that we don't need
Speaker 3: to be saving as much as we did. It's more
Speaker 3: for you about the context. So it's like you should
Speaker 3: be in control of your money and where you're investing.
Speaker 1: Actually that's me. And again that was part of the
Speaker 1: thing with the South managed super fund for me. And
Speaker 1: I started it in two o six and I started
Speaker 1: it with sixty thousand dollars, which is approximately one fifth
Speaker 1: of the amount I would recommend that you start super
Speaker 1: Fun with today. How about that? Yeah, so there you
Speaker 1: are the confidence of it, which is the confidence of
Speaker 1: youth personally. I set it up because we were setting
Speaker 1: up a startup which was called Eureka Report, which you
Speaker 1: sit around and it was all about, well, the core
Speaker 1: of it was about self managed super funds for them,
Speaker 1: and I thought, if you're going to have a job
Speaker 1: like running a publication based on that, you should walk
Speaker 1: the talk. And so I started once so I could
Speaker 1: learn it and really know what it was when I
Speaker 1: wrote about it and that sort of thing, and that's
Speaker 1: why I did it. I had actually been involved in
Speaker 1: Big super I had actually been on the Fairfax super
Speaker 1: Fun board as a employee representative when I was a
Speaker 1: little baby reporter on BRW, I suppose it was. That
Speaker 1: was very interesting. It was really interesting to see how
Speaker 1: big super works. Yeah, and I learned a lot, and
Speaker 1: I learned a lot of its failings.
Speaker 3: Is the only reason I mean a big super fund
Speaker 3: is so I wanted to find a financial planner that
Speaker 3: was going to be fefa service. So I remember at
Speaker 3: the time, it was sort of two thousand dollars paid
Speaker 3: for someone to do that because I didn't want to
Speaker 3: be tipped into all these products because they were getting
Speaker 3: kickbacks and this. And we got this financial plan done up,
Speaker 3: and this advisor said, this fund will be a good
Speaker 3: fund for you with all the growth. You know, I'm
Speaker 3: paying someone for the advice. Great, and we set it
Speaker 3: all up and I have done nothing else.
Speaker 1: I was wondering where you're going to say that. I
Speaker 1: wonder how often that happens. People go into planners, they
Speaker 1: spend thousands, and they get in on the documents, they
Speaker 1: stick them in the drawer and go, yeah, we really
Speaker 1: should do that.
Speaker 2: It's on a USB stick.
Speaker 3: Then the insurances were connected to it. It always you know,
Speaker 3: it was very thorough at the time. Yeah, and then
Speaker 3: you know, we you know, we got on with life,
Speaker 3: we were on this journey. Then you know we're going
Speaker 3: on IVF journey and so that if you want to
Speaker 3: know where to go.
Speaker 2: And so this is what I'm trying to say.
Speaker 3: Why I think it's really exciting that we've set up
Speaker 3: the world vertical is I think there's a lot of
Speaker 3: people who are in a similar situation where life just
Speaker 3: gets hectic and chaotic and busy, and you try your
Speaker 3: best and you set things up, and then there's there's
Speaker 3: timeshe we think, Okay, I probably need to smarten up here,
Speaker 3: probably need to pay more attention to this.
Speaker 2: As you mentioned, James.
Speaker 3: Like, it's about what you want into the future, and
Speaker 3: I would like to have a really lovely retirement or.
Speaker 2: Even if I'm not retiring.
Speaker 3: So I do say to people one of the lessons
Speaker 3: I have from the rich list is I don't really retire.
Speaker 3: There's lots of people who could have retired very early
Speaker 3: and they don't. They found their passion and they work
Speaker 3: and all those sorts of things. So it's not necessarily
Speaker 3: about not working, but it's also working because you want
Speaker 3: to or you've got passions and those sorts of things.
Speaker 3: And being financially independent. I think that's at the core.
Speaker 1: That's terrific and I think that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1: That's what that verticul is all about. And folks, that's
Speaker 1: what the show is all about. The money puzzle. You know,
Speaker 1: Julian was talking about advice and by the way, get advice.
Speaker 1: Of course, get advice. Here's the thing. It costs on
Speaker 1: average three to four thousand dollars a year to get
Speaker 1: financial advice in Australia, and that is, by the way,
Speaker 1: a minimum figure because the number of advisors is shrinking rapidly.
Speaker 1: I mean there's only half the number there was ten
Speaker 1: years ago in the market. The point I'm making is
Speaker 1: that this show exists for you, and the people on
Speaker 1: this show are talking to me and talking to you
Speaker 1: through me on all aspects of investing and the listener
Speaker 1: questions we do every week. I get top advisors in
Speaker 1: to answer those questions. That's what the show is all about.
Speaker 1: It's about you and where you're going. And this article
Speaker 1: will be very much in the same area. And I'm
Speaker 1: hoping that if you do listen to the show, come
Speaker 1: and have a look at the vertical on the Australian.
Speaker 1: It launches today. It's something that has never been tried
Speaker 1: on the Australian or across financial media, and I think
Speaker 1: it's going to be really useful. All right. I think
Speaker 1: we might leave it there, Julia, and great to have
Speaker 1: you on the show.
Speaker 2: Okay, So I've got a laundry list here, so I
Speaker 2: need to go and fix up my super work on
Speaker 2: an investment property, probably build that share portfolio.
Speaker 3: Look, I think maybe in the journey, maybe I'm gonna
Speaker 3: have to do you know, the juliannesparrag diaries or something
Speaker 3: like that, like things that I've just learned from starting
Speaker 3: here and being focused more on the personal side of wealth.
Speaker 2: As you mentioned.
Speaker 3: So we've both been financed journals for the really long
Speaker 3: period time.
Speaker 2: You know this stuff.
Speaker 3: But you know better than the mechanic with the broken
Speaker 3: down car. You know I've got.
Speaker 1: The trick is to get started, isn't it. The trick
Speaker 1: is to get started, all right? Terrific. Now, folks, keep
Speaker 1: those emails rolling, love to see them. And as I said,
Speaker 1: if you're sending in a question, send in two or
Speaker 1: three at the same time. I love to see a
Speaker 1: couple of questions from the same listener. It makes a
Speaker 1: lot of sense. It's very efficient as well. The email
Speaker 1: is the money puzzle at the Australian dot com dot
Speaker 1: au talk to you soon.
Speaker 3: Only the fellnd sap of the wood s