People & perspectives: Lisa Messenger

22 May 201822 May 2018 Lauren Franze

Lisa Messenger is the vibrant CEO of the Messenger Group, as well as Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Collective Hub. She previously worked globally in events, sponsorship, marketing, PR and publishing, has authored and co-authored 24 books and is now an authority in the start-up scene. She encourages an entrepreneurial spirit, creativity, innovation and lives life to the absolute max.

Stockspot spoke to Lisa for our People and Perspective series about career challenges and entrepreneurship.
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Why you should ignore monthly returns

14 May 201815 May 2018 Chris Brycki

Over long periods of time, markets have always risen and generated wealth for investors. That’s much harder to see if you’re focused on market movements over a few days, weeks or even months.

In the 4 years since Stockspot launched, all 5 of our portfolios and all 5 of the the core ETF investments within our portfolios have risen in value.
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Questions to ask yourself before you buy a house

10 May 201810 May 2018 Larry Lee

Buying your own home has always been considered “the great Australian dream”. It stands to reason that saving for a house deposit is one of the most common goals our clients have.

There is no doubt that it’s getting harder to buy a house with the average deposit needed being well over $200,000 in Sydney and Melbourne. The amount required also very high in most other capital cities.

If you’re going to chase your property dream it’s important to do your homework up-front and be mentally prepared for the road ahead. Here are a few questions I found myself asking when deciding whether to buy.
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Stockspot: 4 years since our launch

3 May 20188 May 2018 Chris Brycki

This week we’re excited to share that Stockspot turns 4!

Here’s a quick look back at where we’ve come..

Helping Australians reach their potential

Since Stockspot launched in 2014 I’m delighted we’ve been able to help thousands of Australians invest to get closer to the life they want to be living.

We’ve seen clients who have been able to fund all sorts of aspirations, including buying first homes (including one houseboat!), travelling, home renovations, take career breaks, buy a car, pay for school fees and retire.
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People & perspectives: Bruce Djite, International Footballer

2 May 2018 Lauren Franze

Bruce Djite is one of Australia’s leading international soccer players. He debuted for the Socceroos in 2008 and has played professional football in Turkey, Korea and now Indonesia. Closer to home he still holds the title of Adelaide United’s all-time highest ever goal scorer.

Bruce is a Stockspot client and a keen investor. We had the chance to chat with Bruce about money in professional sport, living around the world and playing for Australia.
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Where Are the Customers’ Yachts? The problem with wealth management in Australia

27 April 201827 April 2018 Chris Brycki

Five years ago this month I started Australia’s first online investment advice company. One of the reasons I set it up was that I saw too many people getting poor investment advice.

The traditional wealth management industry was positioned in TV advertisements as a way to get peace of mind and secure your future. Behind the scenes it was designed to do exactly the opposite. People were being overcharged, given poor advice and pushed into products that actually harmed their ability to reach their goals.
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Playing 2-up beats picking stocks

24 April 201824 April 2018 Chris Brycki

Playing 2-up this Anzac Day? Here’s something you can throw back at anyone who questions your judgement to take part in this Aussie tradition.

You’ve got a better chance of success at 2-up than you do making money on picking shares. Your chance of making money buying shares is 42%. At least in 2-up you have a 50% chance of walking away ahead.

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Can ETFs make the world a better place?

13 April 201813 April 2018 Megan Stals

ETFs are often considered ‘passive’ investments, but in recent years their issuers have become much more active when it comes to their voting rights.

As ETFs have become more popular, the big 3 issuers – Blackrock (iShares), Vanguard and State Street Global now own significant percentages of many large companies around the globe. These funds find themselves in a unusual position, their success depends on the returns of the companies they invest in, yet unlike active managers, index funds can’t sell to take a stand on particular issues.

ETF issuers are coming under more pressure to take action on corporate matters via their ‘proxy votes’.
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Better the devil you know?

10 April 201810 April 2018 Chris Brycki

We’re creatures of habit. We gravitate towards things that we know and feel familiar with. If it makes us feel safe, warm and fuzzy we’re 100 percent in.

The technical term for our penchant for things we know is familiarity bias. We gravitate to “the devil we know”.
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People & perspectives: Improving financial literacy

3 April 20184 April 2018 Lauren Franze

Brownyn Bruce

Bronwyn Bruce is the founder of Miss Money Box, an educational blog to help Australian women expand their general knowledge around personal finance.

Like us here at Stockspot, she’s passionate about improving financial literacy and helping educate more Australians to have a better understanding on how to manage their savings. This started from a childhood passion for shares and being fed-up with how financial services market to women. Miss Money Box is all about taking control of your financial future.

We wanted to get to know the brains behind the money box so we sat down with Bronwyn to find out more about how she got started on her personal finance journey.
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How Millennials, Gen X and Baby Boomers invest differently

27 March 201827 March 2018 Megan Stals

Everyone’s financial priorities change over time. The typical path starts with building some basic savings, then accumulating wealth in your working years and then spending it in retirement.

An individual's financial life cycle

By comparing the goals and aspirations of different generations of Stockspot clients we’ve discovered interesting insights on the reasons why each invests.
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Meet the team: Megan

13 March 201813 March 2018 Larry Lee

Meet the team: Sarah

Data is a key strategic asset for every business and that’s no exception here at Stockspot. Meet Megan, our Analyst who helps us crunch the numbers so that we can make better decisions.

Megan shares some of the interesting insights she’s seen and her tips for investing.
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Why tech shares are the worst investment today

9 March 20189 March 2018 Chris Brycki

One of the worrying trends we’ve seen lately is an unhealthy obsession with tech shares. Sure, their performance has been fabulous over the past decade and they’re accomplished and well known businesses, but that does not guarantee their success in the future.

Most people have already heard the reasons tech companies are hot right now. What you probably don’t hear are the arguments for why to avoid them. That in itself should be a red flag.

To play devil’s advocate these are 9 reasons to avoid over-investing in tech.
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Lecturing women about money won’t make them invest

8 March 201826 March 2018 Lauren Franze

There’s a lot of hand wringing that gets done in marketing departments about how to get women to invest. Women are powerful consumers. Often the decision maker in key household purchases. Quite rightly any marketeer worth their salary wants to go after a valuable market segment.

It seems to me that recently we have started lecturing women about why they need to invest. The common arguments are the gender pay gap, the superannuation gap, savings accounts give you rubbish returns and my personal favourite, financial independence (ie a thinly veiled translation of a man is not a financial plan).

All sound arguments and well intentioned, if not occasionally condescending.
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Investments you should avoid

21 February 201813 March 2018 Chris Brycki

The market has a tendency to surprise speculators, which is why most speculators lose out to investors over the long run.

After 2 years of steady returns and low volatility, US shares fell 8% in early February and speculators who poured US$33 billion into the market in the previous week wore some heavy losses.
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How to handle money and relationships

14 February 201814 February 2018 Lauren Franze

Let’s face it, money talk in any relationship or friendship can be a mood killer. When the dreaded money topic comes up it’s normal to try and shrink into your shirt and hope the conversation soon turns to fun things like happy hour and buffalo mozzarella.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, we need to talk about money.

How you deal with money can impact your relationships. Infact Relationships Australia says financial stress is the number one cause of relationship breakdown. I’d wager that if it were more socially acceptable to be open about money, fewer people would struggle with debt.
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Best ways to deal with a credit card debt

8 February 20186 March 2018 Lauren Franze

Paying on plastic can be a useful way to free up cash, particularly over Christmas and the holiday season.

However, many Australians will have to pay off credit card debt from the festive season well into 2018. It’s scarily easy to overspend on credit cards and it can be incredibly overwhelming to get on top of credit card debt once you’re in it.

We asked Sally McMullen, resident credit card expert for finder.com.au to explain some of the best ways to get your debt under control cheaper and faster.
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Are you a speculator or an investor?

1 February 20181 February 2018 Chris Brycki

It’s fascinating to find out the reasons why people buy shares, ETFs, property, bitcoin or any other investment.

Take the pulse on people’s motivations for buying something and you’ll get a good insight to if they are actually an investor or a speculator.
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What is cryptocurrency?

24 January 201831 January 2018 Chris Brycki

We recently wrote about why we think blockchain has the potential to transform all sorts of industries including our own but also why bitcoin may not be a great investment right now.

Markets have a tendency to get ahead of themselves when it comes to valuing new technologies. Sometimes it’s not the early bird who gets the worm, but the second mouse that gets the cheese.

This leads us into a related topic – cryptocurrency!

We have been asked by quite a few clients what they are, how they differ and how an initial coin offering (ICO) works?
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Asian market ETFs +34% in 2017

18 January 201821 February 2018 Megan Stals

Our quarterly update on the Australian ETF market as at December 2017.

ETF market highlights

ETF funds in Australia hit the $35 billion milestone, adding almost $10 billion in 2017.
Quarterly ETF growth was 12%, from $31.7 billion to $35.7 million at the end of December 2017. The additional $4 billion came from a combination of strong markets and consistent ETF inflows.
Many Asian share ETFs had an exceptional year, returning 25% to 38%.
Active asset allocation ETFs have fizzled due to poor performance from having a high allocation to cash in a year when markets rose strongly.

ETF funds under management since December 2013
Source: ASX
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Tips for setting and achieving your goals

12 January 201831 January 2018 Lauren Franze

This year I want to buy a (tiny) house… I hope.

I love a good new year’s resolution, maybe it’s the inner list writer in me, but there’s something seductive about writing a list of all the self improvement I’m going to do for the next 12 months.

Top of my list in 2018 is: master yoga handstands, get out cycling on my bike and save for a house deposit.
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How to invest in Bitcoin (if you insist!)

27 December 201731 January 2018 Chris Brycki

Following on from our discussion on whether you should invest in Bitcoin and the difference between investing and speculation, we share our tips on how to be a smarter speculator.

We know Bitcoin probably got mentioned at least once at your office Christmas party this year. It did at ours.

You might be feeling down that you missed out or envious others around you have hit the jackpot. That’s a normal feeling. Those types of emotions are the fuel that drives speculation.

Our advice on speculating in Bitcoin (if you can’t resist the temptation) is the same as the advice we would give on investing in any other undiversified risky asset like individual shares, equity crowdfunding or art. You should still follow a sensible investment process to give you the best chance of success.
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Should you invest in Bitcoin?

19 December 201731 January 2018 Chris Brycki

If you haven’t noticed Bitcoin and other ‘cryptocurrencies’ like Ethereum making headlines recently you may be living under a Bitcoin!

Even Alan Kohler’s nightly finance segment on ABC News now includes a snapshot of the price moves in Bitcoin and other obscure cryptocurrencies.
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The role of shares, bonds and gold in your portfolio

14 December 201731 January 2018 Chris Brycki

Different asset classes have different jobs to do in your portfolio. Understanding what those jobs are will help you make sense of why all assets don’t rise at the same rate or the same time.

The 3 broad assets in Stockspot’s portfolios are shares, bond and gold. We explain the role of each in your portfolio and how they can balance each other at different times of the market cycle to smooth your returns and keep you invested to help reach your goals.
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How to safeguard your investments

6 December 201731 January 2018 Chris Brycki

This year market volatility has been almost non existent. Share markets have risen with little sign of worry.

The US share market has only moved by 1% or more 8 times this year, the fewest since 1964. It has also gone more than a full year without a 3% move, which is the longest stretch on record.

Calm markets means 2017 may go down in history as the most boring year in market history.

Number of S&P 500 Index moves per year

This is of course fantastic news for investors who have enjoyed great returns and very few hiccups along the way. However, history suggests the current period of market calm won’t last forever. Chances are we are getting closer to the next period of volatility, even if we don’t know exactly when it will take place.
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Helping Australians reach their potential

ETF market highlights

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