14th July 2023 Fear drives many facets of our lives. In her book "Fear Less", Dr Pippa Grange, a renowned psychologist who works extensively with elite athletes and sports teams (including the Australian Olympic team), highlights the pervasive role fear has in our lives. She argues that fear is often what holds us back from fulfilment and true [...]

30th June 2023 An article by business columnist Robert Gottliebsen published in the Australian yesterday, summarised beautifully recent discussions we at FinSec have been having around inflation and interest rates - so much so the comment “did we write this?” was made. It is a conundrum that lies in the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) ability to use [...]

16th June 2023 Earlier this week, the Albanese government released its first response to the Quality of Advice Review (QAR), an independent review commissioned by the previous government (led by Michelle Levy) with the goal of simplifying the laws governing financial advice. It has accepted 14 of the review's recommendations "in full or in principle" but left the [...]

2nd June 2023 Never let a good crisis go to waste! The biggest macroeconomic swing factor in global markets of the past few weeks has been the ongoing impasse around the US Debt Ceiling. And, whilst resolved for now (in principle - there are still a few bridges to cross), in considering these types of situations, it may [...]

19th May 2023 Former Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens knows all too well how long inflation can hang around. This week he warned Australians of the difficult road ahead. The current Macquarie Bank chairman told a conference this week that so-called ‘soft landings’ are pretty uncommon. When they have happened, he said, they have been in the context [...]

5th May 2023 It's reached the stage where the RBA cash rate leads the news every few weeks. After this week's increase to 3.85%, the 11th in a year, it's not difficult to conclude that Governor Philip Lowe will most likely use the remaining four months of his term to quash inflation, even if the consequences for some [...]

21st April 2023 It's that time of year again! In a few weeks, on 9 May 2023 at 7.30pm, Treasurer Jim Chalmers will deliver the Federal Budget for 2023/24. Last year, an earlier 'election budget' was presented in April by Josh Frydenberg, and then Chalmers handed down a light interim Budget in October 2022. The next one will [...]

6th April 2023 Last week, the director of AFR insights James Daggar-Nickson, received an unsolicited text. It was supposedly from a 22 year old woman from China eager to make the acquaintance of a 'well-mannered' man (and presumably obtain his bank account details). The message couldn't have been more fortuitous, not only because we're sure James probably does [...]