Reading Time: 2 Minutes Geez, some of the news just goes from bad to worse right guys? Stay safe, stay vigilant and above all, wash those hands! Despite all the chaos and disruption and FEAR, I thought perhaps we could take a step back and ask why? Why is this happening? And more importantly, why is it happening now? The answer is… … It’s always happened. By this I mean pandemics, and viruses and natural illnesses have always been a part of our history. Indeed, some pandemics have been far, far worse than COVID-19. Our friends at Visual Capitalist constructed a brilliant post on the history of pandemics to give…
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Coronavirus Public Service Announcement
Reading Time: 2 Minutes I think everyone knows by now that we have a pandemic on our hands in the form of the Coronavirus. So as a responsible member of the community, I am doing my bit to make sure the message gets out there and is heard. This afternoon, the Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison announced mandatory 14-day self-quarantine measures for ALL travellers coming into Australia, in the latest government initiative to contain the virus. Unfortunately my opinion is that it is too late for containment. This is because the R0 (“R-naught” is a reproductive measure of infectivity) of the virus sits around 2.2 – meaning that one infected…
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A Conversation Between Two Punters About Coronavirus
Reading Time: 2 Minutes What’s up people! Of course, the word on everyone’s mind is “Coronavirus”. Boy, has the market been smashed!!! Yours truly is staring down the barrel of some whooper losses. Oh dear, oh dear. So what to do? Should we sell? Should we buy? WHAT? Well, I was talking about this with my e-penpal and thought it would be interesting for everyone if I shared our conversation. I haven’t told my penpal, but I’m pretty sure he won’t mind. TFS: Thoughts on the latest? Penpal: This seems like the biggie I’ve been waiting for. My mental model on this is based around: Back in early Jan I…
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Coronavirus – Time to Panic?
Reading Time: 3 Minutes “Hey let’s have pasta tonight?” “Sure”. And so off I went, like any good husband. In search of pasta. Lo and behold the sight that befell me at the shops: CLEANED OUT. Goodness, what is going on you ask? It’s because we are in PANIC MODE people. Coronavirus fever has well and truly hit. Now, I posted a couple of weeks ago on it (read here, and here) and it’s time to do an update. Because times have significantly changed since then. I’ll preface the below with the statement that it is my opinion only. You can agree, you can disagree but I hope you get…
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Exchange Traded Funds
Reading Time: 3 Minutes Howdy all! There is one area of personal finance which yours truly hasn’t really touched on, but has a disproportionate representation in many a FIRE portfolio. I’m talking of course, about ETF’s or Exchange Traded Funds. What is it? An ETF is a type of investment fund which can be bought and sold on an exchange, similar to stocks. They are split between “active”, which is managed by a fund manager looking to outperform the underlying index or market, and “passive” which track the underlying index or market i.e. achieve market returns. They were made famous by Mr Buffet who, in 2007 bet $1m that an…
