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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Coronavirus and its Effect on Human Psychology
Reading Time: 3 Minutes Well it’s bucketing rain at the moment in Old Sydney Town boys and girls. What better way to spend our time indoors than to catch up with your favourite personal finance and development blogger! OK, so I wanted to follow-up on my earlier post regarding the hot topic in Australia right now. Which of course, is the Coronavirus. I wanted to revisit this topic because I’m seeing some news headlines about an unprecedented surge in hand-sanitizer right now. Headlines such as: Coronavirus panic causes hand sanitiser to be marked up, sells out at supermarkets And: Coles sells out of hand sanitiser as coronavirus rush hits All…
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The Most Miserable Countries in the World
Reading Time: 2 Minutes If you’re having a crappy, can’t-wait-for-it-to-end week like yours truly, then this post is for you. You see, some people believe that happiness comes from within. But lemme tell ya, there’s a bit of science to it as well! And surprise, surprise, there’s been an economic study done to highlight how happiness can be measured against quantitative factors. These being: Inflation, Bank lending rates, Employment levels Growth in GDP. Courtesy of our good friends at Visual Capitalist, the 2019 Misery Index ranked 95 countries based on the above 4 economic variables: 2019 Misery Index To calculate each Misery Index score, a simple formula is used: GDP…
