Investment Trends of Tomorrow

Bucks spoke at length (he went around 20 minutes over his allotted time) and had the whole rooms undivided attention from his first word. My key takeaway was the message he started with which was asking the attendees to think about a person in their life that is influential, and how much of their feedback is either positive or negative. We heard a range of answers and Bucks revealed the purpose of the exercise was for people in the workplace, and life in general, to focus their attention on the positive feedback rather than the negative.

This was perhaps surprising to a lot in the room who followed the notion that while it is nice to hear positive feedback, you should focus on negative feedback, or constructive criticism, to get better and improve. He gave an example where he had a lightbulb moment early in his role as Captain of Collingwood. The moment was when he realised that focusing on what people are not quite good enough at, or need improvement on, only spreads negativity and dints confidence levels. Rather, focusing and celebrating what people do well regularly and often, improves the overall environment of the organisation and by default, motivates those within it to better themselves naturally.

During his Q & A time, I asked him what he was most proud of about his time as Coach of the Pies that might not be publicly obvious, and if he could do it all again, what would he do differently? His answer centred around his starting message in that his proudest achievement was the positive influence he had on the off-field growth and development of the players during his time, and the cultural shift to celebrate small wins often. The key thing Bucks said he would do differently would be to simply take himself less seriously and have more fun. An example if this would be to have the ultimate goal of a Premiership in mind, but stop and smell the roses when smaller goals and objectives are achieved along the way. This shift is what helps change the environment and culture of the organisation to an employer of choice, which results in the longer-term goal being more likely achieved.

Changing gears to the finance side of the evening was Jonathon Tolub from InvestSense. The Financial Planning team know “JT” quite well, as he heads InvestSense which is the firm we work alongside with to build our investment portfolio’s that we recommend to our clients. JT is a very well-renowned investment analyst and is regularly on the money with his opinions and projections of the local and international economic environment.

JT’s talk included comparing the local and US share markets, which asset classes currently appear to have the most value to investors and which are most concerning, the impact of rising interest rates on portfolio’s and dividends, the long-term appeal of ethical and sustainable investments, plus everybody’s favourite: Bitcoin and Crypto.

The focus was on Australia, the US, Europe and Emerging Market’s as JT compared long-term dividend yields and growth rates to the asking price for investors to place their money in these asset classes. Currently, the US seems what JT calls “expensive” for investors, whereas Emerging Markets present an opportunity.

Rising interest rates will have some effect on the performance of share portfolios and property alike. How much effect depends on your investment strategy and what asset allocation you have. JT tends to follow the “valuation based” investment philosophy, which theoretically is one that performs well in a high inflationary and interest rate environment.

This was followed by Dean and Jennifer from Opteon who gave a strong talk about the current state of the property market around Geelong, and some factors that will be key to the mid and long-term success of it moving forward. This focused on the demand of property and also the supply and what is driving these around the area.

The sheer dollar-amount of infrastructure investment in the area over the next 10 or so years is mind-boggling, but also very reassuring as the economic and population growth outlook seems positive. There are projects in schooling, housing developments, hospitals, railroads, prisons and everything in between that are all helping make the Geelong area a prosperous place to live and raise a family. A key stat that helps prove this was that the projected population increase of Australia over the next decade is ~24%, whereas the projected increase in the Geelong area over the same timeframe was ~44%. This was quite surprising to myself and reinforced my confidence that in an environment with a lot of unknowns at the moment, Geelong is not a bad place to be.

Another point made by the Opteon team was comparing living in Geelong versus Sandringham. As the crow flies, Geelong is almost double the distance from the Melbourne CBD as Sandringham is, however, via public transport is takes around the same time. Dean spoke about the hobbies and activities and timeframe it takes to get around them all in both areas, which made the Geelong area seem more attractive. Then he revealed the median property price in Geelong is ~$850,000, and Sandringham is ~$1,650,000. He asked after considering the lifestyles on offer, and cost of entry differences, where would you rather live?

This rounded out the event for some networking time and the overall flavour of the feedback received was that the night was very enjoyable and educational and an overall success.

If reading this has prompted any questions about finance and investing, accounting, lending or legal services, please do not hesitate reaching out to a Mulcahy & Co team member to see how we can help.