New launches and painful reflections: Joseph's top articles in October
Looking back at your old investments can be hard, but it is worth your while.
October was always going to be a big month. My mother flew in from Scotland to start her six-week trip, so my duties as a writer have been by joined by those of a tour guide, travel logistics mastermind and – for the first time in a while – a fully-fledged pom on his holidays.
The trip to Tasmania that I mentioned in last month’s wrap was blessed with good weather and some of the clearest waters I’ve ever seen. It was also a welcome reminder that while taking care of your finances is important, you don’t need to think about it all of the time.
On the work front, launching our new Ask the analyst feature stands out as a highlight. We wanted to let you in on one of the biggest perks of working at Morningstar – the ability I have to walk across the office and ask our equity analysts about the companies they cover.
We started things off with a question I had for Roy Van Keulen about WiseTech. Then Shane Ponraj tackled a reader’s question I put to him about Telix Pharmaceuticals. If you have a question about the 200 or so ASX companies in our coverage, please email it to [email protected].
The toughest part of October was probably the day I took to revisit my year of investing in 2021. I have often talked about the fact that my early years were plagued by overtrading. Looking back at every transaction I made during 2021 confirmed this and then some. You can see all of the gory details and lessons taken from it here.
I also recounted my latest flatpack furniture related nightmare. Fortunately, again, there was an investing lesson in there. One that I certainly wish I had learned it before the year of sixty-two trades. Here’s why Step 1 might not be the best place to start.
Self-humiliation isn’t the only way I come up with new article ideas, and I’ve found that the golf course is an especially fertile hunting ground. One reason for this is that my brain seems to switch into another mode and make new connections in the background while I am distracted. Another is that you never know who you are going to be paired with.
One such stroke of luck came in the shape of a game with business broker Harley Stibbard. I’ve always been taken by the idea of buying a small business, and I wondered what tips Harley might have for readers in the same boat. As it turned out, a lot of them are also relevant to investing in the stock market. See them here.
Pretty much everybody living in Australia has a decent chunk of their net worth tied up in super, and this asset pool has swelled to such a size that Australia’s super industry is now a global heavyweight. As it turns out, there are plenty of big things going on behind the scenes. See 7 eye catching charts from our recent report on the super industry.
In a few more stock specific pieces, I tapped the knowledge of our mining analyst Jon Mills to discuss Rio Tinto’s purchase of Arcadium. I also highlighted what looks like the ASX’s cheapest sector right now and asked whether three of the ASX’s worst performers in recent months had fallen too far.
A busy October then, but what about November? For one, it will be the last full month of my twenties. That’s a rather sobering thought and one that has got me thinking about things that I now know at 29, but wish I had known at 19.
Seeing as wisdom is the act of learning from other people’s experiences instead of your own, I’d love to know what you wish you had known earlier. Not just about investing and finances, but about life in general. Email your pearls of wisdom to [email protected].
