Blog
November 24, 2016
It may be inevitable, but growing older is not a lot of fun. Still, there is some comfort in numbers – after all, the whole world is ageing. The latest Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index puts the notion of ageing populations into a worldwide perspective. For instance, in 2010, there was one person aged over 65 per 4.7 people of working age across the 27 countries measured in this index. By 2040, that ratio is expected to double, with fewer workers compared to a greater number of ‘over-65s’, with residents in those countries living an average of four years by […]
November 17, 2016
Instant Reaction The financial markets responded to the news of the U.S. presidential election. The Mexican peso soared, then plunged; European currencies and gold bullion rose; and Japan’s Nikkei Index plummeted. (Then again, the Nikkei plummets pretty much every month.) Should investors take action? Hindsight urges yes. Under the Reagan presidency, fierce anti-inflation policies tamed inflation that had been sabotaging asset prices for the previous 15 years. Treasury bonds enjoyed their best performance in forever, and stocks kicked off a historic bull market. The contrast with the Ford/Carter years was dramatic. Wall Street was reinvigorated and tens of millions of Americans […]
November 10, 2016
House swapping has become a hugely popular option for affordable holiday accommodation across the world. You might remember the movie, “The Holiday” starring Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz. Two women are experiencing relationship problems so they exchange their houses for a holiday away from men. Kate swaps her quaint English cottage for Cameron’s LA mansion. Both love the extreme differences but, of course, there are men everywhere they go! (It ends happily ever after.) In the ten years since that movie debuted, house swapping has taken the world by storm. It’s no longer a way to escape from our problems, […]