A Happy Mothers day to all mums!

We hope you’re keeping well and that there have been happy times for you, in the midst of the pain that we’ve seen in the news from around the world.

ABC’s “Australian Story” last night told some of the story of Shane Fitzsimmons, Commissioner of Resilience NSW and prior Commissioner of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service. What a great story of Leadership. An item in our news this month is an inspiring TED talk by Simon Sinek about leaders – and how they are so important when times are tough. He points out that the person on the factory floor who looks after the people beside her or him, is just as much a leader. It’s a 12 minute chat worth watching.

There are a couple of articles about the Government’s stimulus package. It’s good that the deeming rates reduced for Centrelink last Friday – to 0.25% and 2.25%. Peter Kelly’s warning about the long term impact of accessing super is important to help weigh up the immediate needs versus long term consequences.

Sticking to a long-term plan when investing is so important. Selling assets whose prices have fallen can have long term implications. The rally in prices in April after the March fall, may not be the end of the falls this year. Markets are unpredictable – no-one knows what will happen next. Here is a graph of the US Sharemarket’s price movement in 2008 (the GFC) compared to its 2020 movement:

There may be further falls to come as the next reporting season reveals the economic cost to businesses which are struggling. As the terrible suffering that comes with unemployment bites, we hope that as many businesses as possible survive.

This is also why, when there’s so much uncertainty, we recommend that people waiting to invest cash, do so in stages – “dollar cost averaging” – buying in several stages to get an average price. No-one can pick the one best time to invest – the bottom.

Wishing you health and happiness.

Tom, Maria and Kerrie

at Financial Springs