“The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you’ve got it made.” So wrote Arthur Bloch in Murphy’s Law Two. Everyone wants a reputation for being really charitable but few of us are prepared to sacrifice a whole lot to get this high community rating. Well, to be good with money, you […]

A bank, by tempting us with credit cards, is the modern day pariah that seduces many of us into a life of wealth-killing debt. Though I must say I have met people who have used credit cards to kick off great businesses, but, in pure numbers, these people are few and far between. Credit cards […]

At the risk of being called dull and boring, again let me remind you that the main game has to be to find money and get it into income earning assets. At the same time, you must have a serious look at the disastrous debt situation you might be in, and then you have to […]

What follows are the 10 habits of successful wealth builders. There are more, but I think these are a nice start. If you’re not ticking off at least eight of these, then you are probably reducing your chances of maximising your richness in the future. 1. Like a business with a business plan, create a […]

Success is simple — CHANGE! But that’s the hard bit. How do you change? There are seven questions you have to answer: Hands up those who want to be a success? Hands up those who want to be wealthier? Hands up those who want a great business, that works really well, is a pleasure to […]

Apart from not being loved, our next greatest fear is to be poor. For some of us, it’s our greatest worry but, rankings aside, no one wants to have money worries. A couple of years ago, a post-New Year’s Eve survey found, for the first time ever, the top New Year’s resolution was “to get […]

As 2010 looms, I remain positive on the economy and stock market. No one should expect anything like this year with the 50 per cent jump since March in equities, but a nice rise, which could surprise on the high side, is possible. Optimist’s bandwagon It was in the depths of the GFC market crash […]

Two days ago, I promised to look at my second top 10 stocks for my portfolio. Excuse me for being old fashioned but I like to get rich slowly, which means I don’t get too many rude shocks when asset prices endure a crash of 2008 proportions. My underlying strategy is to buy great brand […]

To rework a quote from the less than formidable, albeit funnier, source — Rodney Rude — I hate it, I hate it when doomsday merchants and short-sellers are given a chance to talk their own book. The latest is the so-called legendary hedge fund manager and short-seller Jim Chanos of Kynikos Associates who calls China […]

A regular reader of our website cornered me at a recent Christmas party and asked, “But what are the best 10 stocks I should be in?” Of course, the answer is impossible to throw out to anyone with a glass of champagne in his hand overlooking Sydney Harbour. And anyway, as a financial planner, it’s […]

As someone who spearheaded the “we might avoid a technical recession” and that “stock markets usually bounce 26 per cent on average after a crash” points of view months before the March rebound of share prices, I just love it when I find those who share my 2010 optimism. Of course, there are a hell […]

This has to be the most outrageous business story of the year and it’s up against a lot of stiff competition. And let me say, until now I didn’t think there was much of a problem with executive pay, but I now think I was wrong, especially when it comes to financial institutions. When it […]