| Welcome to the September issue of the Dashboard Newsletter. Another month gone by, another reel of disappointing headlines and challenging news. Our house values continue to fall, inflation remains persistent, interest rates continue to rise, the All Black's win ratio keeps coming down, the Ukrainian conflict rages on, and the Queen sadly passes away. 2022 really is becoming a year to forget...
So in light of all the negativity, I thought I would devote this month's newsletter to reminding you why I remain eternally optimistic about the world that we live in. I figure some good news would be refreshing. I'm 47 years old now. My children are 22 and 19 respectively. I often reflect on how, in the space of 1 generation, the world is a very different place. When I was a kid, we had 1 telephone in the home. Almost every night at about 6pm, my sister and I would argue over who got to use it to call a friend for a chat. Whoever won the argument would then stand in the hallway (where the phone was wired in) for about 20 minutes or so chatting to a mate, until one of my parents would come in shouting at us to get off the phone because the call was costing so much! After the telephone saga, we would sit down and watch telly for an hour or so most nights. Monday night was my favourite, because that was the night that the weekly episode of "Night Rider" was released. You might remember Night Rider - David Hasselhoff was Michael Knight - vigilante against crime in his self driving supercar, KITT. I loved that show! A self driving supercar was just the most inconceivable thing - stuff of dreams! There was one day I remember vividly as a kid. Every year, we would have a door to door salesman come through selling the latest edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica. I would see those books, beautifully bound in hard cover and packed with knowledge, and long to have them. But every year my dad turned the salesman away because the cost was exorbitant - like really expensive. Knowledge cost a lot of money back then... But one year, out of the blue, dad said yes, and we did in fact get those Encyclopaedias (I think it was years of the salesman and me wearing dad down that got us over the line in the end...). WOW - I felt like the luckiest kid in the world - all that knowledge in our home. Ironically, a year later the salesman was back, and I wanted the new edition (the information in the old, expensive edition was a bit out of date now...). There was no such thing as a personal computer, no mobile phones, no internet, no google maps, no microwave oven, and if I wanted to have my blood pressure or heart rate read, I went to the doctor - I didn't check my fitbit. I sometimes try to remind my kids of this. To them, a world without the internet is inconceivable - they literally have only ever known a world where the internet is considered a human right. Today, they have an iPhone that has vastly more, and up to date, information than my beloved Encyclopaedias could ever have had. They can research, and become familiar with, any subject they want. Knowledge is in abundance - and it's free! The world really has improved beyond measure. We are living in the most remarkable time. The current tech revolution is the most significant revolution of all time - far more significant than any of the previous industrial revolutions we have had before. Today, KITT car exists - or at least a version of it. Self driving cars are delivering goods in fulfilment centres all over the world, and pretty soon they'll be commonplace on our roads with passengers in them. Today we have robot vacuum cleaners, 3D printers, reusable space rockets, Netflix, WhatsApp, Google... Today, the best chess player in the world is a computer, not a human. In the not too distant future, the best golfer in the world will be a robot. If you doubt this, check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN4fSnf8TBY This year, for the first time ever, surgeons implanted a "Brain-Computer Interface" (BCI) on the brain of a patient who was medically diagnosed as being in a "Completely locked-in State". The patient had degenerative Motor Neurone Disease, and was paralysed to the extent that he could not even move his eyeballs. After the implant, he was able to communicate with a computer - via thought. I'll say that again. He could communicate with a computer by thinking. How extraordinary?! He is now able to type txt and communicate with the outside world - by thinking it. Imagine the possibilities. So when you have moments where you find yourself dwelling on the negative (and let's be honest, we all do this - it's impossible not to with all the negative media), take a moment to reflect on your own childhood and how far the world has come since then. Things are getting infinitely easier, companies are becoming infinitely more efficient, and smart technology is improving the world we live in all the time. Today's problems of the world will be solved by new innovation and technology, and history will almost certainly record this time as being the most revolutionary of all. And therein lies my eternal optimism. In terms of the markets, the past month has seen continued weakness. Share markets are down between 6.5% (USA) and 1% (New Zealand). The outlier is Japan's Nekkei which is marginally up. Currencies remain extremely volatile too, with the NZ$ weakening against most major trading partners. The NZ$ briefly dipped below US$0.60 this week - something that has only happened a couple of times since 2009. Here are the numbers for the past 30 days: |
||||||
|
||||||
In terms of your Select Wealth Management portfolio, there is not a great deal to report at this stage. We met with our researchers (JMI Wealth) last month, and there were no major developments to report from this meeting. We remain confident in our current suite of fund managers and have no reason to change any of the incumbents. As interest rates continue to rise, consensus is that we are more and more comfortable deploying money into the fixed interest market now - rates are a lot more attractive than the anaemic 2% - 3% of 12 months ago. Finally, a quick update on our Giving Back program. We are now about half way through our campaign with Kaibosh, and well behind our goal of $2,500. For only the second time ever, it looks like we may not achieve the original goal, but we'll make every effort to get there and still hope to make a meaningful contribution to their great cause by the end of the year. To keep track of the Giving Back program visit https://mifinancialplanning.co.nz/giving-back.html As always, thank you for your continued support by introducing friends, family and colleagues to our business as prospective clients - I really appreciate it. Warm regards Dave and the team at Makowem & Isaacs Financial Planning dave@mifinancialplanning.co.nz |
||||||
 |
||||||
This newsletter is intended for general distribution and does not constitute personal financial advice.