Marcus Padley

Expect the unexpected to keep 2013 a lucky one

Marcus Padley At the end of any investment period, you can produce a list of the 10 best-performing stocks and the 10 worst-performing stocks and, despite all the highbrow debate, opinions and blah-blah-blah,...

Ignore the anonymous ramblers on their race to the bottom

Marcus Padley It's two weeks since hurricane Sandy in the US, and it's two weeks since they cancelled the New York City Marathon on the wife and I.

Wealth comes to those with time, patience and wealth

Marcus Padley We still get phone calls that start with the question, what commission rates do you charge?

Keep kids onside - someone has to buy our stocks

Marcus Padley Here are the 10 sharemarket lessons that you should already know.

Winning the mind game is all about learning how to lose

Marcus Padley They say losses have three times the emotional impact of gains and because of that, most investors find it three times harder to take a loss than they do to take a gain - the complete opposite to the...

The road is littered with Mack Truck moments

Marcus Padley There are moments in life that I call Mack Truck moments, when a Mack Truck comes hurtling towards you and you have to make a decision in a split second that will change your life forever.

When it's no one's money and everyone's money, do it yourself

Marcus Padley My dad spent a large part of his life working for Mercedes-Benz. When he retired he got a pension. A salary for life plus a few fringe benefits and when he dies his wife will get a generous fraction...

Gen Useless: stop sponging and scrub up for work

Marcus Padley Since the debt boom started in 1974, we have moved from ''I want, I save'' to ''I want, I get'', and if there's $1000 of equity left in the house, our kids get an iPad.

Nine times out of 10 the magic numbers are a mystery

Marcus Padley We used to have an economist at UBS Phillips & Drew in London who retired in the mid 1980s. He stood up for his last morning meeting and told the assembled advisers he had asked his wife the...

Free hugs worth weight in gold … money, not so much

Marcus Padley When my daughter Jemima was just four years old, she gave me a home-made Father's Day card. Inside was a voucher she had made at kinder.

Marcus Padley

Only 250,624 hours left! It's time to prioritise

Marcus Padley I was once very taken with a story (hopelessly embellished for effect) that Warren Buffett's ''people'' were once so pestered by a wealthy pom wanting an audience for ''just one hour'' that they...

Blaming everyone else for losses won't get you anywhere

Marcus Padley Assumptions are the mother of all cock-ups, especially when it comes to the sharemarket. We did five last week; here are a few more.

Marcus Padley

You know what they say about assuming anything

Marcus Padley Assumptions are the mother of all mistakes and here are five. Let's start with the basics.

The 'Moron Portfolio' is best left to index huggers

Marcus Padley You may have heard of the Magnificent Seven, the biggest seven stocks in the ASX 200 index.

Lower your expectations and get rich slowly

Marcus Padley It has been an incredible three decades of asset speculation and price appreciation - in both shares and property.

Marcus Padley

Aladdin's cave of software, technology's wave after wave

Marcus Padley Expos offer an interesting window on how the sharemarket is developing.

Don't sink yourself with a set-and-forget mentality

Marcus Padley As volumes dwindle and interest in the sharemarket gets progressively eroded by a market that doesn't trend the promise of ''long term'', growth is proving to be little more than an out-of-fashion,...