A great time was had by all at Harvard Wealth's 8th Anniversary Celebrations & Public Semina
A great time was had by all at the 8th Anniversary Celebrations & Public Seminar in both Rockhampton and Gladstone this week, and it was wonderful to welcome back some of Chester’s ex-Retire Invest friends to the Harvard Wealth family as well!
With over 60 attendees, everyone was treated to Harvard Wealth’s special economic insights, we took a look back at the major impacts of the last 20 years and of course, we ate cake! There was lots of anniversary cake!
Phil Peters from ANZ Funds Management joined us and shared that the current state of the economic outlook is reasonably neutral with a slight curve to negative. He touched on the uncertainty surrounding the United States Presidential Race and the impact that Donald Trump is having. Phil also shared how the US Property market is currently the best it has been for a very long time. We touched on the fact that both in Australia and overseas the employment rates are improving, with a shift to more part-time work being made available as opposed to full time work. Phil discussed the expectation that the Natural Resources sector will reinvent itself and how Carmichael Mine has jump another hurdle, meaning it too is closer to proceeding. To wrap up Phil’s insights, we also talked about the impact of China bringing more capital into Australia and exporting more and more of our vitamins, supplements, powdered milk and other commodities.
Then our own Chester Macdonald shared the trends over the past 20 years. Chester reminded everyone that the market we are experiencing today is very similar to the one we experienced back in 1994-1995 and that the opportunity for today’s market to turn around and climb quite strongly is very real. This is because when we look back at the late 1990’s, the markets were quite strong, however unlike the 1990’s where the interest rates were 12% +, they are now around 2% - so there is not a lot of room for us to go further. Another interesting point that Chester highlighted was that if you look at the All Ord’s from 1985 to 2016 and you removed the incidences that occurred in October 1987 and 2008, you will see a growth trend. Between April and October in 1987 the markets took off and then they had a severe correction on the 20th of October. From there they bounced back to ensure that the 1987 ended with a 16% gain. Again, in 2008 we saw the markets take off with the All Ords reaching 6000 and above but then it fell right out of bed. Now it is back at 5000. So as Chester eluded to, if you take out the two highs and the two monster lows, it is basically a straight line that continues to grows. Chester said that while we learnt some hard lessons during this time because the All Ords took off, fell, took off again, fell and then got back up, we must remember that it has continued on its merry way in a positive trend.
Our next seminar will be held in three months time, so please feel free to give Jacinta or Sam a call on (07) 4922 4548 to do an early-bird registration.
