The totally off-topic thread

[blackcat20]

I 'liked' that meaning I agree with the sentiment wrt myself, not wrt your mug .

I've seen bloody selfie sticks used at restaurant tables overseas .

Every second person in Vegas has a selfie stick. Kinda ruins a good old fashioned selfie.

 

[RB]

2 of my super accounts are only just back to the capital that was in them in 2007/2008. I have not added any money to these super accounts. What a waste of 7 years.

The other thing I note with interest is most super funds have been setup since 2010 or at least only reporting performance figures since 2010. Pre 2008 they were happily talking about performance over the past 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 years.

I wonder what happened!

Have you checked what insurance premiums are being paid? Have you had a review done by a planner? Have your circumstances changed since you chose the investment options?
There is plenty of info available eg Reporting-Practice-Guide-SRPG-700-September-2013[1].pdf

 

[Hvr]

Selfie sticks! What a stupid invention.

I think this says it all.

 

[JohnK]

Depends on if you can find someone to take your photo without doing a runner with your camera.

Or, if people will stop taking photos insisting that they must be in them.

The article in question does point out some idiotic situations, however, like using a selfie stick whilst on a rollercoaster....

Is there a need to be in every single photo taken? I take a photo of my fiancee wherever we go. I know I have been there. We occasionally take a selfie. On the odd occasion we ask someone to take a photo e.g cabin crew, friends etc.

I saw lots of selfie sticks on the Sunday cruise in the Bay of Islands during Ozfest. That was my first exposure. Looks weird. The people using them look weird. Not necessary.

 

[RooFlyer]

I enjoyed myself at the Spanish Steps in Rome. I watched a group of teenagers taking multiple selfies of themselves ( no stick). They were sitting against the side, so notwithstanding they would be telling everyone "Here we are at the Spanish Steps" ( or the illiterate short hand text equivalent) nothing would be seen except anther photo of them and a wall.

Mind you you can't photograph the SS properly because it's covered in teenagers taking photos of themselves and also other people selling cough.

 

[JohnK]

Have you checked what insurance premiums are being paid? Have you had a review done by a planner? Have your circumstances changed since you chose the investment options?

Apart from the swindle a few years back where they were illegally taking insurance premiums from one account none of my superannuation has insurance.

All my super is in balanced funds. Too old to take high risks too young not to have some growth.

My superannuation is not my pension. I hope to cash it all in when I can at 59 which is in 8 years time. Unless rules change again. My investments have fared much better than superannuation. They should take care of me comfortably in retirement.

I know this may not sound right but don't believe in financial advisors. My parents have done a great job. Wish I had listened earlier.

 

[anat0l]

Is there a need to be in every single photo taken?

I guess that's a personal question, not one with an absolute right answer.

I don't have much problem with the "traditional" selfie, i.e. outstretched arm. Or even the lost art of the shot timer.

People say the traditional selfie looks clumsy (and some people can't hold their arm properly to do it in focus), but in the end people understand that's what you needed to do to get the shot.

I don't have a problem with the selfie stick per se. It truly does a good job of enabling one to take a photo of themselves without needing to control the camera directly. By extension - pun intended - it can also enable taking photos where your arm can't stretch out far enough.

The problem is when people don't know how to conduct themselves with a selfie stick, which is what has lead to many problems associated with it. Again, an article about selfie sticks at Disneyland have revealed some people using them whilst riding a rollercoaster. Seriously? You don't stick your head out the window whilst driving a car for very similar reasons. Times like those you wish Darwin had paid a visit. Another rather selfish (pun intended again?) bit of conduct was when my sister and I were recently in London. We were walking around like many other tourists, and I saw a pair of Asian girls walking around with a selfie stick in front of them. I understand they may be videoing their journey for whatever reason, but with the clearance required with a selfie stick in front of them? That's just rude - luckily whilst we were walking around, no one was inadvertently whacked with their stick, but it was a crowded pedestrian zone...

My sister has a selfie stick which we used many times when we were travelling together in Europe in February. It was useful and took a cleaner photo in many cases; a shame we couldn't apply it to my point-and-shoot where a better quality picture could be had, but then again many smartphone cameras produce acceptable quality photos anyway. Having never used one before then but heard all the drama about it (including the accompanying label of "narcissism"), I was the one who was especially careful not to inconvenience the people around us whenever we used it to take a selfie. Being in some parts of Europe characteristic of that kind of petty crime, we were very reluctant to ask anyone to take our picture for us. Otherwise, in most cases, someone taking the photo for you will produce a better result than a selfie stick (especially since you can use a better quality camera to do this).

One thing I can't get is why people use a selfie stick to take a photo, but you can see the stick (or part of the stick) in the photo - that's just ridiculous...

 

[anat0l]

So hot in our offices.

All my "desk chocolate" (e.g. for snacking, etc.) is melting...

 

[RAM]

Apart from the swindle a few years back where they were illegally taking insurance premiums from one account none of my superannuation has insurance.

All my super is in balanced funds. Too old to take high risks too young not to have some growth.

My superannuation is not my pension. I hope to cash it all in when I can at 59 which is in 8 years time. Unless rules change again. My investments have fared much better than superannuation. They should take care of me comfortably in retirement.

I know this may not sound right but don't believe in financial advisors. My parents have done a great job. Wish I had listened earlier.

Trust is something that should be earnt not freely given. Just like respect.

Australian "Balanced Funds" are called "high risk" in a number of different countries' super/pension plan regimes. It is all relative.

On 30 Sept 1987, I attended a 'briefing' by one of the top 3 wholesale consulting groups. They had around 12 industry funds, 140 corporate super funds as well as nearly 24 government sector super funds "under their advice". These guys advised the top of the tree super funds. There were over 500 people at the Park Hyatt that night.

They put a slide up on the screen announcing "The top five fund managers for the future". Three of those fund managers shut down within two years, and the other two ceased to exist within three and four years respectively. I wrote them down and then was reminded of them in late 1999 when I attended a similar presentation about "Managing the New Economy from a Superannuation perspective." Similar results but much faster.

One year later, 30 Sept 1988, I did some number crunching for 5 ex-clients who had been advised by said financial consultants, and had withdrawn their funds from us during the Sept 87 quarter. Yes, you guessed it, the money for all 5 of the ex-clients had been sent to some combination of the above 5 fund managers. These were all 'balanced funds'.

In one case my "money invested with us" vs "money invested with A/B/C", (we knew who got what as we transferred it directly to the other managers who wanted only cash, no in-specie or tax-saving security transfers), they had lost $120mn vs if the money had stayed with us. They rode those managers down for another year as the consultant 'advised' against knee-jerk reactions.

All up those 5 ex-clients lost just under $400mn compared to what their balances would have been if it had not jumped for the year to 30/9/88.

A rising tide lifts all boats.
​

A somewhat long winded way of saying, know exactly what you're getting into. Quite often you do need to quit a manager but it is very likely to be the wrong choice AFTER markets have run to shift to a 'market darling'.

You need to balance your investment shuffling with, "A mistake remains a mistake the longer you hope it isn't."

When I first started I had a bad/good habit of asking questions that people generally couldn't answer or hadn't thought of. Such as has the largest fund manager in Australia ever beaten us over a rolling three-year period? I had 18 years to have a look at, so taking a 3yr period starting from say Mar 69 to Mar 72, then Jun 69 to Jun 72 etc. On average, they had underperformed by just over 2% per annum over the entire period.

Guess what, they'd never outperformed once, not once. Our marketing team got very busy shortly thereafter. That company super funds had put up with under-performance from (what was often their largest component) whilst paying millions in consulting fees to the wholesale intermediaries was astounding.

BTW - a typical financial planner aspires to be a wholesale intermediary/financial consultant.

Makes you think doesn't it.


Some unfortunate (& dismal) "fun facts:"

On average, people spend 4x or more planning their holidays than their finances (ALL finances - mortgages, super, insurance - car/house/etc, bank accounts & credit cards).

Over 70% of people incorrectly described what type of fund their super was in.

Over 95% did not know the annual % mgmt fee charged by their fund. 62 out of the 95%, when making an estimate of the annual mgmt fee - they under-estimated it by 0.50% or more. 28% underestimated it by more than 1%.


Now we know AFFers spend 20+ more time planning holidays, optimising points earning power, maximising points redemptions than managing their finances (ex-travel that is).

Some simple rules of thumb when I look at my finances:

• Everyone in the finance industry wants to 'clip your ticket.' = Get their cut, a conflict of interest to be recognised.
• Many participants in the industry manage THEIR self-interest ahead of yours.
• If Macquarie Bank is selling it - I am not buying it.
• If Goldman Sachs is selling it - I am not buying it.
• Before 'leaping' into a new share float - have a look at the organisation's track record of previous floats (can be very rewarding to do so).
• Never assume, always get it in writing and if they cannot answer your question to your satisfaction then move on.
• Know and avoid, where possible, "Bigger fool" investments.
• If you have trouble sleeping due to worrying about your investments then YOU ARE IN THE WRONG investments. Your health is MORE VALUABLE.
• Before you make ANY investment you need to write, in plain English, in no more than 40 words the three key reasons why you should buy that investment. If any of the reasons is - "The market is rising" don't invest. Remember these reasons and have a look every three or four months.
• A rising tide lifts all boats.
• Ask yourself "What's changed" when things start going wrong,
• Brush up on some simple maths. Arithmetic returns do not match geometric returns no matter what an advert seems to imply.

To recover from a 10% loss requires an 11% gain. (And that's before fees and taxes come into it)
To recover from a 20% loss requires a 25% gain.
To recover from a 33.3% loss requires a 50% gain.
To recover from a 50% loss requires a 100% gain.
To recover from a 75% loss requires a 400% gain.

On October 20, 1987 as the news bulletins were full of reports of a Merrill Lynch advisor shot and killed by a client, a Wall St trader deliberately run over by a neighbour who had lost their life savings, a Japanese broker committing suicide etc - of the 70 people working at a very well known Fund Manager - only two were prepared to go speak to investors who came in wanting to know whether the "You've lost everything, this is going to be a worse depression than the 1920s" ranting by Rene Rivkin - was true. I was one and another person who is now 'finance-world' famous was the other.

This company made it's name (positively) in 1987 btw.

So, this was the attitude of the top performing fund manager's senior staff (and we knew we would be) to the people who had entrusted their finances to them.

Over the Dec Qtr our clients had a positive return. Some competitors lost 53% of their clients money.

 

[drross]

So hot in our offices.

All my "desk chocolate" (e.g. for snacking, etc.) is melting...

apparently 38 in Paris today!

 

[vetrade]

Have you checked what insurance premiums are being paid? Have you had a review done by a planner? Have your circumstances changed since you chose the investment options?
There is plenty of info available eg Reporting-Practice-Guide-SRPG-700-September-2013[1].pdf

It pays to be very wary of insurance on investments because even though the premiums (often in the form of short positions on the futures exchange) are taken out of your funds the beneficiary is usually the fund manager who, in the event of a claim, most often pockets the money and is NOT obliged to pass on the profits from that to the investor whose account balance has plummeted, thereby triggering the insurance. It is a monumental rort.

Many investors who thought they had insurance were horrified to find that their investments still fell by around 30 - 50% in value during the GFC, despite the fund managers insuring against those losses. Even some of the biggest funds fleeced their clients by doing this.

 

[vetrade]

Good advice, RAM. So many people never realise how much they lose every year from trailing commissions, fees etc.

 

[vetrade]

My problem has always been that I was expected to take the majority of photos, and so appeared in very few. A lot of people would say something like "did you go to xx_ as well?". But rather than selfies, bought a camera and applied moral pressure to MrsOATEK to snap a few just to show I rally was there. Now that Mrs OATEK has finally relented and carries a smartphone, I do seem to appear more often on our various excursions.

I can relate to your comments OATEK. I’ve had similar experiences. On one trip I took several thousand pics (love those 16GB memory cards) but it was as if I hadn't been there - always on the wrong side of the camera! Never been a fan of selfies - they seem to have a way of making us look like we have pumpkin heads.
And maybe I was just unlucky but whenever I asked someone to take a photo of us they had no idea about composition - which usually meant 2/3 of the photo was sky and our bodies were chopped off at the waist.

I went better prepared on our last trip - bought a Vello remote (mail order from B&H Photo in NY for $US37) which is effective to around 100m; and a lightweight tripod with a camera quick release. Pretty pleased to get shots like this one at Monument Valley without the need for any third party assistance:

 

[Princess Fiona]

I am guilty of the odd selfie on SM but do not have a selfie stick, it looks even weirder than shooting my arm out

 

[RooFlyer]

<snip>
On October 20, 1987 as the news bulletins were full of reports of a Merrill Lynch advisor shot and killed by a client, a Wall St trader deliberately run over by a neighbour who had lost their life savings, a Japanese broker committing suicide etc - of the 70 people working at a very well known Fund Manager - only two were prepared to go speak to investors who came in wanting to know whether the "You've lost everything, this is going to be a worse depression than the 1920s" ranting by Rene Rivkin - was true. I was one and another person who is now 'finance-world' famous was the other.

This company made it's name (positively) in 1987 btw.

So, this was the attitude of the top performing fund manager's senior staff (and we knew we would be) to the people who had entrusted their finances to them.

Over the Dec Qtr our clients had a positive return. Some competitors lost 53% of their clients money.

Some great points and advice (in the bits I snipped). Re the bit above - BT? (If you care to say.)

 

[Captain Halliday]

apparently 38 in Paris today!

In Phoenix, Arizona it has been 40+ for 10 consecutive days. Some of them were 46/47 degrees. Nasty.

Worse yet, the next ten days are also forecast to be 40+.

 

[blackcat20]

Vegas has also been over 40 but a storm rolled through this morning so it took a little longer to warm up today. A tad muggy which is different from the usual dry scorching heat.

 

[stoneman]

Adelaide coach Phil Walsh killed ?

 

[Pushka]

In shock. Awful. Awful. Murdered by son.

 

[stoneman]

Goodness me :shock:, that's terrible..