Category: Money Matters

Does modern education prepare us for the real world? That was the question I would ask myself as I struggled with Latin in the later years of my secondary school in the UK. Latin speakers did not have too many job opportunities apart from perhaps the clergy or as historians. It wasn’t even useful when […]

Have you read or watched reports of bank robberies recently? I have seen no statistics and in truth do not know if it is actually true but the impression I get is that bank robberies, whether common-garden ones or those that are the stuff of Hollywood movies are now few and far between. It could […]

No, this is not going to be a political rant about the causes, pros and cons of the longest shutdown in US history. Instead I would like to focus on one of the surprising consequences of the shutdown and what we can learn from it. The US is one of the richest countries in the […]

2018 could hardly have ended in a more depressing fashion. Bad news abounded, ranging from the tsunami affecting the Sunda Strait to the global market correction wiping out all the gains of the previous year, leaving investors and pension holders poorer than they were at the beginning of 2018. What is important now is to […]

At the time of writing, thousands of delegates from more than 190 countries, including some 450 from Indonesia, have gathered at COP24 in Katowice, Poland, to produce a rulebook to make good on the promises made on reining in the effects of climate change at the Paris summit in 2015. The outlook is grim; scientists […]

A quick answer is probably not! Or at least if you believe the legend that has built up around this group of roughly 18 to 35 year-olds. To capture their attention a communication should consist of no more than 140 characters and preferably contain three or four emogis to sustain their level of interest. They […]

Around twelve years ago the company I was working with held a seminar for clients in Bali. It was part of a world tour by several fund managers who managed a range of funds supported by the company. One of the managers was showing slides of the various companies whose shares he had selected for […]

Recent Rupiah losses against the US Dollar have been a worry for many, not least the Indonesian government itself. The currency has lost some 10% against the Dollar this year and the government is doing all it can to stabilise it. Twenty years on – have any lessons been learnt? Those who were here 20 […]

Recent weeks have witnessed several disasters in many parts of the world. There has been severe flooding resulting in loss of life and property in places as far apart as Japan, India and Europe. There have been unprecedented wildfires in California, a deadly drought in Australia and a catastrophic bridge collapse in Italy. While closer […]

One obvious answer to the question is to die early! But that’s not the answer we want to hear. This is the follow-up to my last article ‘Will you outlive your pension?’ The fact is most people seriously underestimate how much wealth needs to be built up to provide a liveable income over an unknown […]