My learned colleague put me on to an interesting article in today's 'wealth' section of the Australian newspaper.  It was written by Peter Switzer.

The article looks at two things.

The first is the failure, by some margin, of the 'Criterion' column in the Australian newspaper.  The column makes daily recommendations related to shares - buys, sells and so on.

Over the course of the last year the 'Criterion' column's buy recommendations had delivered an average return of 1.3%, while the average market return was 13% for the year.

The article finishes by looking at index investing as a strategy.  It also looks at combining 'dollar cost averaging' - investing regularly over time - with the use of index funds, which it describes as a simple and powerful strategy.

This very approach is the core of how we advise our clients to approach the investment world.

In particular we would say that the Dimensional index funds that we use, which allow access to specific small and value indices, are more sophisticated than just using simple index funds.

This is the first time that we have noticed Peter Switzer write about index funds.  It is interesting that he has chosen this time to write about them while markets are so volatile - particularly the quote at the end about it being a 'relaxed' way to invest.

Click the following link to be taken to the article on the website for The Australian - Here's a tip: slow and sure wins

Please be in contact if you would like more information.

Regards

Scott Keefer