Weekly Investment Update

Albert Einstein is often quoted as saying that “compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world.”What this quote understands is something fundamental about investing: compounding can turn relatively ordinary returns into extraordinary results, provided you give it enough time.The basic idea is simple. You earn a return not only on the money you originally invested, but also on the returns you have already made. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every great technological revolution creates two things: new industries and new fortunes. It is the second of these that investors can sometimes overlook.The industrial revolution created the Carnegies and the Rockefellers. The personal computer created a generation of technology entrepreneurs like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. The internet produced extraordinary wealth for the founders, employees and early investors in companies such as Microsoft, Amazon and Google. More recently, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies created another, younger cohort of millionaires. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For decades, gold has been treated by many investors as an eccentric investment, something to buy if you fear inflation, financial crisis or the end of the world. But the evidence increasingly points to a much simpler conclusion: gold should be a permanent part of a diversified investment portfolio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

US government borrowing costs have been rising again. That sounds alarming. Higher bond yields are often interpreted as a warning that investors are losing confidence in America’s finances, its central bank or its ability to control inflation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BJ Fogg has spent more than 25 years studying an apparently simple question: why do people do what they do?Fogg founded Stanford University’s Behavior Design Lab and wrote the bestselling book ‘Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything’. His central idea is that lasting change rarely begins with a heroic burst of motivation. It begins by making the desired behaviour so small and easy that it becomes difficult not to do.His entertaining TEDx talk, “Forget Big Change, Start With a Tiny Habit”, explains the method through examples such as flossing one tooth or doing two push-ups to start the new habit. It sounds almost comically insignificant. That is precisely the point. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.