The Latest News and Views from Ascent Wealth Management

Welcome to February's News and Views.

The year has started with a rush.  Markets continue to be fairly resilient given the mixed economic news out there.  There's still a fair bit of trepidation surrounding Covid 19 (Corona Virus) and its impact on key markets for our exports (educaton and tourism to name but a few).  We have included our regular insight from 360 Research, highlighting the key issues and the likely impact on share markets and other investments moving forward.

Sometimes looking at investment performance in isolation provides a somewhat misleading view of the world.  In recent times, our sharemarket "got over the top" of the market peak experienced in November of 2007, for the first time.  Many people experienced significant pain during the GFC, particularly if they had invested just prior.  Our next article shows that sometimes persistence pays off; particularly if you have the timeframe.  As always the investment allocation needs to take account of your short, medium and long term needs when allocating funds.  The long term allocation now has the "light at the end of the tunnel".

For those looking at retirement, our next article demonstrates the importance of planning.  Getting the plan rolling 5- 7 years prior to your planned last day, will help ensure we can allocated funds to when they are needed.  We then won;t be dictated to by the market conditions when acting just prior.

Lastly, many people we work with love nothing more than hitching up the van and hitting the road.  Caravanning too, is best done through careful planning; the purchase decision is no different.  Here, we highlight a number of crucial questions to answer before you make the big investment on buying a caravan.

Hopefully there are some interesting points in what we have pulled to gether for you this month.  As always, please feel free to share any or all of these articles with people who may benefit, and please reach out if our newsletter has raised a need for us to look at your personal needs or circumstances.

Happy Travels !

Steve and Katrina