The staple of retirement planning - save a percentage of income - makes it surprisingly difficult to ever reach retirement. The alternative is much easier and more successful.

Everyone knows bond rates are going up - so why would you buy fixed interest? Actually, there are three really good reasons.

PortfolioConstruction Forum Academy Winter Seminar 2014 featured four sessions: Risk, return & relating; Statistics, lies, and investment performance analysis; How safe are safe withdrawal rates in retirement?; and, Communicating and learning with and from clients.

What we are witnessing in Iraq is a war within Islam. Will it mutate into a broader regional war thereby threatening oil supplies?

Our Forum Fodder NZ e-newsletter alerts Members to what's new on PortfolioConstruction.com.au and live progams. This week - Woody Brock, Dominic McCormick, Anatole Kaletsky & Ken Rogoff

Our Forum Fodder e-newsletter alerts Members to what's new on PortfolioConstruction.com.au and live progams. This week - Woody Brock, Dominic McCormick, Anatole Kaletsky & Ken Rogoff

Here are some brief thoughts on four issues that matter a lot, in our view. Two have been poorly discussed in the financial press, and the other two have been ignored completely.

Investing differently gives no certainty of great results (increasing the odds of being wrong as well as right). But it is a necessary but not sufficient ingredient for great performance.

Moving to a twenty-first-century currency system would make it far simpler to move to a twenty-first-century central-banking regime as well.

Our Forum Fodder NZ e-newsletter alerts Members to what's new on PortfolioConstruction.com.au and live progams. In Fodder NZ this week - Jack Gray, Michael Kitces, Louis-Vincent Gave & Robert Huebscher

Our Forum Fodder e-newsletter alerts Members to what's new on PortfolioConstruction.com.au and live progams. This week - Nouriel Roubini, Charles Gave & Jonathan Pain

Are we any good at estimating the values of our homes? Surprisingly, on average we are, according to a RBA study. It also found a link to weightings of risky assets in portfolios.

Tomorrow we expect to see the latest Band-Aid solution being applied to the eurozone. Forgive me if I don't roll out the barrel. As I see it, there are four key problems.

Across the industry, portfolio rebalancing is the norm - with little agreement on the optimal frequency. So I experimented to find out which frequency is best.

Our Forum Fodder e-newsletter alerts Members to what's new on PortfolioConstruction.com.au and live progams. This week - Jack Gray, Michael Kitces, Louis-Vincent Gave & Robert Huebscher

This Resources Kit is a deluge of videos, podcasts, and papers for all sessions of the jam-packed Symposium 2014 program so you can "attend" even if you weren't part of the 200-strong audience.

Markets are pricing in expectations that the ECB will have to be very aggressive next week if it is to turn back the tide of European deceleration. It's reminiscent of October 1987.

Nobody is more outspokenly bearish on Japan than Kyle Bass. He recently reiterated doubts about Japan's chances of averting a debt crisis, and cast doubt on China's economy.

Most research assumes retirees maintain a consistent standard of living. A new study disproves this, implying we may be overestimating funds needed to retire by up to 20%.

Three interrelated aspects of practically managing client portfolios - constructing portfolios using buckets, diversifying human capital, and the Withdrawal Policy Statement.