Watch episode on youtube: https://youtu.be/iTxOV2dSvkA

Published June 2025. In this episode of "What's the Risk?" we take a look at the historic performance of the FTSE Australia High Dividend Yield Index. Some people would know an ETF that seeks to track the performance of this index as Vanguard's VHY ETF.

Dividends and high yield stocks have always been a draw for some investors who may think they are getting something for free with dividends, but it's important to remember dividends are not free money, that cash comes from somewhere Share prices are influenced by expected future cash flows to shareholders. If cash goes out the door as a dividend, share price and market cap generally fall ex dividend.

Dividends are also not as tax efficient as selling something post a CGT discount, however in Australia most of our largest companies are all large dividends payers, so it's interesting to take a look at a yield focused index vs a broader index such as the ASX 300, to see whether simply focusing on those companies has provided a better return?

Want to learn more about investing? Get our Book: https://www.amazon.com.au/Your-Investment-Philosophy-Protecting-Fraudsters-ebook/dp/B0BCPJ8BGC/  

https://www.mfg.com.au  

Mancell Financial Group is an Authorised Representative No. 226266 and Credit Representative No. 403187 of FYG Planners Pty Ltd, AFSL/ACL No. 224543. ABN 29 009 541 253.  

FTSE Australia High Dividend Yield TR Index AUD 1/2011 - 12/2024. Copyright 2025 FTSE Russell® All rights reserved.

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Watch episode on youtube: https://youtu.be/POVqfaiQaj8

Published May 2025. Retirement is a common goal. For many of us, we'd all like to hang up the boots or log off at some point. The focus usually turns to money as we progress towards retirement, but there is an overlooked issue that is equally important: finding purpose. People know what they are retiring from, but not really knowing what they are retiring to.

Finding a purpose in retirement can be a struggle and may require as much planning as the money side of things to ensure we continue to live happy and healthy lives.

Peter Mancell has been helping people retire for 45 years and he makes purpose a focus of retirement planning, to ensure clients do continue to thrive as they age. 

If you'd like to learn more about investing, Get our Book: https://www.amazon.com.au/Your-Investment-Philosophy-Protecting-Fraudsters-ebook/dp/B0BCPJ8BGC/  

Mancell Financial Group is an Authorised Representative No. 226266 and Credit Representative No. 403187 of FYG Planners Pty Ltd, AFSL/ACL No. 224543. ABN 29 009 541 253.  

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Watch episode on youtube: https://youtu.be/p54lPItZSuY

Published May 2025.

Index funds are great investment tools to pursue your investment goals, especially if you can buy one that covers the global investment opportunity set, but that can be hard to do.

We take a look some various quirks around index funds, that highlight the reality that no index is truly passive and we're all faced with making active choices as investors.

It's important to remember that index providers don't have any interest in the needs of the end investor, it's the index manager who selects which index they will track and provide that tracking fund to the public, which is a commercial decision. 

This means investors are often presented with narrower options, that can tempt us to chase fads. And if an index fund doesn't take off, or something more exciting comes along, the index manager can change the index it tracks and leave investors making another choice about what to do with their money. 

None of this is to say that investors shouldn't use index funds, but that it's a good idea to find the broadest possible index available and remain disciplined pursuing your financial and investment goals.

Want to learn more about investing? Get our Book: https://www.amazon.com.au/Your-Investment-Philosophy-Protecting-Fraudsters-ebook/dp/B0BCPJ8BGC/  

https://www.mfg.com.au  

Mancell Financial Group is an Authorised Representative No. 226266 and Credit Representative No. 403187 of FYG Planners Pty Ltd, AFSL/ACL No. 224543. ABN 29 009 541 253.   

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Watch episode on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvFqe_CH5BU

Published March 2025. Market volatility isn't a new thing, it's the price of admission when investing. But every bout of volatility or even a correction may feel different, and incredibly important, but history has shown markets always price in new information and move on.

As market volatility prompts reactions from investors, it's going to tell investors something about themselves. While investors should construct their portfolios and address their super allocation according to their goals and risk tolerance, often they pick something with the highest return number. They then get a shock when it also delivers them volatility they weren't expecting.

We look at some issues around this. We highlight things investors should consider either now, or preferably before they build a portfolio, or change their superannuation to a very aggressive option, just because someone told them they should.

Want to learn more about investing? Get our Book: https://www.amazon.com.au/Your-Investment-Philosophy-Protecting-Fraudsters-ebook/dp/B0BCPJ8BGC/  

https://www.mfg.com.au  

Mancell Financial Group is an Authorised Representative No. 226266 and Credit Representative No. 403187 of FYG Planners Pty Ltd, AFSL/ACL No. 224543. ABN 29 009 541 253.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Watch episode on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL9LDHCTa4c

Published March 2025. In this episode of "What's the Risk?" we take a look at the historic performance of the MSCI World ex Australia Small Cap Quality 150 Index. Some people would know an ETF that seeks to track the performance of this index as VanEck's QSML ETF.

We briefly look at how the index is constructed by MSCI, but you can refer back to our pervious video on MSCI World ex Australia Quality Index for a better discussion on quality.

The index itself draws from MSCI World ex Australia Small Cap Index, so we compare the performance of the two indices since January 1999.

If we take MSCI's screen for quality and size, there certainly appears to have been a premium attached to it over this time period.

Want to learn more about investing? Get our Book: https://www.amazon.com.au/Your-Investment-Philosophy-Protecting-Fraudsters-ebook/dp/B0BCPJ8BGC/  

https://www.mfg.com.au  

Mancell Financial Group is an Authorised Representative No. 226266 and Credit Representative No. 403187 of FYG Planners Pty Ltd, AFSL/ACL No. 224543. ABN 29 009 541 253.  

MSCI World ex Australia Small Cap Quality 150 Index (AUD) January 1999 – December 2024: Country Code AA. Total Returns Net Dividends in AUD

Source: MSCI MSCI data © MSCI 2025, all rights reserved.

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Watch episode on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMkt4febfWg

Published February 2025. In this episode of "What's the Risk?" we take a look at the historic performance of the MSCI World ex Australia Quality Index. Some people would know an ETF that seeks to track the performance of this index as VanEck's QUAL ETF.

We look at the definition of quality by MSCI and Peter discusses how that compares to the profitability factor. The index itself draws from MSCI World ex Australia, so we compare the performance of the two indices since December 1994.

If we take MSCI's screen for quality, there certainly appears to have been a premium attached to it over this time period.

Want to learn more about investing? Get our Book: https://www.amazon.com.au/Your-Investment-Philosophy-Protecting-Fraudsters-ebook/dp/B0BCPJ8BGC/  

https://www.mfg.com.au  

Mancell Financial Group is an Authorised Representative No. 226266 and Credit Representative No. 403187 of FYG Planners Pty Ltd, AFSL/ACL No. 224543. ABN 29 009 541 253.  

MSCI World ex Australia Quality NR Index AUD. December 1994 – December 2024: Country Code AA. Total Returns Net Dividends in AUD

Source: MSCI MSCI data © MSCI 2025, all rights reserved

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Watch episode on youtube: https://youtu.be/wrwlOlimcec

Published February 2025. In this episode of "What's the Risk?" we take a look at the historic performance of the Solactive Australia 200 Index, which some investors may know is tracked by Betashares A200 ETF. 

At the end of 2024, the index itself doesn't have a long history, just over 14 years, so while we look at its recent performance, which is similar to an S&P/ASX 200 tracker, we specifically look at the gap in performance between the 200 largest companies and the 300 largest companies in Australia. 

Larger companies tend to do better in Australia, which leaves question marks over the small cap effect, but Peter has some theories on the underperformance.

Want to learn more about investing? Get our Book: https://www.amazon.com.au/Your-Investment-Philosophy-Protecting-Fraudsters-ebook/dp/B0BCPJ8BGC/  

https://www.mfg.com.au  

Mancell Financial Group is an Authorised Representative No. 226266 and Credit Representative No. 403187 of FYG Planners Pty Ltd, AFSL/ACL No. 224543. ABN 29 009 541 253.  

October 2010 – December 2024: Solactive Australia 200 TR Index AUD. ©Solactive AG, 2025. All rights reserved. “Solactive”, “Solactive GBS”, “German Index Engineering” are registered trademarks of Solactive AG 

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Watch episode on youtube: https://youtu.be/J8wEM-RpxHc

Published January 2025. In this episode of "What's the Risk?" we take a look at the historic performance of the MSCI Russia Index as a lead into a discussion on what happens when an ETF is closed and doing due diligence on any ETFs an investor might use in their portfolio.

ETF closure is a risk and it can happen for various reasons, in the example of Russia the index providers stopped tracking Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, but ETFs can be shut down and changed at the whim of the manager. We look at two cases at Vanguard and Blackrock which show it's not just small managers who will close or change ETFs without much warning.  

Want to learn more about investing? Get our Book: https://www.amazon.com.au/Your-Investment-Philosophy-Protecting-Fraudsters-ebook/dp/B0BCPJ8BGC/  

https://www.mfg.com.au  

Mancell Financial Group is an Authorised Representative No. 226266 and Credit Representative No. 403187 of FYG Planners Pty Ltd, AFSL/ACL No. 224543. ABN 29 009 541 253.  

MSCI Russia Index (net div.) January 1999 - Present: Total Returns Net Dividends in USD. Source: MSCI. MSCI data © MSCI 2025, all rights reserved.

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Watch episode on youtube: https://youtu.be/OLbPYJJbVXY

Published January 2025. In this episode of "What's the Risk?" we take a look at the performance of the S&P 500 across 2000-2009, which is often regarded as a lost decade due to the negative return the index delivered.  

In more recent times the performance of the S&P 500 has been amazing and it's had some investors believing that the S&P 500 is the only thing they need as their investment strategy. Is that good or bad? As we explain, diversification is probably a better strategy, but if they are planning to use one index as their strategy, they should be prepared to stick with it through thick and thin.

We also look at the impact the Australian dollar had for Australian investors, along with how the returns would have played out with "real world" scenarios had an investor been dollar cost averaging or drawing from a portfolio in a retirement scenario. We also compare some other asset classes an investor could have used across the decade and seen a more positive return.

Want to learn more about investing? Get our Book: https://www.amazon.com.au/Your-Investment-Philosophy-Protecting-Fraudsters-ebook/dp/B0BCPJ8BGC/  

https://www.mfg.com.au  

Mancell Financial Group is an Authorised Representative No. 226266 and Credit Representative No. 403187 of FYG Planners Pty Ltd, AFSL/ACL No. 224543. ABN 29 009 541 253.

S&P 500 Index 1/1926 - 12/2023. January 1990 - Present: S&P 500 Index. Total Returns in USD. Source: Standard & Poors Index Services Group. January 1926 - December 1989: S&P 500 Index Source: Ibbotson data courtesy of © Stocks, Bonds, Bills and Inflation Yearbook, Ibbotson Associates, Chicago (annually updated works by Roger C. Ibbotson and Rex A. Sinquefield). Copyright 2024 S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, a division of S&P Global. All rights reserved.

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Watch episode on youtube: https://youtu.be/4WGxBDgr_9I

Published December 2024. In this episode of "What's the Risk?" we take a look at the historic performance of the MSCI Japan Index (net div, JPY) which tracks the performance of the large and mid cap segments of the Japanese market.  

Japan's stockmarket performance over an extended period was extremely poor after a very strong period in the 1980's, and it's often used as an example as why people shouldn't index, but as we explain, it's really an argument for diversification.  

Want to learn more about investing? Get our Book: https://www.amazon.com.au/Your-Investment-Philosophy-Protecting-Fraudsters-ebook/dp/B0BCPJ8BGC/  

https://www.mfg.com.au  

Mancell Financial Group is an Authorised Representative No. 226266 and Credit Representative No. 403187 of FYG Planners Pty Ltd, AFSL/ACL No. 224543. ABN 29 009 541 253.  

MSCI Japan Index (net div., JPY) 1/1970 - 12/2023 January 1970 - Present: MSCI Japan Index (net div., JPY) Total Returns Net Dividends in JPY

Country Code FJ Source: MSCI MSCI data © MSCI 2024, all rights reserved. 

MSCI World ex Japan Index (Kokusai Index) (net div., JPY) 1/1970 - 12/2023  February 2004 - present: MSCI World ex Japan (Kokusai Index) (net div, JPY)

Returns Net Dividends in JPY Currency Code: JPY MSCI data © MSCI 2024, all rights reserved. 

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