Investment clarity comes from the age of innocence

One of the great parts of my role as State manager at Shaw and Partners is that occasionally, I get to impart a bit of hard-earned financial wisdom to Year 10 Economics students.

Sure, their teachers can give them knowledge from textbooks, but I like to tell them what to do with that knowledge and how to use it.

These students have the good fortune of attending a school that is working hard to introduce them to different employers and careers and it gives me a chance to get back to basics – to remember the many reasons why I first entered the financial markets industry in the first place.

For me, this experience is an opportunity to break down what we do as “wealth managers” and how critical it is to actually keep it simple. All the fancy programs, industry jargon, graphs and spaghetti maps seem to miss the point when you’re talking to a young audience about how they might want to spend the majority of the rest of their lives.

The presentation aims to talk to the students about the average day in the life of a wealth adviser, a career that has gained prominence of late given the imminent extinction of the once infamous stockbroker. Oh, the glory days!

Stockbroking for me was a career that offered independence, fortune and most importantly, some fun. The stories of old and tales of the characters who made and lost fortunes for both clients and themselves attracted many to St Georges Terrace, or its equivalent in many cities around the nation.

Technological disruption and regulatory change continues to force this evolution in financial services, from the gun-slinging stockbroking types of old to the new breed of wealth advisers who are entering an industry where the client is becoming more reliant on good in-depth advice to help navigate a more complex financial world driven largely by personal wealth passing between generations.

Having now had the privilege of conducting these school-based sessions on many occasions over many years, I remain impressed by some of the insights and questions that I get and it is a genuine opportunity for me to remember the fundamentals of what we do in our career as investors and advisors. Young minds often get straight to the point without being influenced by much of the noise and complexity that the more experienced tend to overlay – and it is oh, so refreshing.

They remind me that simple questions require simple answers and I often laugh at how far I have come, yet how the basic rules still apply.

“When should I start investing?” they ask. The simple answer is best illustrated by the old saying that, “The best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago – the second-best time is NOW!”. It is very basic advice that can be applied to all aspects of life.

“How much do I need before I should start investing?” was another question from my eager school audience. Again, simplicity is key and this question could perhaps be broken down into three answers:

1) Don’t waste time waiting for the perfect moment to start.

2) Investing in the long term involves winning and losing and the latter can teach you a hard lesson. Would you rather learn that lesson at a younger age when you don’t have as much to risk, or later in life when you are risking the farm? The answer? Start small, start early, start now ... just start!

The magic of “compounding” lends itself to starting early. Compounding is when the return on your invested capital is reinvested each year and your nest egg gets bigger and bigger every year (well in theory at least). For example, if you invested $10,000 now and managed to get a 6 per cent compounded return a year for 30 years, your outlay would have morphed into $60,000. If you topped it up with just $100 a month from your salary, that $60,000 would become $160,000 before any associated fees.

Another question from my young friends is, “How do I get rich?”

Adults tend to ask the same question but just in different ways. School kids on the other hand just come straight out with it.

One lesson I like to share on this topic is the old adage about income and investing. So, here goes:

Unless you have stumbled across an early inheritance, income typically takes the form of your salary, plus any passive investment income you may have (that is, share dividends, rent, etc.), or business income (profits from owing your own business). Now, you can spend all that money every month living large (or as large as your means allow) if you want to, or you can snip some of it and put it to work.

Simply put, if you spend all of your income, you will have very little left to invest in order to build real wealth in the long term. If, however, you can invest a meaningful portion from the earliest time possible and generate reasonable “compounded” returns, you just might create some choices for yourself later in life.

“So what should I look for in a career?” I am often asked.

For this question, I take inspiration from Warren Buffet’s right-hand man, the late, great Charlie Munger, who once said:

- “Don’t sell anything you wouldn’t buy yourself”.

- “Don’t work for anyone you don’t respect and admire”.

- “Work only with people you enjoy”.

Sure, a few billion dollars in the bank account helps with the above, but they are solid goals, nonetheless.

As I recount the asking of these simple questions and the equally simple answers they inspire, it amazes me how easy it can be to break down some incredibly complex life lessons into achievable outcomes.

Perhaps, it takes the raw innocence of a school kid and his or her well-meaning simple questions to break out of that slightly cynical and complex investing mindset and just get back to the basics.

And I would add my own final learning, too, for my student interrogators – there is much to be gained by who you surround yourself with and great things can be achieved by those who continue to ask questions and tirelessly work to improve a little every day.

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Davide Bosio is the WA State Manager and Director of Corporate Finance at investment and wealth management firm Shaw and Partners. For 22 years he has been immersed in the WA finance industry offering corporate services and strategic advice to private and public organisations, specifically in relation to capital raisings and M&A advice. He has also been to the other side having been a director of multiple ASX-listed public companies. While he is the State Manager of Shaw and Partners (AFSL 236 048) this column is for information and entertainment purposes only and is not intended to constitute financial advice. The views and opinions contained within are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Bulls N’ Bears, this media outlet or Shaw and Partners.