It’s that time of the year again, when I repeatedly kick myself for not having booked our holiday accommodation earlier. Where, I assertively announce my annual public vow to be more organised next year, only to seemingly repeat the same vicious cycle.
In my last-minute and desperate attempt to seek accommodation options, I find myself scouring the bowels of the internet in search of that one last elusive vacancy. Sadly, the slight glimmer of hope fades when I find it, because it often comes at the cost of the total GDP of a small nation.
The silver lining here, is that there are always life lessons when it comes to finance. Whilst this particularly bitter lesson burns a hole in the pocket of my board shorts, I‘m left with the timely reminder about the key economic principles of supply and demand. Something for me to ponder and share with the kiddies as a teachable moment. Whilst they respond hurtfully to grumpy Dad’s “back in my day” stories and tales of Christmas woe from my youth, with “OK Boomer!!!”
It appears that Ruby, James and Tom, can be just as cruel as the pricing from greedy accommodation vendors with endless supplies of willing and cashed-up holidaymakers over the Christmas break.
Nevertheless, Millicent, Kellie and I, will be closing the business and taking a break over the festive season. However, rest assured, that we won’t be away for as long as we’d like because we need to pay for our deeply underwhelming, scant and overly expensive accommodation choices.
The office will be closed from Friday 20th December 2019 through to Monday 6th January 2020.
I wanted to take the time to thank everyone who has followed us on Facebook page. It appears that we have hit the required number of new followers, as the site now provides us with a whole lot more insight and analytical data, which is supposed to help us make heads or tails out of our community connections and client engagement. (As you can tell, scepticism remains high and this continues to be a work in progress). We’re still working through the practical benefits of social media. The benefits remain somewhat unclear to me, but I’m sure they’ll eventually show their hand and I’ll say…. “Oh, that’s why it was important”. However, It’s fair to say that my social media appetite pales into insignificance to that of my former business partner, who to this day remains as attracted to this as a Christmas Beatle is to a camp light.
Therefore, in the spirit of celebrating our first Facebook follower milestone, we plan on delivering our first wealth competition for the new calendar year. The competition will include all existing clients of Kuda Wealth, along with all Facebook followers as at 01 January 2020.
All clients including Facebook followers (Pssst...that means you should tell your family and friends to jump on and follow us before 31 December 2019) will go into our inaugural Kuda Wealth Micro-Cap Monopoly competition. With the winner securing a $2,500 flight and accommodation voucher to go towards next year’s horrendously expensive festive accommodation and travel costs. However, If the winner feels the same way about holidays with the kids as I do, they can also nominate a charity of their choosing to receive the $2,500 in the warmth of charitable giving over the “are we there yet?” Choir.
The Micro-Cap Monopoly competition is very simple. All clients and Facebook followers will be allocated a Micro-Cap company (which for those of you not familiar with the term, means a small publicly listed company by market value, in comparison to the Large Cap or Blue-Chip stocks that we hear about in the news. They may not be big, but they continue to trade daily on the Australian Stock Exchange nonetheless). As they are much smaller companies, they generally pose greater risk to an investor, have limited research in support of their economic prospects and generally encounter greater swings in their day to day share price fluctuations.
All participants will be allocated a Micro-Cap share which will come with a ticker code (which is its three letter I.D and can be used to follow it on the stock exchange). There will be no science behind the allocation, names will be matched randomly. Each participant will receive a personal explanation about what their allocated company specialises in and what it does. This will provide you with an opportunity to personally monitor and keep an eye on how your stock is performing and gain an understanding into many wonderful and often amazing smaller companies that make up the overall success of our National economy.
The stock with the greatest uplift in its share price by percentage from the first trading day to the last trading day of the Calendar year, will be judged the winner. Each month, we will provide an update on the top 10 and competition ladder. For privacy purposes, your first name and surname initial listed alongside your stock allocation will ensure your privacy remains paramount for this exercise.
Should any participants wish to refrain from participating, please let us know in writing by sending an e-mail to clientservices@kudawealth.com.au
My family and I will be off to Tasmania to enjoy all the benefits the apple isle brings this summer. The kids will be sufficiently happy with access to a pool, sunscreen, mosquito repellent and an absence of school structure. We will be sufficiently happy if we can curtail their fights, arguments and usual bickering that tends to happen when the three older children are confined to small spaces.
We will be watching the AUS vs NZ boxing day test, consuming far too much Christmas cheer and coming back with the usual New Year’s health and weight loss goals. Afterall, what would an Australian Christmas be without it?
Lastly, we understand that not all our clients celebrate Christmas and for those that don’t we wish you and your family a lovely summer and on behalf of the team at Kuda Wealth, we’d like to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas, a safe and happy New Year and a new decade of good health, good happiness and good market fortune.
Take care and good luck with your entry in the Kuda Wealth Micro-Cap Monopoly competition.
Michael.