Hello and welcome to this month's edition of Investment insights, and our final communication for 2014.

In this edition we turn to a semi regular contributor, Jim Parker, who has penned an excellent piece titled 'Festive Forecasting'. In the piece, Jim goes back 12 months to look at the 'Top 100 Picks' from The Australian, along with some foresight from the Sydney Morning Herald. After acknowledging that making investment decisions on the opinion of others will produce a combination of both winners and losers, he notes that "It seems pretty clear that basing your investment strategy upon the forecasts of share analysts, economists and journalists about the outlook for individual companies, sectors, industries and the broader Australian and global economy is a dicey proposition". Click here to read the article.

Daniel Minihan, our Director of Wealth Management, recently wrote a similar piece titled ' Where are all the Yacht's?' which references a book written in 1940 and highlights that it was those giving the advice that owned the Yacht's, not the clients receiving the advice.

The point of these two pieces, is not to say that either Jim or Daniel have all the answers, but rather to remind you that making investment decisions on the forecasts of others is not necessarily the best approach to a long term investment strategy.

So as we move to the conclusion of another year and look forward to a well earned couple of weeks off, you may decide to read the papers and make some decisions about how to invest your money in 2015. By all means do this, but after you have read what the forecasters are telling you, here are a few more pieces that we have come across this year that might temper your enthusiasm to follow the herd.

When Chasing Hot Stocks Could Burn You

Building a Personal Margin of Safety

The Drawbacks of Investing with the Group

Why the All Weather Portfolio is a Washout

What Does Financial Jargon Mean

Wishing everyone a safe and happy Christmas and New Year and, as always, if you would like to discuss your portfolio or any aspect of your financial affairs, click on the links below to contact one of our advisers today.

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