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Perth Now
3 days ago
- Business
- Perth Now
Faxes to apps: CommSec's 30 years of shaping investing
Fiona Bennett started trading in 1996, calling "sell, sell" into her phone at a morning tea surrounded by fellow mothers. "Everyone was teasing me afterwards," she told AAP. "Most people, especially all the mums, didn't have any idea about investing." At the time, Ms Bennett's husband was overseas and had asked her to sell the shares on his behalf. But she soon began trading for herself. "I was very popular at dinner parties and everybody wanted tips." she said. Ms Bennett collected information through newspapers and word-of-mouth and her trades were done over the phone and using fax machines. "It was really hard to know and, trust me, I had a few losses," she said. Now 65, she was one of CommSec's earliest customers. The online trading platform, parented by the CBA, is this week celebrating its 30th anniversary, having paved the way for Australian investors. In 1997, CommSec became the first Australian broker to launch a share trading website, and in 2008, the first to have its own iPhone trading app. The company now facilitates 40,000 trades per day, worth a total of $575 million. It's a far cry from their opening day in 1995, where a total of four trades were put through, worth $75 each. Market analyst Tom Piotrowski started working for CommSec more than 20 years ago, back when the company's team fitted onto a single floor. He has worked through the vast majority of the biggest days on the ASX, entering the company just after the volatile Y2K period, swiftly followed by the Global Financial Crisis, then most recently the COVID-19 pandemic. "I don't know if it was me turning up that translated to this run of bad luck, but it certainly made it interesting to be a participant in communicating these things to audiences," he said. "It's that type of environment that serves as education for people." The periods acted as catalysts for change according to Mr Piotrowski, who has overcome his camera shyness to feature on television, and social media videos providing information to customers. "I'd never appeared in front of a television camera before I worked with CommSec, that was very obvious to anyone who may have seen my early efforts," he said. "Terror is probably a personal feeling that I experienced quite a bit." CommSec services form just one part of the information now readily available to investors across multiple trading websites and apps. Ms Bennett didn't know any other women who traded when she started, but has noticed a shift with the increase in accessibility. The amount of CommSec investors under 40 have more than doubled over the past 10 years, while the percentage of women who invest has almost tripled over the past five years. "All my children trade, my daughter included," Ms Bennett said. "They're all confident enough to do it, they know what they're doing and they can get more information."
The Advertiser
3 days ago
- Business
- The Advertiser
Faxes to apps: CommSec's 30 years of shaping investing
Fiona Bennett started trading in 1996, calling "sell, sell" into her phone at a morning tea surrounded by fellow mothers. "Everyone was teasing me afterwards," she told AAP. "Most people, especially all the mums, didn't have any idea about investing." At the time, Ms Bennett's husband was overseas and had asked her to sell the shares on his behalf. But she soon began trading for herself. "I was very popular at dinner parties and everybody wanted tips." she said. Ms Bennett collected information through newspapers and word-of-mouth and her trades were done over the phone and using fax machines. "It was really hard to know and, trust me, I had a few losses," she said. Now 65, she was one of CommSec's earliest customers. The online trading platform, parented by the CBA, is this week celebrating its 30th anniversary, having paved the way for Australian investors. In 1997, CommSec became the first Australian broker to launch a share trading website, and in 2008, the first to have its own iPhone trading app. The company now facilitates 40,000 trades per day, worth a total of $575 million. It's a far cry from their opening day in 1995, where a total of four trades were put through, worth $75 each. Market analyst Tom Piotrowski started working for CommSec more than 20 years ago, back when the company's team fitted onto a single floor. He has worked through the vast majority of the biggest days on the ASX, entering the company just after the volatile Y2K period, swiftly followed by the Global Financial Crisis, then most recently the COVID-19 pandemic. "I don't know if it was me turning up that translated to this run of bad luck, but it certainly made it interesting to be a participant in communicating these things to audiences," he said. "It's that type of environment that serves as education for people." The periods acted as catalysts for change according to Mr Piotrowski, who has overcome his camera shyness to feature on television, and social media videos providing information to customers. "I'd never appeared in front of a television camera before I worked with CommSec, that was very obvious to anyone who may have seen my early efforts," he said. "Terror is probably a personal feeling that I experienced quite a bit." CommSec services form just one part of the information now readily available to investors across multiple trading websites and apps. Ms Bennett didn't know any other women who traded when she started, but has noticed a shift with the increase in accessibility. The amount of CommSec investors under 40 have more than doubled over the past 10 years, while the percentage of women who invest has almost tripled over the past five years. "All my children trade, my daughter included," Ms Bennett said. "They're all confident enough to do it, they know what they're doing and they can get more information." Fiona Bennett started trading in 1996, calling "sell, sell" into her phone at a morning tea surrounded by fellow mothers. "Everyone was teasing me afterwards," she told AAP. "Most people, especially all the mums, didn't have any idea about investing." At the time, Ms Bennett's husband was overseas and had asked her to sell the shares on his behalf. But she soon began trading for herself. "I was very popular at dinner parties and everybody wanted tips." she said. Ms Bennett collected information through newspapers and word-of-mouth and her trades were done over the phone and using fax machines. "It was really hard to know and, trust me, I had a few losses," she said. Now 65, she was one of CommSec's earliest customers. The online trading platform, parented by the CBA, is this week celebrating its 30th anniversary, having paved the way for Australian investors. In 1997, CommSec became the first Australian broker to launch a share trading website, and in 2008, the first to have its own iPhone trading app. The company now facilitates 40,000 trades per day, worth a total of $575 million. It's a far cry from their opening day in 1995, where a total of four trades were put through, worth $75 each. Market analyst Tom Piotrowski started working for CommSec more than 20 years ago, back when the company's team fitted onto a single floor. He has worked through the vast majority of the biggest days on the ASX, entering the company just after the volatile Y2K period, swiftly followed by the Global Financial Crisis, then most recently the COVID-19 pandemic. "I don't know if it was me turning up that translated to this run of bad luck, but it certainly made it interesting to be a participant in communicating these things to audiences," he said. "It's that type of environment that serves as education for people." The periods acted as catalysts for change according to Mr Piotrowski, who has overcome his camera shyness to feature on television, and social media videos providing information to customers. "I'd never appeared in front of a television camera before I worked with CommSec, that was very obvious to anyone who may have seen my early efforts," he said. "Terror is probably a personal feeling that I experienced quite a bit." CommSec services form just one part of the information now readily available to investors across multiple trading websites and apps. Ms Bennett didn't know any other women who traded when she started, but has noticed a shift with the increase in accessibility. The amount of CommSec investors under 40 have more than doubled over the past 10 years, while the percentage of women who invest has almost tripled over the past five years. "All my children trade, my daughter included," Ms Bennett said. "They're all confident enough to do it, they know what they're doing and they can get more information." Fiona Bennett started trading in 1996, calling "sell, sell" into her phone at a morning tea surrounded by fellow mothers. "Everyone was teasing me afterwards," she told AAP. "Most people, especially all the mums, didn't have any idea about investing." At the time, Ms Bennett's husband was overseas and had asked her to sell the shares on his behalf. But she soon began trading for herself. "I was very popular at dinner parties and everybody wanted tips." she said. Ms Bennett collected information through newspapers and word-of-mouth and her trades were done over the phone and using fax machines. "It was really hard to know and, trust me, I had a few losses," she said. Now 65, she was one of CommSec's earliest customers. The online trading platform, parented by the CBA, is this week celebrating its 30th anniversary, having paved the way for Australian investors. In 1997, CommSec became the first Australian broker to launch a share trading website, and in 2008, the first to have its own iPhone trading app. The company now facilitates 40,000 trades per day, worth a total of $575 million. It's a far cry from their opening day in 1995, where a total of four trades were put through, worth $75 each. Market analyst Tom Piotrowski started working for CommSec more than 20 years ago, back when the company's team fitted onto a single floor. He has worked through the vast majority of the biggest days on the ASX, entering the company just after the volatile Y2K period, swiftly followed by the Global Financial Crisis, then most recently the COVID-19 pandemic. "I don't know if it was me turning up that translated to this run of bad luck, but it certainly made it interesting to be a participant in communicating these things to audiences," he said. "It's that type of environment that serves as education for people." The periods acted as catalysts for change according to Mr Piotrowski, who has overcome his camera shyness to feature on television, and social media videos providing information to customers. "I'd never appeared in front of a television camera before I worked with CommSec, that was very obvious to anyone who may have seen my early efforts," he said. "Terror is probably a personal feeling that I experienced quite a bit." CommSec services form just one part of the information now readily available to investors across multiple trading websites and apps. Ms Bennett didn't know any other women who traded when she started, but has noticed a shift with the increase in accessibility. The amount of CommSec investors under 40 have more than doubled over the past 10 years, while the percentage of women who invest has almost tripled over the past five years. "All my children trade, my daughter included," Ms Bennett said. "They're all confident enough to do it, they know what they're doing and they can get more information." Fiona Bennett started trading in 1996, calling "sell, sell" into her phone at a morning tea surrounded by fellow mothers. "Everyone was teasing me afterwards," she told AAP. "Most people, especially all the mums, didn't have any idea about investing." At the time, Ms Bennett's husband was overseas and had asked her to sell the shares on his behalf. But she soon began trading for herself. "I was very popular at dinner parties and everybody wanted tips." she said. Ms Bennett collected information through newspapers and word-of-mouth and her trades were done over the phone and using fax machines. "It was really hard to know and, trust me, I had a few losses," she said. Now 65, she was one of CommSec's earliest customers. The online trading platform, parented by the CBA, is this week celebrating its 30th anniversary, having paved the way for Australian investors. In 1997, CommSec became the first Australian broker to launch a share trading website, and in 2008, the first to have its own iPhone trading app. The company now facilitates 40,000 trades per day, worth a total of $575 million. It's a far cry from their opening day in 1995, where a total of four trades were put through, worth $75 each. Market analyst Tom Piotrowski started working for CommSec more than 20 years ago, back when the company's team fitted onto a single floor. He has worked through the vast majority of the biggest days on the ASX, entering the company just after the volatile Y2K period, swiftly followed by the Global Financial Crisis, then most recently the COVID-19 pandemic. "I don't know if it was me turning up that translated to this run of bad luck, but it certainly made it interesting to be a participant in communicating these things to audiences," he said. "It's that type of environment that serves as education for people." The periods acted as catalysts for change according to Mr Piotrowski, who has overcome his camera shyness to feature on television, and social media videos providing information to customers. "I'd never appeared in front of a television camera before I worked with CommSec, that was very obvious to anyone who may have seen my early efforts," he said. "Terror is probably a personal feeling that I experienced quite a bit." CommSec services form just one part of the information now readily available to investors across multiple trading websites and apps. Ms Bennett didn't know any other women who traded when she started, but has noticed a shift with the increase in accessibility. The amount of CommSec investors under 40 have more than doubled over the past 10 years, while the percentage of women who invest has almost tripled over the past five years. "All my children trade, my daughter included," Ms Bennett said. "They're all confident enough to do it, they know what they're doing and they can get more information."
NZ Herald
4 days ago
- Business
- NZ Herald
Perpetual Guardian chief Patrick Gamble about his hard lessons in property investing
Gamble grew up in a working-class family living in Dublin and South Dunedin. He has headed up the estate planning and wealth management firm since 2020. In that time, he has overseen the high-profile move by owner Andrew Barnes to introduce a four-day working week. Talking on the Money Talks podcast, he reflects on wealth and investment and what he has learned about it through his own experience. Gamble studied law at the University of Otago on the assumption that it was a pathway to wealth and got into property investment as soon as he started earning a decent wage. 'As a graduate lawyer, I used that money to buy a couple of investment properties really early on,' Gamble says. 'You sort of buy one, the market goes up, you leverage the difference, then buy a second one.' The lending rules were a bit looser in those days (the early 2000s), he recalls. Growing up, his parents didn't have a lot of money. He recalls his father working 50 hours a week at the freezing works just to break even with the dole and the financial pressure on the family during a strike. 'But they were very entrepreneurial,' he says. When his mother started working in the 1990s, they invested in student flats. 'They'd leveraged heavily to buy some flats,' he says. 'I had to work every second weekend with Dad on those flats. 'We hated it. Dad was obsessed with cleaning up after all these students. You'd own one in a block of 12, but you'd end up cleaning up after all 12 sets of students.' But despite that, Gamble followed in their footsteps as a property investor. 'I had no business doing it,' he says. 'I didn't actually know what I was doing. But I left university relatively wealthy on paper, certainly by the standards I had then.' At that point, he headed off to Ireland, where he had spent a portion of his childhood, to have his OE and work as a lawyer. 'When I came back to New Zealand at 30, I was at zero because those properties were so far underwater,' he says. 'I had worked incredibly hard through my twenties, and I'd been well paid. All the money I'd earned in Ireland, and in Malta and other places, all of it was wiped out.' Some people do make a lot of money out of property investment, 'but it is a game that burns a lot of people along the way,' he says. 'And those stories aren't talked about much.' In part, Gamble was caught by timing, being hit by the Global Financial Crisis. But there were other issues, he admits. 'One of the places I'd bought, a gang moved in, a close-by school shut down. These are the risks.' It went from being a desirable area for young families to one where the families all left, he says. Prices went down. 'If you read a book on property investment, this is the first thing they'll tell you. But when you're young, or just a bit naive, you just think property only goes one way,' he says. 'It's definitely not a one-way bet. You can lose money on property, and ... the bank is not your friend when things are not going well. 'When you're borrowing, they're very keen to lend. And then when you fall below an LVR [loan-to-value ratio] threshold, you're dealing with very different people'. The thing for potential property investors to be aware of is how involved in the property you need to be, he says. 'The mistake that I made, the thing that really burned me, was when I went to Ireland, I basically just left them with a property manager and thought it would all be fine. Rent came in and bills went out. 'But what I didn't realise was all this other stuff happening around the properties that was driving their value down. I wasn't seeing the New Zealand market.' Property isn't something that you can just put a substantial chunk of life savings into and then just forget about it in the way that you can KiwiSaver or a managed fund, he says. 'You have to actively be a property manager or a landlord. You've got to treat it like a job. And most people don't have the time for that. 'If you are fully committed to it, sure, there are lots of people who still manage to make money. But there are better investments for people who don't have the time.' These days, it's Gamble's job – leading Perpetual Guardian – to manage family investments and wealth long term, although he doesn't specifically handle the investing side. Perpetual Guardian's primary role is to look after people's interests when they're no longer able to look after themselves, he says. 'That's our fundamental job as a fiduciary and as a trustee. So if they've passed away and they left things behind them in any sort of difficulty, we can step in. 'But we also help people grow their money throughout their lives. We invest in people. We run a lot of funds. We run financial investments for people outside of our fund group as well.' Perpetual Guardian made global headlines in 2019 when owner Andrew Barnes decided to launch the four-day working week policy. 'That's still a thing,' Gamble says. The idea is that you try to streamline your days; you get rid of time-wasting things like long meetings and mucking about on your phone, he says. 'You try and get all your work done in four days that you would've done in five. And then you take the fifth day off. So it's not an idea that you are doing 80% of the work. It's the idea you're doing 100% of the work, you're just doing it in 80% of the time.' But since Covid and the rise of remote working, the company also offers people the choice of working five days with three in the office and two at home. 'What Covid showed us is, for a lot of people, particularly in office work, you can work from home,' he says. 'You still can be efficient. You can monitor your staff, you can make sure that it doesn't all fall apart.' In all the big centres, that is increasingly the preferred option, he says. 'You know, if you're in Auckland and you've gotta drive 45 minutes to work, it's just better to have two days not having to do that. 'The focus that we have is trying to allow people to have the flexibility in their job; to still live their lives and not be stuck having to get a babysitter in because they can't leave work and log in two hours later.' Outside of his own work hours, Gamble has taken on the important role as honorary consul for Ukraine in New Zealand. His wife is from the east of Ukraine and has been in New Zealand for 17 years, but his brother-in-law has been drafted and is fighting. 'When the war started, it was very personal for us,' he says. Gamble says he was on the periphery of work his wife was doing, but when the ambassador, based in Canberra, wanted to appoint an honorary consul, he stepped up. 'They wanted a New Zealander because their main focus is trying to create links between their Government and the New Zealand Government, their businesses and New Zealand businesses.' The goal is to try to maintain media coverage, political coverage, and keep the war in the public consciousness, he says. 'It's not a hard sell. The New Zealand Government – both sides of the House – have been very, very supportive. 'New Zealand has made economic contributions, it's made humanitarian contributions, it has made some military contributions through training,' he says. 'I would obviously advocate that we could be and should be doing more. I think it's very much in our self-interest. I think Ukraine is an absolute horrendous precedent for a country as isolated as New Zealand.' In New Zealand, it is easy to forget how much we rely on the international rules-based order for absolutely everything in our lives, he says. 'From fuel that runs our trucks to harvest our food, everything in our world relies on the fact that you can ship goods or fly goods into New Zealand unmolested. If we let that rules-based order fracture, New Zealand is in a very difficult position.' Three years in, the Ukrainian conflict has become a war of attrition, Gamble says. 'That's very much by design from the Russian perspective, because they're much happier taking casualties than the Ukrainians are. There haven't been the wins that they enjoyed in the first few months. Things become static. 'Then at the same time, you've had other conflicts around the world. There is only so much in the attention span. 'So that is part of the work [as consul] – to make sure that the right people, who can influence change and decision making, are still talking about it. Listen to the full episode to hear more from Money Talks is a podcast run by the NZ Herald. It isn't about personal finance and isn't about economics – it's just well-known New Zealanders talking about money and sharing some stories about the impact it's had on their lives and how it has shaped them. The series is hosted by Liam Dann, business editor-at-large for the Herald. He is a senior writer and columnist, and also presents and produces videos and podcasts. He joined the Herald in 2003. Money Talks is available on iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Sydney Morning Herald
4 days ago
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
Listen: The opportunity Labor has not had this century and won't have again
Much has been said about Australia's standing on the world stage recently. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, after all, walked a diplomatic tightrope with President Xi Jinping in China this week, while US President Donald Trump's shadow loomed from across the ocean. But next week will see a new term of federal parliament begin, with fresh faces and, hopefully, fresh ideas tackling our domestic issues. Speaking with Acting Federal Editor Nick Bonyhady in a new Inside Politics podcast episode, Nine's Chief Political Editor Charles Croucher delves into the rare opportunity that Labor hasn't had since before Kevin Rudd's first turn as leader. Click the player below to listen to the full episode, or read on for an edited extract of the conversation. Bonyhady: Albanese's trip to China wrapped up on Thursday. He's back in Australia today, Friday, and straight back into parliament next week. What does he face in that sitting period? The Coalition are trying to rebuild from an absolute walloping at the last election. Labor's got a remarkably large agenda. Can we expect to see them be more optimistic in that first sitting week? Croucher: Yeah, I would assume so. And I would assume there is a stability that this government has that no government's really had since probably John Howard. Loading Now, I was doing a talk with some year 5 kids doing government studies the other day. And one of them asked, 'What's been the one bit of policy we've got right?' And I was trying to think of something good for them. And it was really hard. And I realised that for their whole life, they've had this instability, right? We had Rudd, but Rudd came in with all this hope and promise, and then was hit with the [Global Financial Crisis]. And then Julia Gillard ... always had to look over her shoulder at Kevin Rudd. And then in comes Tony Abbott, and again, he had Malcolm Turnbull, Malcolm Turnbull had Tony Abbott, then he goes, Scott Morrison comes in. It was what the Betoota Advocate called the Nightwatchman, so he was just there for a short time. Then he wins the surprise election, all of a sudden, there's a mandate, but there's also COVID-19. And so that robs him of that opportunity. Anthony Albanese takes over, it's a slim majority, he's got inflation, he got hit with cost of living and the Voice.
The Age
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Age
Listen: The opportunity Labor has not had this century and won't have again
Much has been said about Australia's standing on the world stage recently. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, after all, walked a diplomatic tightrope with President Xi Jinping in China this week, while US President Donald Trump's shadow loomed from across the ocean. But next week will see a new term of federal parliament begin, with fresh faces and, hopefully, fresh ideas tackling our domestic issues. Speaking with Acting Federal Editor Nick Bonyhady in a new Inside Politics podcast episode, Nine's Chief Political Editor Charles Croucher delves into the rare opportunity that Labor hasn't had since before Kevin Rudd's first turn as leader. Click the player below to listen to the full episode, or read on for an edited extract of the conversation. Bonyhady: Albanese's trip to China wrapped up on Thursday. He's back in Australia today, Friday, and straight back into parliament next week. What does he face in that sitting period? The Coalition are trying to rebuild from an absolute walloping at the last election. Labor's got a remarkably large agenda. Can we expect to see them be more optimistic in that first sitting week? Croucher: Yeah, I would assume so. And I would assume there is a stability that this government has that no government's really had since probably John Howard. Loading Now, I was doing a talk with some year 5 kids doing government studies the other day. And one of them asked, 'What's been the one bit of policy we've got right?' And I was trying to think of something good for them. And it was really hard. And I realised that for their whole life, they've had this instability, right? We had Rudd, but Rudd came in with all this hope and promise, and then was hit with the [Global Financial Crisis]. And then Julia Gillard ... always had to look over her shoulder at Kevin Rudd. And then in comes Tony Abbott, and again, he had Malcolm Turnbull, Malcolm Turnbull had Tony Abbott, then he goes, Scott Morrison comes in. It was what the Betoota Advocate called the Nightwatchman, so he was just there for a short time. Then he wins the surprise election, all of a sudden, there's a mandate, but there's also COVID-19. And so that robs him of that opportunity. Anthony Albanese takes over, it's a slim majority, he's got inflation, he got hit with cost of living and the Voice.
