In this post I’ll be reviewing shares I recommended in Invest 6.0. Many thanks to Sam for contributing in part to it. He has a PhD in Accounting, and will be a regular finance and tax writer on Shirl’s Pearls.

Many shareholders, and self-funded retirees especially, received their paychecks in dividends this month. Last year was a drought for most of us – some dividends were scrapped altogether and others were reduced substantially. 

Thankfully, Australian banks have recovered from the millions they paid in compensation and fines as a result of the recent Royal Commission, and the shock of the pandemic. I’m glad to report that dividends this September are (almost) back to normal! 

The extended lockdowns in NSW, Victoria and the ACT may result in more ‘bad bear days’ for shareholders and super funds. Each state (apart from WA, evidently) is struggling to keep its economy alive, and some are worse off than others.

If there is the slightest risk of inflation, the Reserve Bank will likely increase interest rates; the way I look at it, from such a low base it’s not likely to hurt the property market. But borrowing beyond our manageable limits is too risky.

No-one can, or should, attempt to predict the future.  Stick to the fundamentals and don’t get carried away by the hype. ‘A rising tide lifts all ships’ — but don’t be one of the dead fish on the sand when the tide goes out!  

While things are still uncertain, it would be a good idea to hang on to some cash until we spot an interesting stock to buy. One such stock could be Jalna Dairy Foods (jalna.com.au), believed to be planning to list on the ASX. I like it and will keep you posted. 

New listings known as ‘IPOs’ (Initial Public Offerings) of mining stocks are also coming in thick and fast. Why? Because gold, silver, copper, aluminium, nickel, graphene and ‘rare earths’ are now in demand. Everything to do with technology and quantum computing will need these materials – and there will surely be more exciting discoveries to come! 

The most exciting of these materials is GRAPHENE, the building block of graphite, which has been termed a ‘miracle metal’ due to its exceptional strength (it is 200 times stronger than steel) and good electrical conductivity. As a result, graphene has many potential applications, including batteries, transistors, computer chips, medical equipment, and electric vehicles. For example, introducing graphene to the lithium-ion batteries used in smartphones and laptops has been found to make the batteries more lightweight and charge much faster than other lithium-ion batteries. Researchers are still learning about graphene and its properties, so watch this space!

The key factor with these materials is do we refine them here in Australia, or send them off to Malaysia or China for this? I would love for us to do it all. Here’s where energy supply and costs come in. I believe we’ll see reliable, emission-free nuclear energy, shunned for so long, finally up for debate.

The Sydney Morning Herald published an interesting article last August on Australian innovation. It’s not related to the stocks I’ve picked, but there are many clues that will lead you to at least 1 or 2 industry and tech stocks that are up and coming.  

Meanwhile, we’re counting on the vaccine to deliver us from lockdown by Christmas. I will be so happy when all businesses – the travel and hospitality industries particularly – get their credit card and Eftpos terminals working furiously again. Don’t we miss our retail therapy? The touch and feel of what we want to buy … browsing and enjoying a coffee in a busy shopping centre … let online shopping take a back seat for a change!   

A word of caution when investing in IPOs of small mining stocks (which make up the lion’s share of all new ASX listings due to the Australian economy’s emphasis on resources) – these are speculative, as they are still in the ‘discovery’ stage and have yet to start production – they don’t produce any revenue. 

Watch for words describing the company’s projects as ‘exciting’, ‘significant potential’, ‘high grade’, ‘highly prospective’, ‘close to ports’ and ‘established infrastructure’ – these are all signs of a speculative investment. This means that in any given 52-week period, there is a high likelihood that the stock will at least double in price – but with an equally high (if not higher) likelihood that it will halve in price too!

My advice on speculative shares? If they are issued at 0.50c or less a share, I pick one or two which I believe have potential and buy $1,000 worth (or not more than you or I am prepared to lose). I look at the people involved and their track record: in particular, whether they have technical know-how and experience in the business. We’ll explore this in more detail in future posts.

Here’s an update of share picks from the table in Invest 6.0: 

I am pleased with my stock picks so far – and especially happy with the dividends! I will certainly hold on to those for a few years, Telstra especially.

Next week, Sam will help us understand the tax implications of franked dividends. Tax law is complex – but doesn’t have to be boring, and we should all learn the basics on our path to building wealth!

We lost the last link to the previous generation of our family when our beautiful Margaret passed away on 5 August 2021 in Noosa, Queensland. She was a gifted musician and singer – and a wonderfully warm, giving, human being. Her shining legacy and impact on our lives will be felt forever. This is our Tribute to You, Margaret!

From Geoff:

From left: Margaret’s brother-in-law Hans, sister Poppy, Margaret & Geoff – Noosa, mid-’90s

From Shirley:

Margaret, or ‘M’ as she was known, dodged the bullets of her cancer for 6 years, surprising her doctors. Her last few months were the most difficult, but she got her wish to remain at her Noosa unit to the very end. I was only an hour’s flight away in Sydney, heartbroken that the pandemic separated us. I couldn’t hold her in my arms and sing to her in her last hours of life. 

Left: The Manasseh Sisters at the start of their career: Margaret (left) & sister Poppy – Singapore, late ’40s; Top centre: The Sisters on stage, New Year’s Eve – S’pore, early ’50s; Bottom centre: The reformed Manasseh Sisters: Margaret (3rd from left) & Shirley, with ‘The Constellation’ – Tanglin Club, S’pore, 1975; Right: M, Shirley & bassist David Loh – Tanglin Club, late ’70s.

I will treasure every visit I made to Noosa to see Margaret and her husband Geoff. The last time was in April this year, just before the Sydney lockdown. M gave me cassettes of all our recorded music, her scrapbook and photos. She knew she didn’t have much time left.

Sitting at her home ‘office’ table with her notes, diary, medication and TV guide, she reminisced about her life in Singapore, and the horrors of being interned during the Japanese occupation there. Her mother was widowed at 35 with 5 daughters, 2 sons and 5 stepchildren.    

M and her sister Poppy worked as waitresses serving Japanese troops during the War, and also began singing together. A high-ranking Japanese officer loved their voices so much, he placed an order outside their home forbidding entry to Japanese soldiers. A lady at the restaurant kitchen gave them food to put in their apron pockets to take home. Someone was certainly watching over this family who were so vulnerable in the face of war! 

The best part of my childhood was spent in my Gran’s flat (we lived in the same block), listening in awe to M and Poppy – the much-loved “Andrews’ Sisters of Singapore” – sing and play their guitars, harmonising perfectly (both learned guitar in their teens). Our beloved Poppy was just as vivacious as the pictures show, and a very good lead guitarist. She remained a crack cryptic-crossworder and witty joke raconteur right until she left us in 2013. M always felt her loss. 

But the mid-’60s were a happy time for M and Poppy, after they settled in Sydney. They had full-time jobs, and Poppy married in 1969. My mother then insisted M should return to Singapore, saying “We CAN’T let that voice die!” (I was singing solo in nightclubs then.) M arrived in 1970 with her trusted guitar. We found a bassist and drummer, and began our career as the reformed ‘Manasseh Sisters’.

Our best and happiest times were with our band ‘The Constellation’ at Singapore’s exclusive Tanglin Club. We performed there for 7 years. 

Listening to the tapes and looking back at our careers now, it’s uncanny how well our voices blended and harmonised. We had such different personalities: M lived for the moment, I planned for the future; she loved her scotch and soda, I stuck to water with sliced lemon. But on stage we were ONE. Our strengths prevailed over our weaknesses. We didn’t simply sing: M was the supreme entertainer and communicator who lit up the stage; I was the administrator who scheduled rehearsals, selected new songs and compiled song lists.

We alternated smoothly from verse to chorus if a song had a wide vocal range – and no-one could tell us apart! We all memorised our music, lyrics and arrangements. The ’70s song ‘Rose Garden’ was one that took the longest to perfect; I still recall our frustration, and then elation when we got it right! 

My dearest M: We celebrated your life each day you were alive. Now we reminisce and will shed many tears. You’re there in my heart and in every note I sing. I can still hear you harmonising with me. And for all those lovely years we had together on stage, I thank you!

From Joyce:

It is so surreal, really, to be writing this. I don’t know where to start, because there is so much. Margaret was just here only weeks ago, and now, devastatingly, she is not. And yet … she is. Mainly because she is unforgettable. I cannot think of a single person I know who, once they met her, disliked her. It would not be incorrect to say that everyone loved Margaret.

You see, Margaret shone. As I remember her now, it’s as if she came with a light around her. She shone with deep love from within: love for her family, love for her friends, love for the love of her life, the husband she left behind, Geoff. Margaret loved life itself, the music and poetry in it; she loved making music; she fell in love with a melody, with well-constructed, meaningful lyrics, with the pathos of a love song, but also with the energizing rhythms of a Latin beat. Actually, she was so enthused about everything creative – the performance arts, unique voices, outstanding renditions, artworks. She had the amazing ability – and desire – to absorb it all.

Unbelievably it seems, this wonderful woman, my aunt, was even more: conversations with her sparkled with her wit and humor and she appreciated a good joke and told them well; her laughter was hearty and infectious. They were also filled with her insatiable curiosity about everything right to her last few days – from computers to politics to cooking and recipes, to philosophies and religion. She had an inspiring appreciation for so many things – and so many people. You always felt Margaret’s love and so, it was always easy to love her back. She was generous of spirit, she supported us, encouraged us and although she quipped, “If at first you don’t succeed – GIVE UP!”, she never did, nor did she expect us to. 

She lived life her way all the way to the very end – courageously, energetically, lovingly and empathically – through a hectic childhood and being interned by the Japanese in WWII, enduring and overcoming personal hurdles to shine brighter than before, even winning, as a teenager, the Frankie Laine Singing Contest. She sang beautifully and played the guitar – and although she found it increasingly difficult to continue playing her favorite instrument, she accepted the rapidly changing situation in her life uncomplainingly. Instead, she was eager to watch ace guitarists shred the strings on YouTube. We had enjoyed exchanging clips of so many performers in this way over the years, especially so in the last few.

Yes, there is much to remember and much to write, because Margaret was involved in so much, the best you can find in a human being. In losing her, I personally have lost the most understanding, encouraging, supportive aunt I could ever have the blessing of knowing.

Rest well, my dearest M. I will always remember you with the greatest admiration and love.

From Gloria:

Margaret inspired me to strum the guitar like she did – and I learnt while watching her. Her voice was amazing, and her ear for harmony was so perfect! She recorded the opening to my weekly program on Singapore radio, ‘Let’s Make Music’, in the late 1970s. And here it is:  

M never really gave advice; she was more focused on listening intently on what you had to say – like a ‘master listener’ – so you would always feel special to be in her presence, knowing what you had to say was very important to her. I loved her sense of humour. I miss her dearly, and can’t yet come to terms with her being gone. 

Forever young in our hearts
Forever young in our thoughts
Forever in our music, where your music will live on for all generations to follow!

We think you’re just SENSATIONAL, ‘M’! 🎤🎶🎸

From Susanna:

I remember Aunt Margaret as a woman who loved life and loved music, and who always presented herself with so much poise. She had a gentle and loving nature. When she sang, it was with all the love that was in her heart. As we grew up in a family of singers and musicians, there was this time I specifically remember when my cousin Gloria and I (aged 13) went to a gig with Margaret and cousin Shirley who were singing with their band at the Singapore RAF Army Base. Both Gloria and I were on stage with them playing the maracas and tambourines – and we had a ball! Since that time, I learned the guitar and in no time at all, I too started playing music professionally. I would say that our music careers were really very much influenced by Margaret. I believe our families will always have singing and music in our homes throughout the generations to come.

Thank you Margaret for sharing your beautiful voice and music with us, and with so many people internationally all these years, and for triggering that spark of music into my life!

From Natalie:

I will always remember the first time I met my aunt Margaret. I was 8 years old, growing up with much of our family living in Singapore. 

Margaret came to Singapore in 1970 for the first time since I’d been born, after she had migrated to Australia. During her visit, I happened to find a crushed dollar bill on the ground. I was so gleefully enamored and smitten by this lovely, younger and hip Aussie aunt, that I picked the dollar up and lovingly enclosed it in a ‘love-letter’ to her – in the way 8-year-olds do to family members they love. I remember how touched she was by it, and saved it for a $1 bingo ticket that week at a local recreation club. As luck would have it – or maybe it was simply the energy of love and abundance attached to the gift – she won the grand bingo prize of $1,000! 

Needless to say, the whole family was treated to a lovely weekend lunch, while I was shyly designated “star of the afternoon” by her. 

Margaret was a beautiful, warm, loving, smart and witty lady with a gentle nature whom we all loved!

From Efrem:

I grew up with my beautiful and elegant aunt Margaret in Sydney during the ’60s and ’70s. My childhood and teenage years were spent with her always being a living, loving presence nearby; an enduringly calm and deeply caring figure in the background of my formative life. I only ever heard kindness and encouragement fall from Margaret’s lips, and not once did she utter a hard or unkind word to me in all the years we spent together on this earth.

After spending much time away, I had the distinct privilege of reconnecting with Margaret during her senior years in Tewantin, Queensland. Hence it was with great delight that I realized that she had grown far wiser and more insightful than I had ever known her to be. Margaret had become even more deeply loving than she was in earlier years. Her bright soul and sharp, beneficent and ethical mind shone for all to see. I knew then that the time-honored definition of enlightenment was true after all:

“True enlightenment is when a person has nothing left inside but love.”

From Dave:

The divine, UNREAL (her pet word) ‘M’ was my aunt, godmother and mentor in music. Her rich contralto, gift for harmony, vocal arranging and multitrack recording on her Akai reel machine (as the one pictured) virtually ignited my desire to sing and perform. We both stuttered badly in childhood: singing helped us “smooth the words”. Sometimes I couldn’t even get her name out – but she always waited patiently until I did. Whilst untrained in classical music, she loved Brahms and Chopin, and would perfectly vocalise (or whistle) the exquisite melodies in Schubert’s Serenade and Chopin’s E major Etude. She always knew a “goosebump” tune or performer when she heard one! 

M had a great sense of humour and theatrics, setting me up for a practical joke when I was 4. Answering the urgent doorbell one wet night, I saw a terrifying woman with gapped buck-teeth resembling a certain ‘Emma S–’ (M was deft with orange peel). M was fun, fun, fun. At parties in the ’70s we’d play an ill-matched couple, where the tipsy husband would teeter an empty liquor bottle on his head and the wife would clutch a dyspeptic stomach.

She would also give a bold, powerful rendition of ‘If I Were A Rich Man’ from Fiddler on the Roof – complete with Tevye’s beard and clucks and squawks of farm birds.

In 2017, she laughingly dubbed me “Mr Fu-Manchu” for my Manchurian? moustache …

We both so loved words. I once lived with M in Sydney; crosswords were everywhere, but mostly in the loo. We did cryptics together when I last saw her in 2017, and had (polarised) political debates. She kept up with PC-tech to the end – skyping, emailing and sending us all quality YouTubes of performers and musicians. A patient listener who would intuitively interject at the right moments, there isn’t anyone who hasn’t warmed (even spilled the beans) to M’s honeyed, coaxing tones when with her in person or on the phone.

In the last few years she would always say to me how much she loved “all” her nieces and nephews, and wished “we could be together” like old times. More so in her illness, M lived in the now – as she herself sang in one of her signature songs: “Domani, forget domani … Let’s live for now, and anyhow who needs tomorrow? … ”

So for me and I know many of us, the name ‘Margaret’ will always be linked to the one and only ‘M’.

We’ll love & miss you FOREVER, Margaret … but as you often have the last word, please sing again with Shirley the song that meant so much to you!

Credits

Thank You from Shirley to: 

Geoff, Joyce, Gloria, Susanna, Natalie, Efrem and Dave for expressing your thoughts so beautifully and digging deep for the photos. You have given M so much joy with your calls, emails and YouTube links to the music she loved. She got a kick out of learning new skills on her beloved computer – describing it as “unreal”!

Hans for providing a trove of photos and info about M and Poppy.

Lionel for his brilliance at restoring the quality of analogue cassette tapes and winning over digital (it’s possible).

Lina and Dave for putting this Tribute together with text, photos and audio files.

Karaoke Version for backing tracks of ‘Quizas’, ‘Rum & Coca Cola’, ‘Rose Garden’ and ‘Tie a Yellow Ribbon’.   

Acker Bilk & His Orchestra for ‘I’ll Get By’ (written by Fred E Ahlert) from the album ‘Clarinet Moods’. 

We’ve come to the final segment of our stockmarket adventure, where I’ll explain retirement funds and give you a selection of shares to start your portfolio. 

1. Decide the kind of investor you’d like to be. Make it simple and narrow it down. Are you ‘conservative’ or ‘active’? I’ve made suggestions in Invest 5.0 to help you decide, so you can enhance your investment options.

2. Know what your financial position will be at retirement: this applies whether you’re conservative or active. It means knowing your income and expenses, which will depend on your tax bracket, mortgage repayments, and any pension and/or social security benefits you may receive. 

3. Know your tax threshold according to your tax bracket. The Australian Tax Office provides details of individual income tax rates. Saying “I can’t get my head around any of this!” will not get you far – you will never understand if you don’t take the time to find out. BUT: if you need an accountant to sort out your tax, get one. 

Buying & keeping shares

Having started so early, the sharemarket is now my second language – but what I learned in the 60s and 70s was not complicated!  

1. We bought dividend-paying ‘yield’ stocks, giving us a good income 
2. Saw new opportunities in ‘growth’ stocks
3. Picked 10 of those growth stocks and discussed them with our groups
4. Traded and waited.

Some of my shares took off within months, others after years; four would die a slow death. Still believing they could be resuscitated, we have this bad habit of clinging on and not selling even if the share/s make up just a fraction of our portfolio. Psychologists believe our reluctance to take a loss is greater than accepting a gain. Very true!  

TIP:  If your stock falls, say by 10–20%, it may be a good idea to get out of it quickly. As long as you can show profits from other share trades in your tax return, you can also off-set losses.  

Internet & media

The internet has now made investing easier. We simply click to buy, sell and research without having to talk to a single person or see a stockbroker. But the noise-info from financial ‘experts’ and economists has overwhelmed and confused many of you. Notice that their predictions are always accompanied by “maybe”, “most likely”, and/or “if management continues on this growth trajectory … “ Is this at all helpful??

The fact is nobody knows the future and profits generated the year before may not continue to the next. Have you picked up how the media, right on target, come out in droves when there’s a ‘bear’ market crash? They simply love the chance to go on TV or social media, telling you how much the shares have fallen and how much your  superannuation has dropped. And they do the opposite when shares rise sharply in a ‘bull’ market – crying “it’s boom time’’ rattling off the stocks that have risen so much, it makes you sick that you didn’t ‘get in’ earlier!! 

You know what? WE can do much much better.  

Spend-control

First remove the fear of investing. I get it that most of you are clinging on to your hard-earned savings, earning a measly 1% interest. Let’s put spending in perspective.  

In the past year, how much have you ladies spent on toiletries, fragrances, shampoos, and skin-care? Clothes, shoes, accessories? Cleaning products, cookware, kitchen gadgets? And how much have you men spent on electrical gizmos, computer games and equipment, and sports gear? Have we actually used every single item of stuff we’ve bought?

And then there’s eating out. Have we splurged on decadent breakfasts or lunches where only 1 serving costs more than an actual dinner? Have we bought presents thoughtlessly? We often give kids rubbish. Why not deposit money in their bank accounts?

Calculate all your misspends. Excluding food you’ve thrown away, what does it come to in the course of a year? We don’t give a thought to the money we’ve wasted but focus instead on the money we may lose!

My father and his friends would frown on such thinking. They invested wisely with thousands, but avoided supermarkets for Singapore’s (clean) wet markets – buying fruit and vegetables dollars cheaper per kilo.   

Managed funds

You might be feeling complacent with your superannuation and other managed funds without getting more involved – but you should read your fund’s annual financial report. In particular:    

• How your fund is performing
• Management and investment fees charged
• How and where your money is being invested.
• Invest in at least 1 online daily newspaper – they’re quick to alert of any argy-bargy with investment products.

In a superannuation portfolio for example, you’ll usually see a pie-chart divided into coloured segments totalling 100%, showing where your money is being invested. Fund managers will alter percentages according to market changes in the short to medium-term. Here’s the pie-chart of my own super fund:

• Equities: Shares
• Private equity: International or Australian companies unlisted on stockmarkets
• Cash: Safe and secure with low risk, giving 2–3% interest
• Australian Fixed Interest: Bonds loans issued by the Australian govt – less volatile than shares but lower expected return
• International Fixed Interest: Bonds as above
• Credit Income: Covers a range of alternative debt investments
• Liquid Alternatives: Combines equities (shares), bonds, currencies & commodities
• Property: Office buildings, shopping centres and industrial estates; residential property, eg. apartments & retirement villages 
• Infrastructure & real assets: Utilities & facilities providing essential community services.

TIP:  Click the ‘Asset Classes’ link on your super fund’s website for more information.

Superannuation funds usually give you 4 investment options:

1. ‘Cash‘ 
2. ‘Capital Stable‘ 
3. ‘Balanced‘ 
4. ‘Growth‘ .

• Cash, Capital Stable and Balanced are safer for those in or near retirement, safeguarding income from regular allocated pension payments in any sharemarket crash. 

• Growth means share investments for younger people with time to recover after a downturn.  It’s still important to have the Growth option in all portfolios.  When the market recovers, you don’t want to lose out by having all your capital staying in ‘safe’ mode. 

TIP: If super funds bidding to buy Sydney Airport are right, there’ll be a substantial revival in both local and global travel.

A few of my own ASX picks

FINAL TIPS:

Avoid travel stocks WEB, QAN and HLO at present – but keep watch. Every living being with money saved up will be packing their bags to cruise and fly once vaccination rates go up and that awful green spiked ball disappears from our screens.  

Keep up with business news in your daily papers and online. Subscribe to at least 1 of Motley Fool’s many specifically targeted newsletters (eg. ‘Share Advisor’, Extreme Opportunities’, ‘Dividend Investor’ or ‘Hidden Gems’). 

Observe. Talk to people. You’ll develop a keen sense of what the future holds. Therein lies the secret to share investing. Simple enough? 

“TIME IS MONEY. BUT WEALTH IS THE RESULT OF TIME.”

The perfect quote from Scott Phillips of The Motley Fool to end my About Investing series (for now). I simply loved presenting it to you – GOOD LUCK!