89. How to increase returns without doing anything crazy

There are plenty of ways to chase higher investment returns. The problem is that most of them also come with more risk, more work, or both.

Dave and Hayden sort the sensible tweaks from the bigger bets, looking at ways investors might improve their long-term results without putting their whole FIRE plan on the line.

In this episode we'll discuss:

💸 Why quitting stock picking could actually improve your returns, and Hayden's two near-misses with Boeing and Qantas

💸 The brutal maths of individual stocks: a small number of huge winners drive much of the market's long-term return, which makes consistently picking them incredibly hard

💸 Why fees matter more as your portfolio grows, from expensive funds and advisers to the recurring costs hiding in your everyday budget

💸 The simple super tweak that could have an enormous impact over 40 years: matching your investment option to your time horizon and risk tolerance

💸 Debt recycling as an optimisation strategy: using money you were already planning to invest while gradually turning home-loan debt into deductible investment debt

💸 Tax efficiency beyond debt recycling, including asset ownership, income versus growth, super, and why your marginal tax rate can change the return you actually keep

💸 Why Dave and Hayden are comfortable holding relatively small cash buffers, and the trade-off between emergency cash and keeping more money invested

💸 The next level of risk: borrowing to invest, geared ETFs, and the questions to ask before adding leverage to your portfolio

💸 Hayden's argument for looking for a discount rather than simply asking what will grow fastest, plus Dave's case for paying attention to mean reversion in unloved markets