So I'm pretty “Steady Eddie” plain vanilla when it comes to my investing style. Nothing too risky. Just sticking to what I know and using position sizing when it comes to the slightly bolder plays in my portfolio. ⁣

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Therefore, naturally my opinions when it comes to investing are not very “out there” as well. That being said I do hold SOME slightly contrarian perspectives. Perhaps not everyone will agree with them. And that's OK. However, I'm really of the mindset that the more info we have the better. It's really not as black and white as its often made out to be when it comes to finance/money

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There's lots of things out there that I feel should be explained with more nuance than they frequently are. Out of a myriad of options if I had to pick three mantras that are commonly espoused when it comes to money that could benefit from more context... then I’d probably pick the following ⁣

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• Pensions are portrayed to be the without exception go to logical investment choice we should all make... and we all have a senior relative who wagged their finger at us and told us to invest in them. Really once the money is in the pension it's at the whims of the government to potentially tax us on it eg WHEN they bring back the LTA or something similar. That's not to say pensions are not good of course they make a lot of sense for a lot of people it's just good to have a balanced argument - the closer and closer someone gets to retirement age the more sense they make. Also if someone wants liquid capital to invest in themselves/a business then a pension makes less sense. Its more nuanced than it is portrayed

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• I always see people asking “Should I invest in xyz asset?” And the truth is that it's very hard to answer that for someone. Even the best asset of all time that is poorly executed by the investor can go awry. It's why knowledge is so helpful to have. OR if that's not your thing, a competent professional who is independent and has no bias towards one particular asset class is so important.. Timeframe is for me biggest factor to consider when it comes to investing. The period of time over which you need access to your money is the first thing to narrow down before making an investment decision . Please understand all your options and their characteristics before making decisions. And the key thing to understand is that these are at least as important factors as asset selection.

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• Having exposure to gold as an asset class is seen by some as essential. The main arguments for gold are diversification and custody. You never truly have stocks in your hand so if the world's economy catastrophically fails you have nothing to show for it (incredibly unlikely to happen btw). Physical good means you will have it stashed somewhere in your house meaning you are truly diversified in that sense. Downside is that lots don't like the risk of stashing it somewhere in their home. This is also the same thesis why some prefer “digital gold” ie Bitcoin but that's a debate for another day 🙂 There are other means in which to hold gold in which custody is delegated to a third party (i.e. held in a vault). For me the only arguable way to invest in gold is to hold it physically. In any other form, the advantages of gold are negated and the long-term returns of other assets. This is because they outpace gold on returns with much less hassle ⁣

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Anyways I hope this read provided some value. You may not agree 100% and that's ok

It's always good to hear alternative perspectives where would all the fun be if everyone just went with the flow. Some things to mull over provided here, the more knowledge we have the better