Today’s News

The Big Picture

• Over-60s have doubled their share of property investors, says RBA. The share of property investors aged over 60 has risen from 12% to 28% over 20 years, while investors aged 30-39 decreased from 26% to 18%. Single-property investors fell from 80% to 70% of all investors, while investors with 3 or more properties grew from 5% to 10%, highlighting recent wealth concentration. (ABC) 
  
  

• New NDIS data reveals 241,000 Australians cut off by 2031. After pre-budget figures projected 160,000 Australians would be cut off the NDIS in the next decade, new modelling reveals the cuts to be much sharper and sooner. The cuts will come into effect via new eligibility criteria on 1 January 2028. (Guardian)
  
  

• Canada, EU rebuke US with new energy, defence deals. Middle powers are further distancing themselves from the US, with Canada and Germany inking a landmark energy deal that will see Canada ship one million tons of gas to Germany annually for 20 years. Canada’s air force also rejected US suppliers in favour of Swedish jets this week. (BBC | NYT)
  
  

• Central banks successfully test blockchain payment system. Project Agora, led by the Bank of International Settlements, uses blockchain to instantaneously settle cross-border transfers by banks. Seven central banks and 40 large financial firms support the project, which could reduce friction in the global banking system. (FT)

Companies in the news

• Revolut takes aim at Australia’s Big Four banks. The CEO of the $100 billion UK fintech is making a big push into business banking and wants to be the largest bank in the world. Revolut’s Australian head Jake Miller said the fintech can become a major and that it has a competitive edge over Australia’s Big Four. (Capital Brief)
  
  

• ANZ joins peers and tightens lending in response to budget. The bank tightened lending policies around negative gearing following the federal budget’s new restrictions. Commonwealth Bank is now the only major bank to have not adapted policies to reflect the budget’s changes to negative gearing. (Capital Brief)
  
  

• Robinhood opens floodgates to retail AI trading. The trading platform will launch a feature allowing users to use AI for trading. These agentic trading accounts will be allowed to use AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT to build portfolios and automate trading. (FT)
  
  

• Pocock highlights contradictions following BHP leaks. After leaked documents revealed BHP is bailing on emission reduction projects, Senator David Pocock pointed to the $379 million of fuel tax credits BHP received last year, saying BHP is laughing at Australian climate policy. BHP paid under $9 million for its emissions last year. (Guardian)
  
  

• Google engineer charged with Polymarket insider trading. The engineer allegedly accessed internal non-public data to place informed bets on top names searched for in 2025. The complaint claims the engineer profited around $1.2 million in what is an increasingly popular and troublesome trend on prediction markets. (FT)
  

What the…?

The hottest new asset class is over 60 million-years-old. Sotheby’s has put a US$30 million estimate on “Gus”, a 67 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex fossil set to be auctioned in July. This comes two years after billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin purchased a Stegosaurus for US$45 million from a US$6 million estimate.

Gus is part of a growing trend of ultrawealthy archaeological investors, the majority of whom lend their fossils to museums. There is a philanthropic angle to it — the auctions help fund the archaeologists who discovered the fossils, allowing them to discover more fossils and further advance archaeological research. (FT)

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Today’s Insight

The most expensive part of having a kid

Financial adviser Julie Bullen from Fox & Hare had bit of financial advice for any prospective parents considering maternity or paternity leave after having a child.

Community member Alex: We're thinking about kids in the next two years. What should we be doing financially right now that we'll thank ourselves for later?

Julie: As a mom myself, the most expensive part of having kids is definitely not the kid themself. It's dropping from a two income family down to a one income family.

What I'd be encouraging you both to do is get really clear on your maternity or paternity leave entitlements from work. If you're planning to leave a job, really consider whether that would impact the timing most workplaces require you to be there for a certain amount of time before you're able to use that leave. Do you get paid leave through work?

The next point is a really clear conversation with your partner of, well, how long do I actually want to have off work? I'm only going to get paid for three months, but I want to be home with my baby for 12. If you know you're going to be in a deficit for nine months, you can work out exactly how much money you need in savings to completely cover that and not have financial stress during the time that you're off.

Want to work with an adviser like Julie to help financially prepare for kids? Fill out the form on our website and we’ll match you with one of our hand-picked advisers to help you get started.

Today in Equity Mates