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Here’s what you need to know today

• Australian casino giant Star Entertainment is once again at risk of declaring bankruptcy after a $750 million funding package has fallen through. Star has now turned to US casino giant Bally’s to try and negotiate a funding deal. (AFR)
  
  

• OpenAI has just completed the largest funding round for a private tech company, raising $40 billion at a $300 billion valuation, making it more valuable than McDonald’s, Salesforce and Chevron. (Quartz)
  
  

• The Australian government has urged the Fair Work Commission to grant an real wage increase (i.e. a rise above inflation) for 2.9 million workers on minimum wage or award wages. (ABC)
  
  

• President Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ is here. Trump latest round of tariffs is targeting any country he believes has unfair barriers to trade, including Australia. Reported to be 20% tariffs on about $3 trillion in annual imports, Trump is due to announce the tariffs at 4pm Wednesday in Washington D.C., which is 7am Thursday on Australia’s East Coast. (CNN)
  
  

• With the US Trade Representative flagging Australia’s biosecurity laws, pharmaceutical patent rules, media bargaining code, screen content requirements and investment barriers as key trade concerns, Australia’s leaders are preparing to be included in these tariffs. While both sides of politics have ruled out retaliatory tariffs, the Labor government has said it would be prepared to take the US to the World Trade Organisation. (ABC)
  
  

• However, European leaders are preparing to retaliate, with President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen confirming the EU has a “strong plan to retaliate” with expectations they will put on reciprocal tariffs on US exports to Europe. (CBS)
  
  

• The rise of BYD continues. The Chinese carmaker delivered almost 1 million cars in the first quarter of 2025, up 58% from the same time a year ago. (FT)
  
  

• China launched a large-scale military drill just off the coast of Taiwan. The exercise involved army, navy, air and rocket assets closing in on the island from multiple directions. This exercise comes days after US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth upped American military presence in Japan and vowed to counter Chinese aggression in the Asia-Pacific. (Reuters)
  
  

• European inflation came in at 2.2% in the 12 months to March, down from 2.3% in February. The European Central Bank has already cut interest rates six times in the past year, but markets are pricing in a 75% chance of a rate cut when the ECB meets on 17 April. (Capital Brief)
  
  

• US Senator Cory Booker just broke the record for the longest speech in American Senate history, speaking for 25 hours straight. As part of the Senate rules, Booker could stop for questions but couldn’t sit or leave to go to the bathroom. (ABC)

What the…?

Supermarket giant Coles has revealed the Australian state with the highest level of theft. Take a second and think which state may be number 1 here.

Turns out the supermarket theft capital of Australia is Victoria, with 54% more theft in Victoria than in NSW, despite the northern neighbour’s higher population. With 26% of the Australian population, Victoria had 30% of theft in 2024. (AFR)

Investing is a lifelong journey

Here’s what you can learn today.

How much do we need to retire?

This is an excerpt from our book Don’t Stress, Just Invest, winner of the Best Personal Finance and Investing Book at the 2024 Business Book of the Year Awards.

How much is enough?

This is perhaps the most important question and is a difficult one to answer. It is nearly impossible to give a one-size-fits-all response: it depends on the cost of living where you live and what kind of

retirement you want to enjoy.

But many retirement organisations around the world do their best to give an indication of how much money they think you will need to live on in your retirement. Assuming you own your own home with no mortgage, this is the amount you need to have stashed away when you retire according to these various experts (all amounts are given in the local currency):

• The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia’s Retirement Standard says $545,000 for a single person and $640,000 for a couple.

• Super Consumers Australia found that, based on a retirement age of 65 and an average life expectancy of 90, a medium-expenditure couple needs $402,000 and a single person $301,000, while a high-expenditure couple requires $1 million and a single $745,000.

• USA Today reported in 2020 that the average American spends $987,000 in the years after reaching retirement age.

Meanwhile, surveys from around the world suggest everyday people think they need a little bit more than that:

• A 2021 survey by News.com.au found that half of Australians believe they need at least $750,000 to retire.

• A Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce survey found the average amount Canadians thought they needed for a comfortable retirement was $756,000.

• Charles Schwab surveyed 1000 Americans and found the average retirement amount thought necessary was $1.7 million.

So, good news: the experts think we’ll need less money in retirement than we think we do.

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