Here’s what you need to know today

• Warren Buffett has published his final investor letter. The chairman of Berkshire Hathaway is retiring at the end of the year, at 95 years old. In 60 years leading the company, Berkshire returned more than 5,500,000% - turning $100 into $5.5m. This works out to be a 19.9% compound annual growth rate. (Read his letter)
  
  

• Buffett’s final message was a reflection of his life: full of homely wisdom from a man who chose to live in Omaha rather than New York and eschewed all the trappings of his extreme wealth. The final line of his letter sums it up: Choose your heroes very carefully and then emulate them. You will never be perfect, but you can always be better.
  
  

• The fate of troubled regional airline Rex has finally been settled after creditors voted in favour of a takeover by Air T. Air T is an American holding company that operates a number of aviation businesses in sectors including overnight air cargo, aircraft parts and engines and equipment for aviation ground support. (ABC)
  
  

• Of Australia’s Big 4 Banks, Commonwealth Bank had the best quarterly result with profit up 2% year-on-year. Despite that investors were unhappy with CEO Matt Comyn’s commentary around increased competition and shares fell 6%. (AFR)
  
  

• To summarise the results of its Big Bank peers. Westpac’s profit was down 2%, NAB’s profit was down 3% and ANZ’s profit was down 10%. ANZ’s numbers were impacted by one-off costs related to fines and redundancy payments. (AFR)
  
  

• Australian family tracking app Life360 has agreed to acquire advertising technology company Nativo for US$120 million. This comes as it works to monetise its 92 million global users, of which less than 3 million are paying. (Capital Brief)
  
  

• President Trump is looking to build support for tariffs with a windfall cheque for every American. He posted, "A dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone." He didn’t share any further details. (CBS)
  
  

• After the US Senate voted to end the government shutdown, American markets rallied. The S&P 500 was up 1.5% and the Nasdaq-100 was 2.3%. The shutdown is not over yet, as House members return to Washington DC to vote on the bill. (CNBC)
  
  

• Singapore has introduced the world’s first green-fuel tax. Air travel passengers leaving the city-state will be charged between S$1 and S$41.60, depending on flight distance and cabin class. The tax revenue will be used to buy sustainable fuel which Singapore hopes to make up 3-5% of all fuels used in its airports by 2030. (Bloomberg)
  
  

• The dream of small modular nuclear reactors continues, after Valar Atomics raised a US$130 million funding round to build out small modular reactors and cluster them around AI data centres. The California-based startup is building its first reactor in Utah and said its on track to produce 100 kilowatts of thermal energy by early July. (Bloomberg)

What the…?

Donald Trump has threatened to sue the BBC for US$1 billion. This comes after the BBC acknowledged it had selectively edited a video of President Trump’s speech on 6 January 2021 as part of a documentary on the Capitol insurrection.

The BBC’s director-general Tim Davie and BBC News CEO Deborah Turness resigned over the edit while the chair of the British public broadcaster, Samir Shah, apologised for an “error of judgement”. (BBC)

Investing is a lifelong journey

Here’s what you can learn today

3 quick questions with Luke Laretive

We put three quick questions to Luke Laretive, financial adviser and CEO of Seneca Financial Solutions. 

What are your key rules of portfolio construction? 

• Define your objective (maximum return for a level of risk or minimise risk for a target return) 

• Define what a growth and defensive asset class is to you. 

• Define how much exposure you want to defensive asset classes to meet your objective. 

• Manage your liquidity requirements and plan for potential change. 

With so many options for Australian shares - does it really matter if I choose IOZ, A200 or VAS? 

No. I do not understand why so many people spend so much time worrying about which ETF to pick. It’s like worrying if there’s 10 or 11 billion grains of sand on the beach. If you want to actually make money, actually spend your time on something value-accretive. 

What’s your one investment for the next 10 years? 

I can almost guarantee I won’t own any stock for the next 10 years, except for the shares I own in Seneca (my business). 

We find cheap stuff, then we wait for people to over-extrapolate the future and then we sell it to them for more than its worth. And then go and buy another under-appreciated thing. Repeat forever. 

People want a silver bullet, a “Big Short” idea. Investing is “Moneyball” – buy stuff nobody else sees value in them and then beat them with it, in the aggregate. 

Want to speak to Luke or another of our hand-picked financial advisers? Fill out the form on our website and we’ll put you in touch.

A message from Viola Private Wealth

Wealth isn't one-size-fits-all. Your investment strategy needs to work for your life and not just the markets.

Viola Private Wealth manages over $2.5 billion for Australians with significant wealth, crafting tailored portfolios across public and private markets. With deep expertise and a client-first approach, Viola helps you focus on what matters: growing and protecting your capital with clarity and confidence.

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