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In early May, we hosted our first in-person Share Club event for Sharesies investors, featuring a panel discussion with Scott Phillips (The Motley Fool AU), Queenie Tan (Invest with Queenie), and Brendan Doggett (Sharesies). 

An audience sitting down watching a presentation

“Market volatility, rising inflation, war, and now the upcoming Australian election…it feels like a lot is going on. How are these external factors impacting the share markets, and what does that mean for the everyday investor?” 

As recent news headlines show, there’s quite a few things happening in the world at the moment that are impacting the share markets—and it can feel daunting, especially for those newer to investing. When asked the above question at the recent Share Club event, Scott’s suggestion to the above question (which the other panellists also spoke to) was to keep in mind the broader, longer-term picture when evaluating the current market.

Scott offered up a great metaphor of learning to ride a motorbike. When he started out, he kept worrying about the front wheel placing and running himself off the road. It was only when he kept his eye on the horizon that he could find a smooth ride—so with investing, while it’s important to keep abreast of the day to day, don’t let what’s happening in the now throw you off your long-term goals. 

To help back up this sentiment, he shared a chart from Vanguard showing the share market rising over 30 years. He pointed to key moments like the global financial crisis (GFC) and March 2020 and highlighted how much smaller they appear in the context of time, compared to how they felt when we were living through them. 

Preparing for uncertainty

Each panellist spoke to their personal financial mantras, like Brendan’s “just keep swimming” inspired by Dory from Finding Nemo—with the undertone of thinking about the long term when evaluating the short term.

Queenie spoke openly about losing her job at the start of the pandemic, and how the future-proofing she’d done for herself in the personal finance space helped her weather the uncertainty. Having invested and saved up for herself, she felt fortunate and more financially secure than she might have otherwise felt when the shock came her way. 

At the same time, she spoke about remembering to “still have fun when investing and saving money.” She likes to look for hacks and deals to make travelling and other fun activities more affordable. The lesson she took away from job searching during a pandemic was that even with the best planning, life is unpredictable—so you need to let yourself have some fun and enjoy it along the way.

A group of people from the Sharesies team sitting on the stairs smiling

Education and goal setting

Brendan talked about how his greatest money win in life was starting to invest, and how amazing it is that there are so many resources and ways to get started—including investment platforms, podcasts, news outlets, and more. Scott echoed this sentiment and stated that his best money win was reading essays by Warren Buffett. 

When an investor from the audience asked about how to know when to sell shares, Scott suggested that when you buy a share, you write down why you’re buying the share, why you believe in the investment, and what your goal and outcome for it is, and use that as a guiding light to help determine when it’s time to sell. 

Queenie compared personal finance to a game of chess—thinking ahead and working backward to know how you want to succeed, versus just moving a piece play by play. 

Wrapping up

All up, there was a lot of knowledge shared, fuelled by open and honest conversations, with some fun pineapple drawings along the way. The heart of Share Club is to help connect Sharesies investors and create a space for open money discussions, and the first event in this series kicked it all off for us. 

Keen to catch the next Share Club event in your local city? If you’re a Sharesies investor, keep an eye on your emails, as we’ll give our investors first dibs on tickets to the next one. We hope to see you there! 


Scott Phillips and Queenie Tan and their associated companies and brands are not associated with Sharesies AU Pty Ltd or its related companies. Views expressed by Scott Phillips and Queenie Tan are their views, and Sharesies does not endorse the views they represent. If any financial product or stock has been mentioned, you should obtain that product's disclosure documents prior to any decision whether to acquire the product. Information provided is general only and current at the time.

Ok, now for the legal bit

Investing involves risk. You aren’t guaranteed to make money, and you might lose the money you start with. We don’t provide personalised advice or recommendations. Any information we provide is general only and current at the time written. You should consider seeking independent legal, financial, taxation or other advice when considering whether an investment is appropriate for your objectives, financial situation or needs.

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