Hi everyone! This is your favourite Premier (and your favourite Queenslander I might add), Annastacia Palaszczuk! And I’m here with your favourite Chief Health Officer, Dr John Gerrard. Stupid Humans ▶ https://ebay.us/XzAsV4 “Greetings… Just look at all those letters after my name, I KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!”. Thank you for that lovely introduction John. First of all, I’d just like to thank all Queenslanders for doing the right thing and going out and getting vaccinated. That’s the best way to end this pandemic as soon as possible. Now that the New Year is upon us, 2022, it’s time to give Queenslanders a little bit of a reward… That’s right, it’s time to mask up again! That’s the only way to keep us safe from this terrible virus. [Heavy breathing]. [Muffled speech]. Let me just take that off. As we all know, the new year needs some new rules, so we’ve created a whole bunch of new rules to make it even easier for you to stay safe. As you already know, masks are already mandatory in supermarkets, and air planes, and cinemas. But starting from today, you’ll also have to start wearing them in workplaces, pubs, and sports arenas, libraries, and nail salons. It’s really the only way to keep us safe now that we’re all heavily vaccinated. It should be noted that when you’re in a pub, club, or cafe (a place that unvaccinated people are not allowed to visit remember), it’s not necessary to wear a mask when you’re sitting down. As Dr John can testify, the virus loves spreading at high altitudes, as we can see with our previous rule for air planes. Whether your 30,000 ft in the sky, or standing up in a cafe, you must wear a mask. The virus loves heights. I can’t stress that enough. Isn’t that right Dr John? “Yes, Premier”. And what would happen if somebody were to stand up without a mask on in a pub or cafe? “They might DIE!”. That’s right Queenslanders! You don’t want to die, do you? So in order to keep everybody safe from death, and in light of the virus spreading in high places, we’ve made a few more rules starting from tomorrow. When doing a handstand, it is not necessary to wear a mask if you’re vaccinated, but you need to wear one if you’re unvaccinated. It’s all to do with relative height from the ground. If you’re doing a headstand though, you must wear a mask if you’re vaccinated, but not if you’re unvaccinated. This is all making sense, isn’t it Dr John. “It certainly is, Premier”. If you’re jogging less than 12km/h, you need to wear a mask, no matter what your vaccination status is. It’s all to do with relative wind speeds and so on. It’s all very scientific. But if you’re vaccinated and running between 12km/h and 16km/h, you need not wear a mask, but unfortunat ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADhrmLlXpks

Today I’m going to talk about investing in a Peer-to-Peer Lending Fund, specifically through a company called DirectMoney, renamed recently to Wisr. First of all, what is peer-to-peer lending? According to ASIC’s MoneySmart, technically it should be called marketplace lending, but most people refer to it as peer-to-peer lending, so I’m going to keep referring to it as that. Peer-to-peer lending involves matching borrowers with lenders without going through a traditional bank or building society. This benefits the borrower by allowing them to take out a loan at a significantly lower rate than the banks. For example, the website RateSetter is currently offering three-year personal loans for a comparison rate of 9.9%. If you look at one of the big banks, for example the Commonwealth Bank, a similar loan has an interest rate of 13.70% with a comparison rate of 16.83%! Quite a significant difference. From the lender perspective, peer-to-peer lending allows investors to offer their money as a loan and get a hefty return. For example, RateSetter currently offers a 9.4% annualised return, repaid monthly, for investors willing to invest their money for five years. There is, however, a downside. And quite a significant one I think. You have no choice over who your money is lent to. According to RateSetter’s PDS, your money could be invested in a single loan. If that individual defaults, there’s a chance you could lose all your money. So this is the main reason I stay away from traditional peer-to-peer lenders. However, there are other options. DirectMoney, for example, offer a very similar service to borrowers in that they can get a cheaper rate than any of the big banks. But what they do offer differently is that they allow investors to invest in their Personal Loan Fund. How does this differ to regular peer-to-peer lending? Sure, it’s a little bit less lucrative at 7.4%. But the biggest benefit is diversification. Your investment is diversified across all loans held in the Fund meaning the impact of any individual borrower not paying is greatly reduced. You are not required to select loans or manage monthly reinvestment. For me, that’s a real selling point. Not only are you getting a relatively good return of above 7% p.a. with monthly distributions, your investment is diversified across all loans. Every month, DirectMoney release a detailed report for the previous month, so you can easily keep an eye on the fund’s performance. There is one small caveat that I must mention. According to their PDS, the Fund is designed so that Units will be withdrawn over a minimum 36 month period. If a Withdrawal Request is accepted, then 1/36th of the Units held by the Investor as at that date (subject to minor rounding) will be redeemed in the firs ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svU4MZtdF34