What I describe as phantom wealth is a term I have heard thrown around, this is especially true with Baby Boomers who own older houses in expensive areas that have greatly appreciated in value. Whilst they may be relatively cash poor, they own substantial properties in very good suburbs, they have the advantage of living in these desired suburbs for much of their adult life.

Phantom wealth is holding assets worth a specific value where the gains are unrealised. This could be doing something as simple as holding undeveloped land holdings, that is basically a block of land, especially in semi-rural areas. This typically costs the landholder money to hold. This could be in the form of local rates [still a tax], insurance, and accountancy fees to administer. When you moce to retirement, the investment holder needs to make a decision, do they liquidate these holdings to tuen this investment into cash? Even owning a desirable property in a good suburb does not put food on the table in retirement, that is unless rooms are rented out so income is coming in.

This is typically wealth that is difficult to liquidate, this is undeveloped property that does not generate an income so actually becomes a cost to the owner. However, this underdeveloped land could be used as collateral for other purchases such as property or shares. A loan may be raised against this property to purchase further landholdings or an income producing asset. It depends on the age of the wealth holder, I would suggest these tend to be older people who have had the advantage of inheritances in the past and just sit on these inheritances. Sometimes these inheritances can be detrimental to a government pension, the individual has too many assets and either the pension is reduced, or in some cases, lost altogether.

Do not work extra years to save the extra funds that you may not spend, that is an interesting take on retirement. This is one of the better sets of advice I have heard. As I close in on age 60, I have a lifetime of work, I started my apprenticeship weeks after turning 16, I started in the workplace earlier than most, therefore. I should be leaving at the minimum age I become eligible to access my retirement funds.

If you love your job, or love being around the people you work with, then working past retirement age is for you. For someone like me, that is not an option. I do not want to work on it because I feel I am making a difference. I have also learned that this can be taken away very quickly by weak minded people full of loathing of their own shortcomings. I do not want to live a life of regrets, I do not like the people I work with, most have no redeeming features who will turn on you in a moment.

I will need to find a way to fill my days in, so the activities I have sometimes require a partner to share with. I like scuba diving, sailing, cycling, hiking and kayaking. A couple of these activities I can do by myself, the rest are team activities so I need to find retirees to share these activities with. The early years of retirement are the most important, I need to make sure I am active and engaged, eventually I will slow down, so the first ten years will be the most important of hopefully a thirty year retirement.

I am very interested in the rapid technological development the Ukrainians have brought to the defense of their country. Out numbered, out gunned, and out financed through a smaller GDP than Russia, Ukraine is really fighting an uphill battle. Where Ukraine is excelling is innovation of technology, and military tactics. The Ukrainians are really taking the fight up to Russia, they are making the conflict drag on emptying the coffers of the Russian treasury. Yes, Russia is incorporating technology in their invasion too, fortunately, the Ukrainians are innovating a whole lot quicker to survive.

The latest Ukrainian technological advance is their unmanned ground vehicles with 50 calibre machine guns mounted on a tracked carrier vehicle. Instead of sending ground troops into a contested frontline area, the tracked vehicle is sent to engage in combat directly against Russian ground troops. Typically, this works best when the Russian commanders are attacking, they send their troops to their death.

These unmanned ground vehicles controlled by Ukrainian operators are reasonably safe, they are hidden in bunkers well back from the frontline, they are not being shelled, shot, or captured. Sure, Russians have drones too; however, the Russians are not innovating at the same rate as the Ukrainians and despite their greater manpower and overall resources, they are suffering serious and some would argue unsustainable losses.

What Ukraine does well is protect their soldiers, they are less likely to send infantry to be slaughtered in wave assaults, what the Russians call meat assaults. The Russian summer offensive is stalling, this is clear, not only are Russian oil refineries and storage facilities targeted, the logistics from Russia to Crimea has been targeted. There are requirements from Ukrainian ground troops to be deployed, they have autonomous vehicles to evacuate wounded soldiers, unlike the Russians, they are supporting their troops.

This has ensured ground troops on the frontline are not supplied, they have been left exposed. From there, Ukrainian unmanned ground vehicles are rolling into Russian defensive lines and exposing demoralised ground troops. They are suffering serious losses and these losses are stalling their advance. Naturally, for Ukraine and the rest of the free world, this is a positive outcome.

It took me ages to realise, Old Spice aftershave was discontinued in Australia in November 2021. I still have a bottle stashed away, I do not recall when I purchased it, so that was some time ago. Even Old Spice deodorant is no longer available at the major supermarkets so I don’t think they have any products remaining in Australia. I believe the retailers stopped carrying the product as they were seeking to allocate less shelf space to male products.

Old Spice became a running joke, I believe Old Spice was discontinued in Australia due to low consumer demand. I remember being able to purchase the product in Woolworths and Coles department stores, there was nothing fancy about it, it was a pretty decent aftershave for a base scent. What I have learned when checking out scents is there is renewed demand by the younger crowd, Gen Z and Millennials apparently took a deep interest in fragrances during the covid lockdowns, mostly driven by social media I believe.

I learned Proctor & Gamble changed the scent a decade ago back in 2016 with the original version marketed as Classic. There was a rebranding in 2008 that was not that successful, I recall some of the ads, I thought they were pretty well received. The iconic white glass bottle was replaced by a plastic bottle of the same shape with a red stopper but none of that was successful. It looks like Old Spice was never able to revive its heyday of 1970s Australia.

The Nomos Tetra is an interesting square timepiece, this is certainly a timepiece that is needed to be tried on in a boutique to see if it works for you. The square timepiece is not a new design, the first square timepieces were introduced in 1904 and square case sales are relatively modest compared to a round case.

Nomos was founded in 1990 in Glashütte, Saxony by Roland Schwertner, just two months after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The original designs of Susanne Günther were inspired by the minimalist bauhaus purist design. The square case Tetra was released in 1992 along with the round case Tangente, Ludwig, and the Orion as the four inaugural models.

The Tetra originally was fitted with a hand-wound ETA movement, from 2016 onwards the inhouse DUW 3001 was fitted to later versions. The DUW 3001 is an incredibly small movement, 28.8 mm in diameter and just 3.2 mm height. This 27 jewel movement has a 43 hour power reserve, a Nomos balance bridge, tempered blue screws, and rhodium-plated surfaces. So the questions are, would a square case work for me? I am not sure, but I love the appetite second hand and the wonderful dial colours. If I was in the market for a square case, my choice would be the Tetra.

I am still trying to get my head around this latest Donald Trump fiasco, only the dumbest MAGA devotee cannot see this ceasefire for what it is, a victory to Iran. The centrepiece of the negotiations is the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, wow, that is to take the gulf back to the pre-war position.

But with this negotiation, Iran has been strengthened in their bargaining power and positioning. Iran was never going to win a head-to-head encounter with the US military, their strategy is to hold on and bleed the United States. Iran did this effectively, they shot down some fighter jets and helicopters. Even more importantly, they destroyed aircraft sitting on US Air Force bases deep inside allied countries where they thought they were safe. Clearly, they were mistaken, the US lost some very expensive military assets here.

The longer Iran held on, the greater their bargaining power, Trump was desperate to do a deal, this is the terminology he employs and a well established negotiation tactic is a deadline. The longer the Strait of Hormuz stays closed, the greater the international pressure becomes. Then their are internal issues, the US economy is under pressure, the Dow Jones and NASDAQ is under pressure. Inflation and fuel costs are rising, and then there is the looming mid-term elections.

Trump knows his popularity is low, even he can see that. He goes to a basketball game and gets booed in New York, he thought he would be cheered, but fortunately he fell asleep after not too long, so missed the opportunity to have the rich people in New York turn on him. Sure, the poorly educated in the lower socio-economic red states with their MAGA caps on, and confederate flags flying still cherish Trump, they are the last group to work out his policies are hurting them. This was a deal, from the self professed dealmaker lose all credibility on the international stage handing a great victory to Iran.

What a match it turned out to be, I do not follow soccer, I do have a basic grasp of the rules and I certainly know the difference between a yellow card and a red card. What I do not understand is how a US President can phone the head of FIFA and get a mandatory penalty overruled.

So when Trump called FIFA President Gianni Infantino to get the red card overturned, this smacks of corruption. This was the same FIFA President who awarded Trump inaugural FIFA Peace Prize in December 2025. When a politician exerts political power and influence to change on-field decisions, a dangerous precedent has been set. The credibility of FIFA is forever tarnished, there are already concerns of corruption within FIFA, all this does is reinforce negative views of FIFA as a corrupt organisation. It is hard to argue otherwise, it looks like they have not cleaned up their act.

Who I feel for is Folarin Balogun, he is the player in the middle of this mess and he will be forever tainted by this. Was the red card fair, well, the referee allowed the play to continue and the video assisted referee [VAR] reviewed the incident and triggered this episode. Was the Balogun tackle intentional? Did he intend to injure the opposition player? The answer to both questions is probably not, was the penalty severe in the circumstances? Probably, it was, however, the process to overturn the decision and not the act is the issue here.

What I enjoyed was the Belgium team’s response. Even I followed the match online, I wanted Belgium to beat the United States. From what I learned, pretty much the whole world with the exception of the United States felt the same way. What was the best was how the Belgium players celebrated, on field they did a little Trump dance. That was good, but when they got back to the locker room, the oddly swaying hips, the slow movement clenched fist pump was just brilliant, all to the Village People’s YMCA. The Belgium football team mocked Trump, the Belgium people mocked Trump and we all watched on and laughed.

With Ukrainian mid-range drones targeting Russian resupply through occupied Ukraine, sometimes described as the land-bridge connecting Russia to Crimea, Russian forces are facing severe logistics issues.

What we are observing is the Russian summer offensive crawling along, it is getting mauled. Ukraine had already set a target of destroying 50,000 Russian troops a month. What they are trying to do is take out troops faster than the Kremlin can replace, this strategy is working. This is a nasty business, trying to kill and maim so many Russians, but what is the alternative? Ukraine would be over-run by Russians and lose more than that number of their own citizens, they have no choice.

The Ukrainian mid-range drones include first person view [FPV] include the base FPV drone range of 20 km, then there is the Sky Avenger Drone with a range of 80 km, that is considered a long-range FPV drone. The two FPV drones target vehicles traversing through the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson regions, so they are highly effective. Whilst I do not consider these as medium-range drones, the FP-2 drone has a range of 200 km reaching into most [but not all of] Crimea. This medium-range drone also reaches into Russia if deployed from various locations such as the liberated Kharkiv. The Behemoth medium-range drone has a range of 300 km and reaching all of Crimea and deep into Russia.

From what we are learning, I think it is increasingly unlikely Ukraine will mount an invasion of Crimea anytime soon. This is because they don’t need to, instead they are cutting supply to Crimea, effectively starving the peninsula from effective resupply.

There are a couple of routes into Crimea, firstly there is the Kerch Bridge from Russia where supplies are brought in directly. The Kerch Bridge has been hit a couple of times, yes the bridge is still standing but cargo transfer across the bridge is reduced. We all know about the fuel shortage in Crimea and the long loans for fuel, this is because of the Kerch Bridge issues and the land corridor. Any supporters of Ukraine want to see the Kerch bridge destroyed, it has been threatened, but the spans have not yet fallen into the water, it will eventually happen, but when?

Then there are the bridges from Ukraine, the Chongar Bridge has been hit numerous times connecting Crimea to the Kherson region along with the Henichesk Bridge. This has forced the Russians to reroute further along the M-17 Highway across Armyansh causeways. Armyansk and Perekop Crossings are not bridges, but land corridors connecting northern Crimea to southern Ukraine. The Kyiv Independent confirmed a strike on the bridge destroying 50 military vehicles on June 11.

So why is this an issue? The longer route ensures trucks carrying supplies are further exposed to Ukrainian attacks, and they are getting hit. These are causeways that have been heavily targeted by Ukrainian forces and we are seeing logistics issues in Crimea for not just the military, but the population there too. With the mid-range drones Ukraine is now employing, trucks travelling through occupied Ukraine are being picked off, the advantage is moving to Ukraine, they will not risk an invasion with their limited manpower, they will instead target Russian logistics and the ability of Russian commanders to resupply their forces attacking Ukraine.

The Russian attack on Kyiv saw the historic 17th-century Kyiv Pechersk Lavra damaged, the Russians are targeting not just military assets, they go after the population, they hit schools, they hit hospitals, they hit personal residences. When Russia is losing momentum on the battlefield, they launch attacks on the population of Ukraine with the intention of breaking national resolve, it is not working.

So in response, Ukraine launched a highly concentrated 500 long-range drones to attack the capital of Moscow. This was a multi-wave attack that lasted just ninety minutes. What it did was overwhelm the Russian air defence network, of the 500 drones launched, some were strike drones and some were decoy drones, so Russian forces were expending air defence resources trying to knock out decoys. The strategy worked as planned, sure Russia will take out some strike drones, but with overwhelming numbers, not all could be intercepted. Likewise, the decoy drones will make great reports in Russia, but they did exactly what was planned.

The Moscow Oil Refinery in Kapotnya was the target, this was a spectacular success knocking out approximately 47% refining capacity. Not only was this a spectacular success in terms of capacity loss, the flying cover from the storage tank made watching it brilliant watching. Even better, the storage tank was not hit by a Ukrainian drone, but days later footage emerged when a man-launched surface-to-air missile missed the target and crashed into the storage tank lifting the lid for a spectacular video. The black rain in Moscow let the population know the war has shifted from Ukrainian soil to not only Russian territory, even in the capital of Moscow, watch out for drones and black rain.