When Israel commenced its assault on Gaza, I was concerned with the tunnel network and how Israeli soldiers would be ambushed in urban fighting. Already, this is a difficult fight, Hamas have long prepared for this battle, they have planned, they have trained, they are well funded and they are ready to execute their evil plans.

What we saw during the surprise attack on southern Israel, the Hamas assault teams were well trained, they were organised and they achieved their objectives. How Hamas was able to plan this surprise attack without the knowledge of Israeli intelligence is stunning, the reliance on technology is what allowed Hamas to plan this attack undetected.

Let me be clear here, I acknowledge the planning, training and execution of this assault on Israel. Hamas and its backers were well funded, recruited disaffected people to carry out these depraved acts of hatred and violence and trained their fighters with the skills to be effective. I do not condone their actions, I do not support any of their twisted theology

The terrorists that crossed into Israel displayed the brutality of ISIS, their acts against women, children and the aged is just disgusting. The Palestinians in Gaza did themselves no favours in the eyes of the world when the terrorists openly paraded the hostages around the streets of Gaza to cheers, spitting on the hostages, these are ordinary Palestinian people here, they should be ashamed of themselves. They cannot complain when the Israeli offensive begins to rescue these hostages – we all know what will happen.

I drove down to the family weekend house on a Thursday afternoon, the night before there was an amazing semi final between cup hosts India and New Zealand. As an Aussie, New Zealand is my second team that I support, so I was pretty happy to see them at the knockout phase of the tournament. 

I work from home on a Friday so  I knocked off work at the usual time and I have to stop at the supermarket to purchase my weekend food. Apparently South Africa won the toss decided to bat first, I was not aware of this yet though. I switched the television on and could not believe what I was seeing. South Africa were 4/64 after 19 overs. The run rate was 3.00, but Klaasen and Miller were still at the crease so they were not finished yet. 

After 25 overs, or the halfway point of their innings South Africa were 4/84 with a slightly better run rate of a pedestrian  3.16, highly unusual for a semi final. South Africa has never progressed past a semi final in a world cup – not ever. Their nemesis has been Australia, even though the players have changed over the years, the mental anguish  of choking on the big stage is in their minds.

Adam Zampa was going for 8.00 per over, Glen Maxwell at the other end was bowling tight. The commentators were calling for a change so on comes Travis Head. Trav went for a couple of boundaries for his first ball, then a dot ball with the 4th ball of his first over saw the dangerous Klaasen’s leg stump knocked over. This could be the breakthrough Australia needed, this was the partnership that had the potential to rescue South Africa. 

Then Jansen comes to the crease, the first ball hits his pads and an appeal, sees the umpire lift his finger. Klaasen and Miller meet in the middle of the wicket, the pair decides to challenge the decision, I don’t see why, he was out. So after the third umpire fails to overturn the original decision, Travis Head is about to bowl the final ball of his first over and is on a hat trick. Coetzee survives, but South Africa is in real trouble, they are about to fail again in a semi final.

An area that concerns me is Chinese criticism of Australia concerning the racism element of their diplomacy. They are engaging in economic coercion with Australia under the guise of racism as they are angry of Australian government calls for an independent enquiry into the origins of the coronavirus. The international community is aware of CCP attempts to cover up news the spread of coronavirus in China, it did get out and infect the world, that is a known fact, what we want to know is how it began so we can prevent it happening in the future.

What the CCP is doing is engaging in a new and aggressive style of diplomacy that is really not doing anyone any good. This arrogant attitude of the CCP believing how dare Australia call into question Xi Jinping’s handling of the coronavirus. The whole world has been affected by this pandemic, millions of people infected and the deaths have not finished yet.

The CCP, the Chinese Communist Party is deplorable but we need to ensure this is not reflected in the treatment of Chinese people. They are suffering too, nobody believes CCP figures regarding infection rates in China. Notwithstanding, the economic slowdown in China is hurting their people too, this may cause an uprising but this is unlikely given the level of surveillance in the country.

Through free trade, the people of China have enjoyed economic success pulling millions out of abject poverty and this has damaged the livelihoods of inhabitants of industrialised countries. China has been allowed in international trading organisations and abused every opportunity from currency manipulation, forced technology transfer, intellectual property theft and dumping.

Let me be clear here, we have no issues with Chinese people, the strategy and tactics of the CCP borders on disgraceful but we have no issues with the citizens of China. Now, I must also address that issues have occurred in Australia against Chinese and Singaporean students and just about every Australian deplores these attacks – these are not on.

What you would expect the CCP to do during the trade war with the US is improve relationships with its trading partners of Australia, Japan, India and the EU to drive a wedge between allies to isolate the US. Instead, the arrogance of the CCP intends to coerce all countries that don’t fit their philosophy that will force countries to create trading partnerships isolating China.

During the covid pandemic Republican Governor Ron DeSantis gained national coverage keeping the state open. I am interested in different perspectives on handling the pandemic, so the Florida approach was to open earlier than the other states even though there was increased rates of infection and death to certain groups within the community.

What annoyed me was when DeSantis told the students at the press conference at the University of South Florida to take their masks off and stop with theatre as masks don’t do anything anyway. The students under pressure removed their masks, but this leads me to this question, what is US freedom? If the students were free, why would they need to be told to remove their masks in a pandemic? Freedom is making your own choices, DeSantis just removed the very freedoms the Americans bang on about.

Florida was a state that opened early, so I am very interested in looking at the performance of that state from a perspective of were Florida’s death rates higher than other states? A major US study found that masks and social distancing drove down infection rates. However, masks and social distancing did not affect death rates as much as expected. Instead, factors such as population age, general health and wellbeing, race, poverty, health care access and vaccination were the decisive factors in reducing death rates.

So Florida’s older less healthy population was harder hit than other states, that would make sense based on the general population trends as Florida has the reputation as the retirement state. Interestingly, education rates were listed in the report as affecting death rates, I would like to know why. Regardless, people should not be pressured to remove masks for a political television moment, respect these people’s freedom to choose and wear masks if they want to even if it doesn’t look good on your press conference.

I was listening to a channel on YouTube about preparing for retirement, it was American but still pertinent to me. They discuss their 401(k) retirement accounts, whilst different in structure to Australian superannuation accounts, there are similarities as we are all trying to achieve the same outcome here. He made a very big statement, at first I was bewildered, it was to stop saving when you get to age 60. It is time to start drawing down my savings, there is no point going any further, it is time to enjoy retirement.

I am planning on retiring at age 60, this is how my retirement planning is structured. This is the time I can begin drawing down my retirement account. I can work part time if I want to, I can travel, I can write and I can spend my time enjoying life. My birthday is at the beginning of the year, I initially intended to retire at the point I turned 60, but since the Australian financial year ends on June 30, I will delay my retirement to correspond with the end of the financial year so I do not pay excess tax on my retirement payments.

I need to look at sporting activities. I love scuba diving, mountain bike riding, sailing, kayaking, hiking, and climbing. Ok, I do not do as much climbing as I should, this will need to change. I still do 20 km runs in my mid 50s, the times are not world beating but still respectable. To be fair, most of my runs are 14 km in distance, not every time is a 20 km run. As long as I retire early enough I can enjoy these activities whilst drawing down my retirement savings. I may work part time, it will be seasonal and it will be only if I want to to fill the day in. So yeah, whilst I am still able to dive, cycle and run – I should be retired because I have enough funds to do so.

I have become a bit of a convert to Yarra Yerling, from the Yarra Valley in Victoria’s oldest wine region. The Dandenong Ranges are low mountain ranges with a maximum height of 633 metres just 35 km from Melbourne. The Yarra valley comprises of  over 80 wineries supporting the region.  

Firstly, I really like the basic bottle labelling, it looks like they designed the label themselves and then pumped them out of their office printer. The label is minimalistic, it is really basic, it hides the true quality of this wine. The label makes the wine look cheap, then there is the wine name, it is Dry Red Wine No. 2, this doesn’t tell you much, it gives nothing away about the origins of the wine. 

Ok, so what is the Dry Red Wine No. 2? I had to check the tasting notes as this is a complex wine. They describe this as violets, plums and savoury spices with hints of bramble. I had to jump online and search for the smell of bramble, I had always thought of blackberry bramble. That is what it was, I have been out picking blueberries in Canada, but this is not native to Australia so  I have no real experience with blackberries. 

This is where the tasting notes are important, I do review the tasting notes for specific criteria and to see if my tastes align to the notes. The most important information  gain is the maturation process, this vintage spent 12 months in French oak barriques, with 30% new oak. For me, for the price of this wine, it isn’t cheap, I would have thought newer oak would be selected. I appreciate that they are looking for a fine balance of oak and fruit.

As I am assuming that since older oak imparts less wood flavour a blend of old and new seeks to strike that balance. These guys know what they are doing. I am enjoying the 2018 vintage that I have in my collection but you sometimes compare the wine you are tasting to wines in a similar price range. This is not always correct, but as a consumer I need to determine how my money is being spent and if I need to divert these funds to more effective wines in a cheaper price range. I am happy with the Dry Red Wine No. 2 for special occasions. 

I was wandering the aisles pushing my trolley at my local Woolworths supermarket, by chance, I felt like some Cote D’Or Bouchee chocolates and started looking in the confectionery aisle. I was staring where I believed I thought they would be, there was a woman looking around the same area as me, I asked what she was looking for and was surprised when she said the same chocolates as me.

So, after a short but polite conversation we began looking elsewhere, she asked for assistance and was directed to the international aisle. This would make sense if all foreign produced chocolate and confectionery was split up this way – it was not. When we met again at the check-outs, she had been successful, I had nothing. So what do I like about Cote D’Or Bouchee chocolates?

I was under the impression these were hazlenut flavoured chocolates from the Czech Republic, but this is not true. These are Belgium chocolates, not Czech and they are constructed from nut praline. Now I had to work out what this nut praline is, this is almonds ground into a paste and mixed with caramelised sugar. I remembered them to be better than what I tasted, the question I ask myself is am I being too picky or has the chocolate changed?

So I went searching for the box and I needed a magnifying glass, the printing is so small but I saw some hazelnut references and I also found they were manufactured in Slovakia, Mondelēz International is the owner so I see production has been outsourced. When I read some reviews there were complaints that the recipe had changed, from what I remembered this was a better chocolate that I remembered, they had changed the recipe and I was not living in some self imposed land of nostalgia.

I have been a long time fan of Vasse Felix wines going back to the late 80s and early 90s. This high quality West Australian wine producer is relatively young for a winery, opened in 1967, Vasse Felix was one of the pioneers of the Margaret River wine region.

There was a time I liked their Classic Dry Red, but not so much their Cab Merlot. That was some time ago, but I can’t remember opening a bottle recently. The Classic Dry Red is still around and the cabernet merlot has been repositioned in the Filius range. The Filius chardonnay is a sub-$30 wine, so it is well priced for what you get and does not infringe on the Premier range.

Instead, Vasse Felix released the Filius range in 2013 if I remember correctly, so I have preferred these options when selecting their budget options. I cannot say I was that impressed with the cabernet sauvignon, but the chardonnay worked for me. The cabernet sauvignon isn’t bad by any degree, I had just become accustomed to their premium wines.

When I checked the technical notes for this vintage I was surprised to learn they used 13% new French barriques, 14% one year old barriques with the remainder between two to five years old. The cellaring potential is up to 2025, so this isn’t a long lasting chardonnay, but it has some legs. Despite the oak, I see this is a fresh wine with stone fruit flavours with a hint of peach in the aftertaste.

An MBA without a strong alumni does not open doors, it is as simple as that. If a second tier or third tier business school wants to improve their rankings, they need to invest in their former student support network to provide opportunities for advancement. Otherwise, they become degree mills where you pay your money and receive your qualification – then you are on your own.

Why the big business schools charge so much is that they have a reputation to uphold. This is based on the quality of their learning resources, their highly paid academic staff, their assessment process, their support network, their exclusiveness and competition for places. Therefore, if you choose to attend a second tier, or third tier business school, then a significant discount to tuition needs to apply.

The Harvard Business School, Stanford Business School, Chicago Booth, Kellogg Northwestern and Wharton are all high profile business schools in the US. Insead, IE Business School, Saïd Business School [Oxford University], IMD Business School, London Business School and Esade in Europe are highly credentialed as well. They have well earned reputations, they are difficult to get into, they attract a high quality student and they are worth the increase in earning.

So there are a number of factors that influence the quality of the reputation of the business School. The MBA alumni of these schools are highly organised and influential, they have special access to a serious job network with employers seeking to offer not only graduates, but current student opportunities with internships and special projects. The business school has access to graduate programs with student engagement officers employed to create graduate opportunities through ongoing investment.

The alumni network opens doors with the largest corporations, sure it is an old boys club, this is what the most prestigious business schools market themselves on. As a potential student, these business schools offer a significant cost/benefit ratio that should not be discounted. Likewise, the alumni network creates ongoing social events for networking and post-graduate association, business opportunity generation and entrepreneurship.

I believe that if people have the funds then they should retire as early as possible, not as late as they can. Sure, if they have a job they really enjoy then they should keep going for as long as they enjoy that job.

In Australia, the mandatory retirement scheme is superannuation where employees must forgo 9.5% of their salary with those funds locked up in long-term investments. Whilst the older generation missed out on a large earning potential of retirement saving, younger workers will benefit from participation in schemes throughout their working lives.

Retirees born after 1963 are able to access their retirement funds from age 60, if they have sufficient funds then they should retire at 60 and begin their retirement. Currently, people are able to access the government provided age pension from age 67 should they have insufficient funds to support themselves.

For me, I suggest if people should retire at age 60 and immediately begin drawing down their retirement savings. If they can provide self-funded retirement for 7 years then they reduce the burden on the taxpayer also enjoying the early stages of their retirement. Governments just need to stop messing with superannuation so we can plan for our retirements.