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Why you should give the gift of investing this Christmas
Investors are being urged to think long-term before deciding on a Christmas gift, with experts pointing to more impactful gifting ideas.

Why you should give the gift of investing this Christmas
Investors are being urged to think long-term before deciding on a Christmas gift, with experts pointing to more impactful gifting ideas.

Stats collated by Roy Morgan with the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) show that Australians are preparing to spend over $54.3 billion across retail stores during the Christmas trading period.
Christmas retail spending in Queensland is forecast to grow by 9.3 per cent to almost $11.8 billion, while spending in Western Australia is predicted to increase 14.2 per cent to nearly $6.4 billion.
ARA CEO Paul Zahra said the predictions for Christmas trading reflected the significant changes in spending patterns seen due to COVID-19 and were underpinned by the government stimulus response as well as recent responses to border controls and state restrictions.
“Retail sales growth of 2.8 per cent year-on-year would be an incredible achievement given the barriers that retailers have bravely faced throughout 2020 – though there continue to be clear winners and losers within the retail categories,” he said.
Buying ETFs instead
BetaShares pointed out that the key to investing is long-term compound growth, with the holiday period providing the opportunity to support a child or grandchild along their investment journey.
For investors looking to track market growth and follow one of these indexes in a single trade, a product such as an exchange-traded fund (ETF) allows them to purchase the entire market in one transaction.
Stats collated by BetaShares show that if a person had invested the current cost of a new iPhone 12 ($1,349) five years ago in NDQ, your total return would have been $3,334.42 as at 30 October 2020.
Alternatively, if you had invested the current cost of the top-tier yearly Netflix subscription at a total of $240 each year (at Christmas) over the five years to 30 October 2020 in NDQ, your total return would have been $2,133.60 as of 30 October 2020.
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