The golden rule of investment applies more than ever when the world is turbulent. Diversification is still the closest we get to a “free lunch”. It is motherhood and apple pie for investors.

Since Harry Markowitz, father of modern portfolio theory, called it “the only free lunch in finance” in the 1950s, everyone has agreed that it is a good thing. I’ve certainly banged on at length over the years about the merits of holding a balanced portfolio. And the current “commodities up, shares down” environment has done nothing to change my mind.

In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Western governments have united in implementing punitive sanctions on Russia, including:

• Sanctions on Russia’s main development bank and its military bank, and enacting comprehensive curbs on Russia’s sovereign debt, a move intended to cut off the country from Western financing.

• Removal of large Russian banks from Western financial markets and removing some Russian banks from the SWIFT financial messaging system, essentially barring them from international transactions.

• Sweeping restrictions on technological imports.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is an important reminder that geopolitical risk is a part of investing in global markets. Dimensional’s systematic active approach is designed to adjust to new information in real time, including information about geopolitical events and their potential repercussions for markets.

What are the potential geopolitical, economic and asset implications of the conflict unfolding between Russia and the West over Ukraine?

Goldman Sachs Research's Allison Nathan, senior strategist, explores the topic in her latest Top of Mind through interviews with notable Russia watchers who interpret the lead-up to recent events very differently.

When Russia invaded Ukraine on Wednesday night, stock markets around the globe immediately sold off in the futures markets.

U.S. markets were down around 3% across the board. The S&P 500 opened the next morning down 2.5%. The Dow fell 800 points. The Nasdaq 100 was also off more than 2%.

By the end of the day Thursday stocks had a furious rally, with the Dow finishing in positive territory, the S&P 500 up 1.5% and the Nasdaq 100 soaring more than 3%.

As the Russia-Ukraine crisis is unfolding, it is understandable that many of us are worried about the impact of the invasion on the rest of Europe and the global economy. The conflict has also caused increased volatility in global share markets which were already unsettled by fears of increasing interest rates and rising inflation.

Australia’s core consumer price inflation topped the midpoint of the Reserve Bank’s 2-3% target in the December quarter, for the first time in seven years.

In NZ, the annual CPI hit a three-decade high for the same period. But here’s some good news.

What is investing?

This is a much more subtle and challenging question than you might imagine, one that should not be dismissed lightly. Rather, it is one of the more difficult problems you will confront in your lifetime.

Vanguard founder Jack Bogle’s passed away 3 years ago today. In 2016, I was lucky to have had the opportunity to interview him in his office for Masters in Business.

Bogle argued for an approach to investing defined by simplicity and common sense.

At The Private Office, we stay abreast of financial academic research both current and going back to the early days of the share markets. One of the first topics in financial research was the study of seasonal trends in share prices. You may have heard of the "January effect”.

As we have just observed another January data point, we thought this would be an opportune time to have a dive into at the academic literature on the January effect to see whether it would be wise to incorporate this in our investment process.

Achieving expectations and aspirations for retirement will be very challenging for the majority of New Zealanders unless they prepare and plan.

That’s one of the main conclusions of the latest Retirement Expenditure Guidelines.

The guidelines have been produced by Massey’s NZ Fin-Ed Centre and are sponsored by Consilium and Financial Advice New Zealand.