In your interest: Paul Clitheroe

Money magazine was launched in July 1999. To my adult kids’ amusement, I keep the first cover shot on my study wall, showing a much younger Paul Clitheroe. Not a trace of grey hair! The headline was “Shares – Getting it Right”. Mind you, if you invested back in 1999, it was pretty hard to get it wrong.

CBA was around $9.50, BHP $11.50, Woolworths $5.50 and so on. Sure, there will always be a few bad performers in any portfolio, which is why at Money we always suggest you spread your risk by owning a number of companies, or invest via a fund, ETF or your super. But as history would lead you to expect, despite the GFC and now Covid-19, patient, diversified shareholders have been well rewarded with capital growth and juicy dividends.

We have always been aware of the complexity of the financial world we live in, so we regularly debated how we could make things a bit simpler for our readers.

On both the Money TV show and in the magazine, we had a wide range of information and details on all sorts of financial products. But it seemed like a great idea to give our readers an annual guide to the best products across many categories and so the Best of the Best concept was launched.

This presented an enormous logistical challenge to our team, but with the help of research houses, a set of criteria was developed and, in 2002, we did our first awards presentation, immediately followed by the Best of the Best issue, which runs over December and January.

Now, if you are thinking this gives the team a break over Christmas by having a two-month issue, you would be spot on. But putting together this huge issue with so much content is exhausting and a break is well deserved. But equally, we know that it takes you, our readers, a fair bit of time to absorb the information and check out how much money you can save through a better mortgage, credit card, insurance, loans and so on.

I know that our readers are more likely to be on top of their money than most, but to my frustration

I am still finding that the typical Aussie family can save some $4000 a year just by having competitive products. This is a stack of money, so please make sure you are reaping the benefits of your hard work and your investment income, and not donating it to a large institution.

Interestingly, you can also see how the world is changing in our award categories. In 2002, we were very excited about the all-new “e-accounts”, which have developed into everyday banking. DSL broadband has disappeared due to NBN and in 2021 we’re looking at green loans. The world keeps changing, but we’ll do our best to keep you in tune with what is happening and save you time and money.

I do hope you enjoy this year’s Best of the Best.