Local Louie & Offshore Oscar Conversations
“What return am I earning?” is the first question investors ask?
It matters. But for Local Louie and Offshore Oscar, both 50 and thinking about the next ten years, return is only the beginning.
Their real objective is not simply to arrive at 60 with a bigger number on an investment statement. It is to have enough wealth and income to continue enjoying the life they have worked hard to build.
That brings us to three important principles.
1. Don’t confuse return with purchasing power
Local Louie naturally thinks in terms of return. If an investment earns 10%, 12% or 14%, it feels as though he is moving forward.
Offshore Oscar asks another question: “What will that return actually allow me to buy?”
That distinction is fundamental.
We do not live on percentages. We pay for food, healthcare, insurance, cars, holidays, restaurants, electricity and the experiences that make up our lifestyle.
If your investment grows by 10%, but the cost of maintaining your lifestyle rises by a similar amount, your statement may show growth while your real financial position has barely improved.
This becomes even more important approaching retirement.
Return tells you how your investment performed.
Purchasing power tells you how your life is performing.
The goal should therefore not simply be to grow your money.
It should be to grow its purchasing power.
2. Don’t confuse history with the future
We all use the past to make decisions.
Investors study previous recessions, interest-rate cycles, market crashes and recoveries. That is sensible. History teaches us valuable lessons. But there is a danger in assuming that because something happened a particular way before, it must happen exactly the same way again.
Jordi Visser. “A forward-thinking market strategist focused on where the world is going, not where it has been, and how those changes reshape the decisions every investor must make,” describes this as the difference between a linear world and an increasingly exponential world.
The idea is simpler than it sounds.
Linear change happens gradually.
Imagine taking one step forward every year:
1 → 2 → 3 → 4 → 5
The pace is predictable.
Exponential change compounds.
Imagine something doubling:
1 → 2 → 4 → 8 → 16
Initially, the difference does not look dramatic. Then suddenly the gap becomes enormous.
Artificial intelligence provides a useful example. Computing power improves. AI models become more capable. Those models then help people write software, conduct research, automate businesses and drive the next generation of technology faster.
The improvement starts feeding further improvement.
Jordi’s argument is that investors accustomed to gradual change can underestimate what happens when technology begins accelerating change itself.
It does not mean that history no longer matters.
It means:
Use history as a guide, not as a map of the future.
Local Louie may ask:
“What worked over the last 20 years?”
Oscar adds:
“What is changing over the next 10?”
The thoughtful investor needs both questions.
3. Don’t build a 10-year retirement plan for a world that may change dramatically in five
Louie and Oscar are planning for age 60.
But the world they retire into may be very different from today’s. Think about how much changed between 2016 and 2026.
Now consider the potential impact over the next decade of AI, automation, medical advances, digital assets, tokenisation and entirely new ways of working and investing.
Jordi’s broader argument is that the speed of change itself has become something investors need to understand.
That does not mean chasing every fashionable new investment.
Quite the opposite. It means building a portfolio capable of adapting.
That suggests:
Diversification, rather than depending on one market.
Multiple currencies, rather than depending entirely on one currency.
Growth, to participate in future opportunity.
Income, to support lifestyle.
Liquidity, to retain choices.
And regular reviews, because a strategy designed today should not automatically remain untouched for ten years.
The danger is not only that markets fall.
The danger is that the world changes and your portfolio does not.
The Local Louie & Offshore Oscar conversation
Louie asks:
“What return am I earning?”
Oscar asks:
“What will that return still buy me?”
Now they need to ask one more question together:
“Will the strategy we build today still make sense in the world we are retiring into?”
None of us can predict exactly what that world will look like.
We don’t need to.
The objective is not to predict the future perfectly. It is to build enough purchasing power, diversification and flexibility to preserve choice, whatever tomorrow brings.
Return matters.
Purchasing power matters more.
Adaptability may determine whether Local Louie and Offshore Oscar are still able to live the life they planned ten years from now.
That is the real measure of a successful investment strategy.
Quality Group
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