PMG | THINKBOOK
INVESTING
THE FUTURE OF INVESTING Investing, by its very definition, is all about trust in the future. So, who better to talk to about what the future holds for the next generation of investors than a futurist? AN INTERVIEW WITH FUTURIST DAVE WILD
For more than a decade, renowned futurist Dave Wild has been helping people take stock of the future and plan for it, but he doesn’t own a crystal ball or boast any special prophetic gifts. Dave’s secret for understanding the future is simple: we understand the future by looking at the past. Particularly the very recent past that’s all around us. Sound familiar? “The point I always try to make is that the future isn’t actually in ‘The Future’. The future is actually all around us. It’s here, happening right now. It’s just that we don’t see it,” Dave Wild says. “People think the world moves very quickly today, and technology is making change happen faster – but in truth, the future typically arrives very slowly. The reason it feels fast is because we are creatures of habit, and because of that we remain blind to significant changes that are happening all around
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us. When something comes along that challenges those habits, it hits a tipping point in our minds, frequently causing angst, stress, and a sense of disruption.” However, even faster than ‘fast-moving’ technological shifts are other external forces – such as the biological and economic impacts of the 2020 pandemic. There is no doubt that the combination of these events are having a significant impact on the investment world today, further amplifying this underlying sense of disruption. And it’s raising new questions, especially for anyone wondering what the future holds for the next generation of investors. What will the world be like when today’s younger generation reaches retirement? Will home ownership still be a thing? Will KiwiSaver even exist anymore?
