Interview Pt 1: John Garrett, MA Financial Group – Mental Models

John Garrett is a Portfolio Manager at MA Financial Group Ltd (ASX: MAF) (formerly Moelis Australia) and shares investing wisdom on his website, mastersinvest.com. He joins Raymond Jang on The Australian Investors Podcast to share his investing knowledge and lessons with our investing community.

John's career in the financial markets has spanned across over nearly 25 years and currently manages three funds at MA Financial Group. His significant experience combined with an insatiable appetite for consuming books along with learning from the greats has helped him build an encyclopedic knowledge of mental models to find great businesses, which can compound at high rates over long periods of time.

Talking points

00:00 - How John felt when he heard that Ben Rundle said he was the most influential person in his investing career.

02:40 - John's personal journey as an investor.

05:15 - First decade of John's career in REITs with UBS Investment Bank and the impact of the Asian financial crisis and the tech bubble. We talk about CISCO Systems Inc (NASDAQ: CSC), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT).

13:00 - John's experience in hedge fund advisory and building live model portfolios for institutional clients.

20:00 - What was going through John's mind during the global financial crisis and how Mark Twain's quote, 'History doesn't repeat itself but it often rhymes' was relevant. John also mentions the book, House of Morgan.

24:55 - John's foray into the buy-side and the investing philosophy of the funds he currently manages at MA Financial Group. John shares some interesting statistics highlighting where the best ASX investing opportunities lie.

34:10 - Why focusing on the destination is important to John when he approaches valuation. John uses Nick Sleep and Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT) as an example.

38:00 - Using Australian Ethical Investment Ltd (ASX: AEF) as a case study of where the valuation became overstretched.

42:15 - How John works out the risk and reward payoff when assessing investment opportunities, using Johns Lyng Group Ltd (ASX: JLG) as an illustration.

46:30 - What John does to take his mind off investing.

48:40 - The key lessons John gained from studying the great investors.

Watch the video version on the Rask Australia YouTube page.

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Full individual disclosures for each guest are available via the show notes page. Owen and The Rask Group Pty Ltd do NOT receive anything for mentioning Super funds, products, shares, bank accounts, etc.

DISCLAIMER: This podcast contains general financial information only. That means the information does not take into account your objectives, financial situation, or needs. Because of that, you should consider if the information is appropriate to you and your needs, before acting on it. If you’re confused about what that means or what your needs are, you should always consult a licensed and trusted financial planner. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information in this podcast, including any financial, taxation, and/or legal information. Remember, past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. The Rask Group is NOT a qualified tax accountant, financial (tax) adviser, or financial adviser.

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Date recorded:18th Jan 2022

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