The best insights from our Meet the Investor guests of 2025

Every year, markets give investors no shortage of reasons to react. Prices move, narratives shift, and certainty is always in short supply. Yet beneath the noise, the fundamentals of successful investing rarely change.

Throughout 2025, we sat down with a diverse group of everyday investors as part of our Meet the Investor series - people investing their own capital, for their own goals, across different market cycles and life stages. 

This article brings together the best of the insights from those conversations. From why quality compounds over time, to the importance of finding an individual strategy you can stick with, to designing portfolios that can withstand uncertainty, these are lessons shaped by experience rather than theory.

Quality beats cheap

"After the GFC, I dedicated my research to finding out why some companies are better than others and ended up creating the concept of All-Weathers: companies able to perform regardless of the economic cycle.

All-Weathers confound everyone; constantly ‘over-priced’, but when you look back in time, the returns achieved are simply phenomenal. Goes without saying that only a few stand-outs are truly worthy of the label, and no, I’ve never included the banks or any commodity producers (obviously).

Most investors are too focused on cheap-looking valuations. Instead, if they tried to understand what makes a company special or great, they’d instantly be better investors."  - Rudi Filapek-Vandyck

Education

The GFC nearly crushed him - literally! Now Rudi’s hunting stocks built to last

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Find your own investing identity

"The biggest challenge is finding what works for you personally. Too many traders, investors, journalists, fund managers and advisors have this strong conviction there’s only one way to do things properly, but this is a false belief. Not everyone is suited for ‘value’ investing, no matter how many times they learn how to read a balance or annual report." - Rudi Filapek-Vandyck

Education

Meet Steven: Hunting for great companies using data and peer-led wisdom

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Why old playbooks don’t always work anymore

"Too many participants put too much emphasis on the past. Benjamin Graham himself would no longer be investing in the same manner as he did decades ago. The world is changing. Financial markets have changed. Most people find it difficult to deal with change, especially as they get older. Yet, change is at the core of the time we are living in. Don’t fight it. Don’t be afraid. Better learn how to deal with it." - Rudi Filapek-Vandyck

Owning fewer, better businesses

"My strategy is to own a small number of excellent businesses that have solid tailwinds and a history of strong EPS growth, low debt, plus trustworthy management with lots of skin in the game. Nothing unique about that, but many people can’t or won’t invest that way, which is why it seems to work." - Steven Mabb

"These days, my strategy is geared towards earning regular income through distributions and dividends. I have a 'buy and hold until something changes' approach, and I only hold between 5 and 10 stocks at any time, and I keep a close eye on each stock. My overall goal is to keep earning a yield above what I could get in a risk-free savings account." - Carl Bowden

Education

Meet Carl and his no-fuss strategy for reliable income

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Patience, discipline and keep a level head

"Be very patient with entry points, buying at the low end of multiple histories for that business and also adding to these positions when short-term sentiment offers a good opportunity." - Steven Mabb

"Hold winners, cut losers, stay level-headed, focus on quality companies, don't entrench yourself in biases, add as many layers to your investment analysis as you can." - Kerry Sun

"Learn not to be distracted by 'hot' stocks, 'insider' tips, and learn the value of the saying 'why would this person want to tell me this?' - it’s one of the great 'BS' detector strategies! Take the pressure off yourself - don’t become a day trader!" - Michael Barrett

Asset Allocation

This SMSF investor isn’t chasing the ASX – he’s looking for global edge

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Taking control through structure and asset allocation

"Use the SMSF structure to gain control, direct the flows and manage your superannuation funds. Use devices like salary sacrifice contributions to maximise the flow of funds into your SMSF. Over time, build up a knowledge and understanding of the various asset classes, then begin to develop the skills to invest in and manage these asset classes. 

In terms of equity markets, the International market is vast, Australia is small and the ASX has little influence on global markets." - Michael Barrett

Invest with a plan — and let time absorb the noise

"Always have an overall total financial position that you are working to achieve in 5 to 7 year time periods and learn to allocate risk profiles to your various assets in order to achieve these financial outcomes. The share market (in particular) ebbs and flows and often acts irrationally, so where you see an opportunity, take the profits or give yourself the luxury of being able to ride out a short-term loss." - Michael Barrett

"We start with a $10,000, five-stock portfolio, focused on stocks that have undemanding valuations, strong balance sheets and/or massive growth runways. The objective isn't to trade but hold these over the medium term. I will be mindful of technicals (e.g. if the chart begins to deteriorate) and fundamentals (e.g. an earnings outcome that undermines the original thesis)." - Kerry Sun (for Oliver Sun)

Education

Meet Oliver: The one-year-old with a $10,000 portfolio

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Designing portfolios for uncertainty 

"One of my favourite books as part of that process of learning was Nasim Taleb's book called The Black Swan. In there, he talks about this thing called a barbell strategy. So the left end of the barbell, its job is to protect you, to keep you safe. And that's the role that gold plays.

And on the right-hand side, what you've got is risk assets that have an asymmetric risk and return. And that's where the potential upside is dramatically much higher than the potential downside. And you don't need to allocate a significant portion of money into that side of the asset pool to actually get extraordinary results. And Bitcoin fits into that side.

It just so happens to be a coincidence at the moment where we happen to be in a precious metal bull market, which favours the left side, and also an inflationary monetary expansion market, which favours the right sides that both sides are going up at the same time.

But in the worst case scenario, if you invest like that and you protect your downside and you pick really good asymmetric bets, then that's a really good portfolio outcome. - Tung Nguyen

Asset Allocation

This former refugee is living the Aussie dream on bitcoin and gold, he says you can too

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We want to hear your story. Livewire's Meet the Investor series is looking for everyday Australians to profile. Whether you retired early, started late, or learned the hard way - your investing journey could inspire thousands of readers. Share your story by completing this form or email [email protected].