Episode Details

In this episode of The Australian Finance Podcast, Owen Rask sits down with Hayden Smith, Co-Founder and CTO of Pearler, to explore how Australians really invest — and where investing, technology and advice are heading next.

From ETFs and core-satellite portfolios to AI, robo-advice and the slow shift away from property-first thinking, this conversation goes deep on what’s working, what’s overrated, and what the “average successful investor” of the future might actually look like.

🧠 What you’ll learn in this episode

🇦🇺 Australia vs 🇺🇸 the US: how investors really differ

- How Australian investor preferences compare with the US

- Why ETFs dominate locally — and whether that’s normal or surprising

- Cultural, behavioural and structural differences between markets

👩‍💼👨‍💼 Investing behaviours: men, women & long-term outcomes

- Are there meaningful differences between how men and women invest?

- What the data says versus common stereotypes

- Why behaviour matters more than product choice

🧩 Core & Satellite investing — what it actually looks like

- ETFs vs shares: how real portfolios shake out in practice

- Why “core & satellite” is often misunderstood

- When simplicity beats sophistication

🏠 Is property-first thinking fading in Australia?

- Are Australians really moving away from property as the default wealth strategy?

- What’s changing — and what isn’t

- How housing affordability, flexibility and investing access shape behaviour

📊 What worked that wasn’t obvious

- The things Pearler expected to work — and didn’t

- The unexpected features or behaviours that delivered real results

- Lessons learned from building investing tools at scale

🔮 The successful Australian investor of 2030

- What does an “average but successful” 35-year-old investor look like?

- Habits, mindset and structure — not hype or shortcuts

- Why consistency still wins

🧠 Goals, calculators & investor tension

- Why goals are harder than people think

- The tension between optimisation and behaviour

- Are calculators still useful — or mostly ignored?

🤖 Digital advice, robo-advice & regulation

- How Hayden describes the current crop of “robo-advice”

- What digital advice gets right — and where it falls short

- Whether meaningful progress depends on government and regulatory change

🧠 AI, advice & trust

- Why you can’t (yet) just use ChatGPT or similar tools for investing advice

- Whether people will actually trust AI with financial decisions

- Is AI bigger than the internet — or just the next layer on top?

- Will non-technical users still be amazed by AI in 10 years, like YouTube today?

Resources for this episode

Buy Gemma’s book “The Money Reset”

Ask a question (select the Finance podcast)

Show partner resources

Join Pearler using code “RASK” for $15 of Pearler Credit

Get 50% off your first two months using PocketSmith

View Betashares range of funds

Rask resources

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