Jacqueline Barton

We’ve all heard the old saying ‘an elephant never forgets’- but unlike elephants, we humans certainly don’t have flawless recall. Forgetting where you left your keys or the name of the person you met last week, is all too familiar. Memory lapses happen to the best of us, but there are ways to sharpen your memory and boost brainpower.

How are memories formed?

Memory works through three key stages: encoding, storage, and retrieval. Encoding is when the brain processes information from your senses and turns it into a format that can be stored. Next, short-term memories are stored briefly, while long-term memories are kept in the brain called the hippocampus. Finally, retrieval is recalling stored memories, triggered by cues such as sights, sounds, or emotions. While memory helps us navigate life, it can sometimes be imperfect, influenced by a range of factors.

The good news is there are things you can do to help your brain stay sharp.

Tips to improve memory

Sleep: your brain’s power nap

We know that feeling when we’re sleep-deprived: foggy and wondering why we walked into a room in the first place. Well, there is a reason for that, your brain processes and stores new information while you sleep and deep sleep helps to consolidate memories, so the more restful your slumber, the better your memory.

Exercise: more than just physical gains

It’s not just your muscles that benefit from a good workout—your brain does too! Studies have shown that regular physical exercise can improve memory and cognitive function. When you move, your heart pumps more oxygen to your brain, and new brain cells are formed. Plus, exercise helps to reduce stress, which can negatively impact your memory.

You don’t need to run marathons or lift massive weights, a simple brisk walk can work wonders.

Stress less: your memory needs it

Stress is like that annoying cold caller who just won’t leave you alone. It messes with your ability to think clearly, hampers memory recall, and can even damage your brain over time. Stress, especially chronic stress, can interfere with the part of your brain responsible for memory so finding ways to unwind, like taking a warm bath, or simply taking deep breaths, can help support memory.

Keep your brain engaged: never stop learning

Your brain functions in a similar manner to a muscle—the more you use it, the stronger it gets. Keep your brain engaged; do crosswords and jigsaw puzzles. Learn new things, whether it’s a new language or a musical instrument to build neural connections and keep your memory sharp. The trick is to constantly challenge yourself – by the time you sound OK on that instrument, your brain is not working as hard, so step things up a notch or take on a new endeavour.

Memory techniques help

Did you know that ancient Greeks used to memorise long speeches using specific techniques? One popular method is called the memory palace technique. It’s creating a vivid mental image of a place you’re familiar with, like your house, and mentally placing the things you want to remember in different rooms or corners.

For example, if you need to remember a list of groceries, imagine placing bananas in the kitchen, milk in the living room, and bread in the hallway. When it’s time to recall the list, you just “walk” through your memory palace and pick up the items. It may sound a bit wacky, but it works!

Or, who better to look to for memory techniques than Dave Farrow, Guinness Record holder for memorizing 59 decks of shuffled cards, which is an astounding 3,068 cards.ⁱ In addition to the memory palace technique, Dave uses a quirky trick: looking up. Nobody knows why looking up works when we are trying to recall something, but we do know that it sends more energy to your cerebral cortex and hippocampus, the memory centres of the brain.

Remember, your brain is your most valuable asset—treat it well and try some of these strategies. Before you know it, you might be impressing your friends with how sharp your memory is (and avoiding turning the house upside down to find your keys!).

i https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-decks-of-playing-cards-memorized-single-sighting

The Treasurer aims to “rebuild living standards”.

Much of the 2025 Federal Budget was already known, after a volley of pre-election spruiking for votes. But Treasurer Jim Chalmers had one surprise up his sleeve – $17 billion in tax cuts. The first round of cuts will kick in on 1 July 2026 and second round on 1 July 2027, saving the average earner $536 each year when fully implemented.

With the next Federal Election due to be called any day, the Treasurer named five priorities for his fourth budget: helping with the cost of living, strengthening Medicare, building more homes, investing in education, and making the economy stronger.

He called it a plan for “a new generation of prosperity in a new world of uncertainty” that would help “finish the fight against inflation”.

The big picture

The Budget deficit has made an unwelcome, but not surprising, return. The Albanese government has been clear that we were headed back into the red and Treasurer Chalmers says the $42.1 billion deficit is less than what was forecast at both the last election and at the mid-year update. Gross debt has been reduced by $177 billion down to $940 billion, saving around $60 billion in interest over the decade.

Nonetheless, Australia is navigating choppy international waters with a “volatile and unpredictable” global economy.

Australia will feel the shockwaves from escalating trade tensions, two major global conflicts – in Ukraine and the Middle East, and slowing growth in China. Treasury predicts the global economy will grow by 3.25 per cent in each of the next three years in the longest stretch of below-average growth since the early 1990s.

However, Australia is in a good position to deal with the difficult conditions, the Treasurer says.

The Australian economy has “turned a corner” and continues to outperform many advanced economies. Inflation has moderated “significantly”, and the labour market has outperformed expectations. Meanwhile growth is predicted to increase from 1.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent by 2026-27.

Addressing the cost of living

With the rising cost of living expected to be central to the upcoming election campaign, the Budget aims to deliver more support to those doing it tough with further tax cuts, changes to Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), cuts to student debt and wage increases for aged care and childcare workers among a number of initiatives

Apart from the new tax cuts due in 2026 and 2027, the government will increase the Medicare levy low-income thresholds from 1 July 2024.

The energy bill relief is also being extended to the end of this year. At a cost of $1.8 billion, every household and around one million small businesses will each receive $150 off their electricity bills in two quarterly payments.

The government claims that energy bill relief has helped to drop electricity prices by 25.2 per cent across 2024.

Students aren’t forgotten in the Budget with a cut of $19 billion in student loan debt, with all outstanding student debts reduced by 20 per cent and a promised change to make the student loan repayment system fairer.

The government is tackling the cost of living where it’s often most obvious – at the cash register. It is providing support for fresh produce suppliers to enforce their rights and will make it easier to open new supermarkets. It’s also planning to focus on “unfair and excessive” card surcharges.

Looking for a clean bill of health

Almost $8 billion will be spent to expand bulk billing, the largest single investment in Medicare since its creation 40 years ago.

Treasurer Chalmers says nine-out-of-10 GP visits should be bulk billed by the end of the decade with an extra 4,800 bulk billing practices.

There’ll also be another 50 Urgent Care Clinics across the country, taking the total to 137, and public hospitals will get a boost of $1.8 billion to help cut waiting lists, reduce waiting times in emergency rooms and manage ambulance ramping.

Cheaper medicines

The cost of medicines is also in the government’s sights. The maximum cost of drugs on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) will be lowered for everyone with a Medicare Card and no concession card. From 1 January 2026, the maximum co-payment will be lowered from $31.60 to $25.00 per script and remain at $7.70 for pensioners and concession cardholders. Four out of five PBS medicines will become cheaper for general non‑Safety Net patients, with larger savings for medicines eligible for a 60‑day prescription.

An extra $1.8 billion is also being invested to list new medicines on the PBS.

Increasing the housing stock

The government’s previously announced target of 1.2 million new homes over five years has seen 45,000 homes completed in the first quarter.

The budget sees an extra $54 million to encourage modern construction methods and $120 million to help states and territories remove red tape.

With building set to increase, more apprentices are needed, and the government has announced financial incentives of up to $10,000 to encourage more people to take up apprenticeships in building trades. Some employers may also be eligible for $5,000 incentives for hiring apprentices.

The Help to Buy program that allows homebuyers to get into the market with lower deposits and small mortgages will be expanded with an extra $800 million to lift property price and income caps to make the scheme more accessible.

To help increase housing stock available, foreign buyers will be banned from purchasing existing dwellings for two years from 1 April 2025. Land banking by foreign owners will also be outlawed.

Recovering and rebuilding

The damage from ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred and subsequent rains in Queensland and northern New South Wales is so extensive that it is expected to wipe a quarter of a percentage point off quarterly growth.

Flooding has damaged infrastructure and disrupted supply chains, agricultural production, construction, retail, and tourism activity.

The government expects costs of at least $13.5 billion in disaster support. As a result, the Budget includes $1.2 billion to be placed in a contingency fund to better respond to future disasters.

Looking ahead

Despite concerning events on the world stage, Australia’s economy is emerging “in better shape than almost any other advanced economy”.

Inflation and unemployment are coming down and wage growth will be stronger. To help underpin continuing economic growth, the Budget adds $22.7 billion to the government’s Future Made in Australia agenda.

It includes extra investment in renewable energies and low emissions technologies and an expansion of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. The plan also includes more than $15 billion in support for private investment in hydrogen and critical minerals production, clean energy technology manufacturing, green metals, and low carbon liquid fuels.

And, as the trade war kicks off, the Budget allocates $20 million to a Buy Australian campaign.

“The plan at the core of this Budget is about more than putting the worst behind us. It’s about seizing what’s ahead of us,” the Treasurer says.

If you have any questions about the Budget measures announced, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Information in this article has been sourced from the Budget Speech 2025-26 and Federal Budget Support documents.
It is important to note that the policies outlined in this article are yet to be passed as legislation and therefore may be subject to change.

From the economy bending policies of Trump 2.0 to the growing strength of the far right in Europe, the new alliance between Russia and the United States, the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and the US President’s vow to upturn world trade rules, the markets are certainly navigating tricky times.

In recent months we’ve seen volatility in some areas but cautious optimism in others in a reflection of the hand-in-glove relationship between politics and markets.

Of course, economic policies, laws and regulations– think tax increases or decreases, new business regulations or even referendums – have a big effect on how investors allocate their portfolios and that impacts market performance.

In 2016, when the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, the UK pound plunged and more than US$2 trillion was wiped off global equity markets.ⁱ

In the following four years until Brexit was finally achieved in 2020, the FTSE 100 performed poorly compared to other markets as domestic and international investors looked elsewhere to avoid risk. While it has risen since a massive drop during the coronavirus pandemic, the exodus of companies from the London Stock Exchange continues with almost 90 departures in 2024.ⁱⁱ

Interest rate movements and any hint of political instability can also bring about a sell off or a rally in prices, with companies holding off on capital investment and causing economic growth to slow.ⁱⁱⁱ

Global oil prices rose 30 per cent in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine causing European stock markets to plunge 4 per cent in a single day.^iv Since then, oil prices have fluctuated and are now back to pre-war levels and gold has reached new heights as investors globally look for a safe haven from high geopolitical risks.

Do elections have an effect?

Elections, which almost always cause market disruptions during the uncertainty of the campaign period and shortly after the vote is known, have featured strongly in the past six months or so.

A review of 75 years of US market data has found that, while there may be outbursts of volatility in the lead up to the vote, there’s minimal impact on financial market performance in the medium to long term. The data shows that market returns are typically more dependent on economic and inflation trends rather than election results.^v

Nonetheless, the noisy 2024 US Presidential campaign saw some ups and downs in markets during the Democrats’ upheaval and the switch to Kamala Harris as candidate. Donald Trump’s various policy announcements on taxes, immigration, government cost cutting and tariffs both buoyed and dismayed investors.

Analysis by Macquarie University researchers of the three days before and after election day found significant abnormal returns in US equities immediately after the vote.^vi

But the surge was short-lived as investor sentiment fluctuated. Small cap equities with more domestic exposure experienced the highest returns while the energy sector also saw substantial gains, in anticipation of regulatory changes.

While currently the S&P500 and the Nasdaq have both gained overall since the election, there’s been extreme share price volatility.

How Australia has fared

Meanwhile, any impact on markets ahead of Australia’s upcoming federal election  has so far been muted thanks to the volume of world events.

The on-again off-again US tariffs are causing more concern here for both policymakers and investors. Tariffs on our exports could mean higher prices and a drop in demand for our goods and services, leading to economic uncertainty.

In early February, the Australian share market took a dive immediately after President Trump’s announcement of tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China, wiping off around $50 billion from the ASX 200. They recovered slightly only to fall again later as the Reserve Bank cut interest rates. In the US, some tech companies delayed or cancelled their listing plans because of the volatility and uncertainty caused by the announcements.^vii

Amid a turbulent start to 2025, most economists agree the markets are unlikely to hit last year’s 7.49 per cent achieved by the S&P ASX 200.

Reserve Bank of Australia governor Michele Bullock is similarly downbeat on the prospects for the year, saying uncertainty about the global outlook remains “significant”.^viii

Please get in touch if you’re watching world events and wondering about the impact on your portfolio.

i Post-Brexit global equity loss of over $2 trillion worst ever -S&P

ii London Stock Exchange suffers biggest exodus since financial crisis

iii Policy Instability and the Risk-Return Trade-Off | St. Louis Fed

iv Why Financial Markets Are Sensitive to Political Uncertainty

v How Presidential Elections Affect the Stock Market | U.S. Bank

vi 2024 presidential election: U.S. equities surged, then retreated, after Trump’s victory

vii They’ve Been Waiting Years to Go Public. They’re Still Waiting. – The New York Times

viii Statement by the Reserve Bank Board: Monetary Policy Decision | Media Releases | RBA