Aspiration, the economy and megatrends: FinFest 2026 takeaways

It’s not every day you see a mechanical bull share the bill with a CEO, but this was no ordinary finance festival.

Across 23 October and 24 October, around 2,000 Australians headed to Carriageworks in Sydney for FinFest 2026, and it was a long way from your typical investing conference.

Between the bar and the mechanical bull, the talks on stage tackled questions many investors grapple with.

Betashares founder and CEO Alex Vynokur spoke about compounding and the habits that help investors stay on track. Chief Economist David Bassanese shared his outlook for markets, and investment strategists Tom Wickenden and Hugh Lam tested which megatrends could shape the next decade. Here are the ideas that stood out.

“The business of managing people’s money is absolutely the business of trust,” Betashares founder and CEO Alex Vynokur told the audience at FinFest 2026, reflecting on the principle that has guided the company for more than 15 years.

Alex said Betashares’ approach has been to “under-promise and over-deliver”. That approach continues to shape the business, which he said has “exactly the same DNA” it started with: lowering costs, improving investors’ after-fee returns, and widening access to wealth creation and financial literacy.

Speaking with Equity Mates hosts Bryce Leske and Alec Renehan, Alex was asked what gives him hope while cost-of-living pressures and tax changes are front of mind. He cautioned against complacency, saying Australia’s success has sometimes led people to take the idea of the “lucky country” for granted.

“We are not here because of luck,” Alex said. He credited generations of Australians who took risks and worked hard, and urged business and political leaders to do everything they can to “stimulate aspiration”.

Alex also criticised policies he believes could discourage people from building financial independence. He said punishing ordinary Australians who want self-reliance was “a very short-sighted policy” and that Betashares was advocating for the issue to be reviewed.

Rather, tax policy should be going in the other direction and encouraging greater access to the compounding power of financial markets. To that end, Betashares is advocating for a tax-free threshold to help young Australians build their first investment portfolio. “We are really strongly advocating to give every Australian a start in life,” he said.

Despite the challenges, Alex said he remains confident in Australia’s future. Australians’ underlying strengths, he said, are “more powerful than any particular tax policy.” He added: “We will absolutely get to the right outcome as a country.”

Betashares Chief Economist David Bassanese opened the event with a market update, saying global growth was holding up despite geopolitical tensions and rising interest rates.

“There’s a lot of things to worry about in the global economy, but the markets have kept going up,” David said.

He said global growth was tracking at just over 3% this year, around its usual pace. Markets fell when the Iran war began and oil prices surged, but later rallied on strong earnings from large US technology companies.

David also described AI as a long-term positive, saying productivity gains could support growth and ease inflation. He expects inflation to decline gradually without pushing the economy into recession, allowing company earnings to continue growing.

Australian shares may lag global markets while technology stocks lead, he said, but should still “grind higher.”

Investment strategists Tom Wickenden and Hugh Lam joined Equity Mates host Alec Renehan to discuss which investment themes could last through the next decade.

“I look for the unnatural market forces,” Tom said, pointing to governments’ strategic spending as one way to identify long-term trends. Governments buying for security or energy supply, he said, “often don’t care about price” because “they’ve got another agenda.”

Tom cited defence spending, which is on track to reach its highest level since 2009, and plans by around 30 countries to triple nuclear capacity by 2050.

He said investors should consider whether demand for a theme is likely to persist over the next five to ten years and which companies will capture the profits. Only then should they assess whether the price makes it a good time to invest.

The discussion also covered humanoid robots. Hugh said he was optimistic about the theme but warned that falling prices could squeeze manufacturers’ margins. Tom raised the risk of a race to the bottom.

In a quick-fire round on megatrends and fads, Tom said he believed quantum computing would become a megatrend, while acknowledging that he did not yet understand it well enough to invest. “If I don’t understand it, I can’t invest in it,” he said.