When I’m 70, what will I wish I’d invested in?

Before I dig into today’s discussion, I wanted to extend a heartfelt thanks to everyone who wrote in last week off the back of my essay, “Ed Miliband goes to war for 1.7 billion barrels.“

We have well over 30 responses, each one far more than just a sentence or two.

Many shared vivid, detailed memories of the Falklands War.

Interestingly, several shared similar comments. In particular, many people remembered Brian Hanrahan on the BBC getting around reporting restrictions by saying, “I counted them all out, and I counted them all back.”

Another common thread was that the aftereffects of the war were unifying for the nation. And that it very much solidified Margaret Thatcher as the way forward. It was a big reason for her majority in 1983.

So again, thank you to everyone who replied. There were so many responses that I actually don’t have the capacity to reply individually to each one, but I promise I read each one.

Now, on to today’s essay…

On Friday, I posted this into our Southbank Research Editorial Slack channel:

If you haven’t yet seen what this is about, then…

a) I’m shocked, but b) let me explain.

Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) released the long-awaited new Roadster in its model lineup. What was fascinating about this was the massive secret Tesla had managed to keep under wraps during what was clearly a very long development process.

And I mean secret as in absolutely zero leaks.

No one was expecting what they saw.

And what they saw was the demonstration of a flying car.

Using downforce on demand, the Roadster turned on fans that allowed it to generate over four tonnes of downforce, meaning the car could, and did, stick to a “ceiling” and drive upside down.

This, of course, has been done before (see: McMurtry Spéirling), but it was cool to see.

And then there were the rockets, which helped the car touch down, do a “kickflip”, and propel the car from 0 to 60 mph in less than one second.

That little red circle, by the way, is a banana.

Tesla set up the acceleration test to prove that the car could accelerate faster than an object falling to Earth under gravity.

Anyway, this is all somewhat by the by. No one is going to do a “kickflip” in a Roadster to jag that tight parking spot down at the local ASDA.

But it does mean that in my short lifetime, I’ve witnessed incredible human achievement.

And for all the noise, all the fears, and all the hatred that seems to be permeating people’s news feeds, social feeds, and social conversations, it’s worth keeping in perspective just how amazing things are.

Aunty Judy

My Aunty Judy popped by our house this weekend. She was on her way to a friend’s party so she came down a bit early with my uncle and spent a few hours with the kids and us.

As we were chatting, the boys were showing them the video game that they had made with me recently. I mentioned it a few essays ago. To quickly recap, one weekend, I asked the boys if they wanted to make a game. They came up with the ideas, the levels, the gameplay, and all the details, and we fed them into Claude Code to build it out.

As they were showing my Aunty (who’s now in her 70s), we got to chatting about artificial intelligence, as you do. And they rightly spoke about the fears around AI that we so commonly hear about – how it’s used, how it could be used for bad, and what impact data centres have on society.

These are all the things that are popping into people’s feeds right now.

I explained how, when you understand the good side of things and accept that it’s here to stay, you figure out that it’s not that scary. The question is how we can adapt to live with it and improve how we live.

Even then, I compared it to the days when I was a kid and we were in the earlier stages of the personal computer. And how, in the ‘90s, the internet’s ubiquity really accelerated.

Then I said to my Aunty, “I bet when you were a kid, you didn’t think that by the time you were in your 70s, we’d end up with artificial intelligence and flying cars.”

No, she didn’t.

Why would she?

Fundamentally changing the course of history

When Aunty Judy was a kid, PCs, the internet, smartphones – none of it was remotely close to being a thing. Cars didn’t even have electronic fuel injection, and seatbelts were optional.

It struck me, as it often does in these conversations, what it might look like when I’m 70?

What are the things we might see in another 30 years that maybe we’re seeing only hints of now, or that perhaps don’t even exist yet?

When I’m visiting my kids’ kids or my nephew’s kids, what will we be talking about?

More importantly, what will the investment angles be?

Think about the investment opportunities that came about from the PC, internet, smartphone, and now AI revolutions. All in the space of 40 or so years.

Major, massive wealth creation opportunities in the market.

Relentless, and often.

You look at AI now, and some people think maybe this is it. The last big investment idea that will mint fortunes.

But there’s no way that’s true.

It feels that way now because you can’t see the things coming that don’t yet exist. But like clockwork, new things do come along.

Major technology shifts. Some burn bright and fade a little, while others burn brighter and fundamentally change the course of history.

But they always come.

Yes, AI is absolutely the big investment idea now. And it will play out over decades, much in the same way the PC, internet, and smartphone revolutions have.

Then something else will level up.

It’s a reminder that you should never stop investing and looking for those opportunities.

When you succumb to the negatives and the fears that these changes inevitably bring, you become stagnant and disconnected from what’s happening around you. You are blinded to all the opportunities.

Markets will dip, pump, crash, rise, fall, correct, boom, and boom again, but from point A to point B, the trend is upwards as we continue to figure out how to do things better and create value along the way.

Think about that when you next look at the market… when you next read a scary piece about AI, or when you’re thinking about where to invest next – whether for your kids, your grandkids, or even yourself.

Until next time,

Sam Volkering
Investment Director, Southbank Investment Research

PS The next great investment opportunity might be something we can’t even imagine today. But some of the biggest opportunities are already taking shape right under our noses.

Take the Falklands for example. Rising tensions over oil and a potentially enormous discovery beneath the seabed could have major implications for British investors. I’ve laid out what’s happening, what’s at stake, and why you should be paying attention here.