Wednesday’s Other Central Bank Meeting Might Be the One to Watch

All eyes will rightly be on the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate decision Wednesday. But the meeting of another central bank across the Pacific will be quite consequential too.

While Jerome Powell is pondering whether to cut rates now for the first time in more than four years or perhaps wait a couple more months, Kazuo Ueda , his counterpart in Japan, is considering whether to do the opposite . After the Bank of Japan exited its negative-interest-rate regime in March, investors are looking for more tightening to come.

The Bank of Japan raised its short-term interest rate from minus 0.1% to a range of around 0% to 0.1% in March, the first increase in 17 years. Japan’s consumer prices rose 2.8% year-on-year in June, which was off from inflation’s peak pace last year, but still well higher than Japan is accustomed to.

In a possible preview of what awaits markets if the Bank of Japan leans hawkish, the Japanese yen has risen sharply in the past few weeks, appreciating 5.2% against the dollar this month from a multi-decade low. That has likely contributed to market turmoil in other markets around the world over the past couple of weeks, including the selloff in global technology stocks, as the yen, with its low interest rates, is a favourite funding currency for traders .

Hedge funds have ramped up their short bets on the yen in the past two years but could exit their positions pretty abruptly. Leveraged funds have slashed their net short position in options and futures against the yen by half in the two weeks ended July 23, according to data from Commodity Futures Trading Commission via CEIC. That is equal to a nominal value of $4.6 billion.

But the market is divided over whether a Japanese rate increase could come as soon as this week. There is a 41% probability that the Bank of Japan could raise rates by 0.15 percentage point, inferred from pricing of overnight indexed swaps, according to Bank of America.

At the meeting this Wednesday, the Bank of Japan is also expected to outline plans to unwind its portfolio of $3.8 trillion in Japanese government bonds, likely giving a further boost to long-term rates. Japan’s 10-year government bond yields have gone up 0.44 percentage point to around 1.06% this year as investors expected higher rates.

The country was swimming against the tide over the past few years by staying put on its ultra-easy monetary policies when most major central banks were raising rates. The Bank of Japan will likely be more cautious going in the opposite direction: A sharply higher yen could be punishing to exporters , and policymakers in Japan live in perpetual fear of returning to deflation. Any surprises in the BOJ’s pace as it normalises policy could still rattle financial markets.

Over the longer term, a narrowing interest-rate differential between the U.S. and Japan could shift the pattern of investment flows. Japan had the equivalent of $4 trillion in foreign portfolio investments at the end of 2023, according to official data. That includes both companies and individuals which are scouring the globe for higher returns. Some of them might bring their money back to Japan if assets at home are generating higher yields, especially if the yen is getting stronger.

U.S. 10-year government bonds still yield around 3.1 percentage points more than Japanese ones, but that is already down from a 4.2-percentage-point gap in October. If that gap keeps narrowing, it could mean tighter financing conditions in markets around the world, which have long looked to Japan as a steady buyer.

It is rare for two of the world’s largest central banks to be at major turning points in their long-term policy settings at the same time, and rarer still for them to be moving in opposite directions. The consequences could be far-ranging and unpredictable. Investors around the world will have to get used to paying more attention to what is happening in Tokyo, not just Washington, D.C.

The best financial advice many Australians are receiving right now is not coming from licensed advisers charging by the hour. It is coming through a phone screen, in the ten minutes between work and dinner, from creators who have built credibility the hard way: by being right, being transparent, and being specific in a space where vagueness has always been the easy default.

This is not a ranking by follower count. Follower count is a measure of distribution, not of quality. What follows is a ranking by substance — credentials, accuracy, community depth, and the quality of what an audience actually learns from following these accounts. The distinction matters, because the Australians acting on this content are making real financial decisions with real money.

1- Queenie Tan – Corporate Authorised Representative; Co-Founder & Director, Invest With Queenie & Billroo

There are finance influencers who talk about building wealth, and there are those who document it in real time with receipts. Queenie Tan belongs firmly in the second category. Starting from a $400-per-week income, Tan built her net worth past $1 million while publishing the actual numbers — income, savings rate, investment decisions — for an audience of more than 400,000 across platforms.

She is a Corporate Authorised Representative, co-founder of the personal finance app Billroo, and the author of a book that has become a practical reference for young Australians navigating ETFs, superannuation and property. What separates her from the crowded field of money educators is precision: she does not talk in principles when she can talk in percentages.

2- Alan Kohler – Editor-in-Chief, Eureka Report; Editor-in-Chief, InvestSMART Group; ABC News finance presenter, host of Inside Business.

If Queenie Tan represents the new wave of personal finance creators, Alan Kohler represents something the new wave will spend decades trying to build: institutional credibility that has survived multiple economic cycles. As Editor-in-Chief of the Eureka Report and InvestSMART Group, and a decades-long presence on ABC News, Kohler has spent more than thirty years making financial analysis accessible without dumbing it down.

His coverage of RBA decisions, market movements and economic policy is cited by podcasters, journalists and fund managers alike. He is not chasing virality. He does not need to.

3- Aleks Nikolic – Corporate lawyer; host, Big Swinging Stocks podcast

Most finance creators address the mechanics of money. Aleks Nikolic addresses the psychology — and that distinction explains why her following is as loyal as it is. Operating as Broke Girl Wealth across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, Nikolic covers ETFs, crypto and investment strategy, but her real differentiator is a willingness to discuss the emotional architecture of financial decision-making.

Shame around debt. Fear around market volatility. The limiting beliefs that stop people acting on what they already know. In a space where confidence is routinely performed, her candour is a genuine competitive advantage.

4- Bryce Leske & Alec Renehan – Equity Mates Media

Equity Mates did not build a following. They built a media company. What began as a podcast by two friends learning to invest has grown into Australia’s most established investing media brand, covering ASX stocks, ETFs, global markets and fund manager interviews across podcast, social and YouTube.

The longevity is the credential. Equity Mates has operated through multiple market cycles, a global pandemic, and a generational shift in how Australians engage with investing — and its audience has grown through all of it. When the hosts speak, their listeners know they have been paying attention for years.

5- The Lazy CEO – CEO & Founder, Showpo; Shark Tank Australia investor

The metric that matters most on social media is not followers — it is engagement, because engagement signals trust. Jane Lu, known as The Lazy CEO, maintains an engagement rate of approximately 1.15 per cent on Instagram, which is exceptional for a finance account of his size. Her 242,000-plus followers are not passive consumers: they ask questions, share experiences and apply what they read.

Her content focuses on business finance and wealth building, and the active comment sections are the clearest possible evidence that her audience does not merely scroll past.

6- Tash Invests – Founder, Tash Lends; Forbes Australia 30 Under 30

Tash Invests built her following on a premise that sounds simple but is rarer in practice than it should be: she publishes the actual numbers. Not approximations or ranges or anonymised case studies — her salary, her savings rate, her portfolio value, her net worth, updated and on the record.

Having bought her first property at twenty-two and grown her documented net worth past $1 million, she has become the primary reference point for young Australians trying to understand what building wealth on a moderate income genuinely looks like. The specificity is the product.

7- David Scutt – APAC Market Analyst at StoneX Group

The authority of most finance social media content rests on research and reading. David Scutt‘s authority rests on having done the job. A former Treasury Dealer at Arab Bank and the Commonwealth Bank, former ASX Business Supervisor, and former Global Markets Editor at Business Insider Australia and anchor at ausbiz TV, Scutt now brings that direct market experience to his role as APAC Market Analyst at StoneX Group, rather than relying on secondary commentary.

When he discusses foreign exchange movements or ASX dynamics, it is not because he has read about them. It is because he has traded them.

8- Meddy Demars – Investing & crypto content creator

The gap Meddy Demars fills is specific and underserviced: connecting global macroeconomic events to the practical reality of Australian investors. When the US Federal Reserve adjusts interest rates, when inflation data moves, when commodity prices shift — most Australian finance content either ignores the local implications or translates them poorly.

Demars, operating across TikTok and Instagram from Sydney, does the translation well: explaining what global conditions mean for Australian stocks, savings rates and investment portfolios in terms that are accessible without being condescending.

9- Simran Kaur – Founder, Friends That Invest

Friends That Invest is arguably the most successful community-building exercise in Australian personal finance, and Simran Kaur is the reason why. The New Zealand-based creator — whose audience is predominantly Australian — built a podcast, a book and a social media presence around a single insight: that the personal finance world was not speaking to young women, and that the consequences of that gap were significant.

The measurable cultural shift that followed — women engaging with investing concepts in communities that had not previously existed — is the kind of impact that most financial literacy programmes aim for and rarely achieve.

10- Effie Zahos – Money Editor at 9News

Effie Zahos is one of Australia’s most recognised financial commentators, appearing regularly across 9News, A Current Affair, Today and Today Extra as 9News Money Editor. Her role puts everyday money questions, from mortgage rates to cost-of-living pressures, in front of a national broadcast audience.

Before television, she spent years as editor of Money magazine, building the editorial foundation for her current commentary. She is also Director and Money Commentator at InvestSMART, an ambassador for Canstar, and a published author, with her financial advice available in print as well as on screen.

That combination, decades of editorial experience, an active broadcast presence, and a body of published work, is what makes her commentary carry weight beyond any single platform or post.

The common thread across this list is not follower count or platform presence. It is that each creator has built an audience willing to act on what they say, and for the Australians making financial decisions off the back of this content, that trust is the only thing that actually matters.

Wednesday’s Other Central Bank Meeting Might Be the One to Watch

The Bank of Japan will announce an interest-rate decision on the same day as the Fed, with big consequences

The voices reshaping how Australians think about money — and why credibility matters more than reach.