Mindful Money Decisions The ancient Buddhist practice of mindfulness is gaining popularity as means of reducing stress and anxiety in today’s high pressure environment. Mindfulness means maintaining moment-by moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, and surrounding environment without judging them to be good or bad. Mindfulness involves acceptance rather than judging something to be right or wrong. It has been shown ...

Your Home as an Investment New Zealand has one of the highest rates of home ownership with over 60% of households being owner-occupiers. The millions of dollars spent each year on DIY projects is evidence of the pride we take in our homes and also of the belief most Kiwis have that their home is an investment which can sold later in life to help fund retirement. The high rate of ownership is, however, declining with the r...

Protecting Your Health Happiness in life comes largely from three sources: relationships with friends and family, good health and having a clear purpose in life. Good health comes about through adequate housing, diet and medical care and statistics show that on average, those with more money have better health. With the increased pressures on the health system, health insurance plays a big role. According to figures recen...

KiwiSaver for Kids Joining KiwiSaver is a sensible decision for most eligible people between the ages of 18 and 65. There are currently around 2.4 million KiwiSaver members of whom around 360,000 (just under 15%) are under the age of 18. Clearly, many parents, or in some cases grandparents, have signed their children up for KiwiSaver. There are differing points of view as to whether this is a good thing for family members...

Home Buyers Beware New Zealand has a high rate of home ownership when compared to other countries, although it is falling. More properties are now owned by fewer people and property investors are becoming more influential in the market. Owning property can be a good way to create wealth as the value of property increases over the long term, however in the short term, property prices can fluctuate. The key drivers of prope...

Good Things Take Time There is an inextricable link between time and money. Accountants and economists talk about ‘the time value of money’. Investors talk about ‘time in the market’ and contemplate the value of compound interest over time. Time is a key ingredient in reducing investment risk, because the longer your investment time frame, the less impact from short term changes in the value of investments. To und...

The Three Most Important Financial Concepts According to wealth guru Robert Kyosaki, there are three important financial concepts which, if you understand them, will greatly increase your prospects for building wealth. These three concepts are assets, liabilities and cashflow. They are inter-related and the trick is to get them working together to maximise your wealth. Assets are things that have a value, can be readily ...

Get on Track for 2015 A new year, a new start and new goals to achieve. How nice it would be if we could start the year with a clean slate; no debts and a few dollars in the bank. If your finances have got out of hand with all the craziness of the holiday period, here is what you need to do to get back on track. Start by taking stock of your financial situation. It’s time to face the music and work out what is left of ...

Become Richer Through Contentment The famous 18th century philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau once said “There are two ways to make a man richer: Give him money or curb his desires”. The more money we want, the poorer we feel. The perception of wealth is relative and whether we feel rich or poor is determined not by how much money we have but by how contented we are with how much money we have. It follows that two peopl...

The Trouble with Saving Too Much Money means different things to different people. However, one thing is clear - money is not an end in itself, but something that enables us to enjoy life. This is where the differences arise, because everybody has a different view on the way in which money brings about enjoyment. For some people, money brings instant gratification in the form of the latest fashion or the latest technologi...