By Karen Piercy, AFA. Parents face a dilemma about helping their children purchase a first home. Issues to consider are affordability, not endangering your retirement nest egg and being equitable to all of your children. Firstly, ensure your children learn how to manage money and get their finances in shape - pay off short term debt such as credit cards, and show a pattern of saving, before they approach a lender or ...

  One of the consequences of the baby boom is that there is a raft of people all wanting to sell their businesses at about the same time to fund their retirement. There are a number of reasons why people set up their own business. Some do it for the lifestyle and independence, some want to build as much wealth as possible, others find it the best way to create employment for themselves and others. Whatever your mot...

By Karen Piercy, AFA My mum said, at age 18, as long as you have a job, you should move out from home and live independently. I told my step-children that the best thing your parents can do, is give you the skills to live independently, as your parents won’t be around forever. My stepson lived with us in his teens and then when employed, moved to his own flat. A couple of years later he asked to move home again so ...

  The property market is showing no signs of slowing down despite being near the end of a very long upward trend. While there is some advantage in buying at the bottom of a cycle, that advantage becomes less relevant over time. For first home buyers, it is more important to be in the property market than to try and time a purchase at a low point. There is lots to do in preparation for buying a first home. Here a...

  Any student of mathematics will tell you there is magic in numbers. There are endless patterns with numbers which will leave you scratching your head. For example, if you take the number 6 and multiply it by an even number, the last digit of the answer will be the same as the last digit of the multiplier – for example 6 times 4 is 24 or 6 times 18 is 108. Of course, we all know about compounding interest, an...

  Retirement is seen to be the ultimate but somewhat elusive goal that we all aspire to and for which financial planners chide us that we must be well prepared. However, rather than retirement being a life changing experience that takes us overnight from being a productive worker to being permanently on holiday, retirement should be a seamless process where life is a continuous combination of productivity and pleas...

There is something magical about the start of a new year. It’s like we are given a chance to make a fresh start on just about every aspect of life. Yet sadly, it’s only a few who take this opportunity to do things differently. There is a big difference between thinking about the things that need changing and actually making changes. We are creatures of habit. Psychologists will tell you that changes in human behavio...

  The NZX50 Index, which is the main index for tracking the performance of New Zealand shares, reached an all time high of around 11,495 this December. This means it is up by over 31% since the beginning of 2019. The NZX 50 is made up of the top 50 shares in terms of market capitalisation – that is, the value of the total number of shares on issue. In December, 2009 the index sat at around 3,200. This means it ha...

Investors with term deposits maturing have a quandary. Do they reinvest their money at all-time low rates or withdraw their funds and invest the money in riskier assets? We are in a transition to a new investment environment in which interest rates and inflation are historically low. This situation is likely to remain for some time. The immediate response has been that money has flowed out of banks and into shares and p...

The festive season is a time of overindulgence in all things good. It’s the one time of the year when it’s OK to loosen up on self-discipline and let go of diets, fitness regimes and frugality. Overindulgence doesn’t come without side effects, however. Tucking into a massive meal of rich food accompanied by generous servings of alcohol feels very satisfying at the time but can leave the body in a sorry state. There c...