Kiwis love buying things on special and the push from retailers is making it even more difficult for us all to resist the temptation to spend. Black Friday, which originated as an American tradition on the day after Thanksgiving, has now found its way to New Zealand. No doubt the rise of online shopping has prompted local retailers to maintain their competitiveness in what is now a global retail marketplace. The short dura...

Your personality and other personal traits may have more of an impact on how fast you spend your retirement savings than factors such as your age, marital status, desire to leave an inheritance, and whether you continue to work during retirement according to a recently released study of retirees undertaken by financial planning professors Sarah Asebedo and Christopher Browning of Texas Tech University. They found that t...

Your net worth is the sum total of all your assets – your house and investments – less any debts you owe – your mortgage, personal loans and other debt. If you were to measure your net worth every year of your life, you would notice a pattern. For the average person, it starts at zero, takes a dip down with student loans, then slowly rises to a peak at the point of retirement. Thereafter, net worth falls as money is ...

Over the next twenty years, a massive transfer of wealth will happen as baby boomers age and eventually pass away. This transfer will be on a scale not seen before. Net worth statistics for June 2018 put the total net worth of all New Zealanders at just over $1 trillion, of which $334 billion is owned by people over the age of 65. That’s around a third of our total wealth that will change hands over the next few decades....

The golden rule of investment is to diversify your portfolio. That’s a concept most investors understand, however they are not always sure how to achieve it. Diversification is simply spreading your money across several different investment types (such as cash, bonds, property and shares) and then within each investment type choosing a range of individual securities or funds. Within a portfolio there are assets which ...

One of the basic principles of money management is being clear on the difference between saving and investing. A lack of understanding of this principle means that money is not managed in the best possible way. Saving is simply the difference between your income and your expenses. The act of saving is no more than setting aside money that has not yet been spent. This money is usually left in a bank account. However, tha...

Receiving an inheritance is a time of mixed emotions. There is the anticipation of receiving a sum of money, possibly a very large sum, but also the sadness of the loss of a loved one. Sometimes this tangling of emotions can lead to decisions being made which are not the best from a strictly financial point of view. There is a group of people for whom inherited money is sacrosanct. Such people will talk about how their ...

As interest rates head down further, different strategies are needed for those in retirement who depend on investment income. It is difficult, if not impossible, to live on NZ Superannuation alone and retirees are feeling the squeeze as their interest income shrinks. Some economists are talking about the possibility of negative interest rates – a crazy situation where investors pay a fee for the privilege of having the b...

Simplicity KiwiSaver can lay claim to be one of the most innovative KiwiSaver providers. They have differentiated themselves by operating as a charitable organisation, a low-cost provider through the use of passive funds and an ethical investment manager through avoiding investments in nasties such as fossil fuels, alcohol, tobacco, gambling and weapons. Now they are set to take on the banks by offering low cost mortgages ...

Retirement should be the best stage of life – a time when you can enjoy life to the max, free of worry. However, many retirees make mistakes with managing their money which mean they aren’t able to achieve the kind of retirement they deserve. If you want the last thirty or so years to be the most extraordinary time of your life, here are the key mistakes to avoid. Failure to plan. Time goes very quickly in retirem...