The big issue for your investment portfolio in 2013/2014 is the New Zealand currency. To have a well diversified portfolio, you should hold Australian and International Shares. You may also have International and Australian Property and Fixed Interest investments in your portfolio. As the New Zealand dollar increases in value against other currencies, your portfolio…
Some fun things to mull over. Our favourites are numbers: 2 -Hot things taste different according to the cup colour (with Carey’s favourite colour – orange – coming out tops!!) 8. Women look their oldest every Wednesday at 3.30pm 13. Fidgeting is good for men’s concentration but bad for women’s 20. Monkeys avoid selfish people…
There are three main ‘asset classes’ when investing. Fixed Interest, Property and Equities (Shares). These are then often separated into New Zealand, Australian and International sub categories. It is easy to think that the Fixed Interest asset class is straightforward and the easiest to understand, but unfortunately, it is actually the most complicated. Calling the…
To understand Fixed Interest there are certain words that you need to become familiar with. To assist you, we have given you a quick description of what they mean below: Accrued Interest: When you purchase a security on the secondary market, there may be interest that has accrued that you are entitled to at the…
What on earth are you talking about?? How can there be a ‘secondary market for Fixed Interest? For investors used to only investing in Term Deposits, this is quite a logical question. However, Term Deposits are a very small part of the ‘Fixed Interest’ market of investments. With a Term Deposit, you are lending money…
Credit Ratings are a good guide to the ‘risk’ involved in a financial security. While there has been controversy during the Global Financial Crisis about the value of these credit ratings, they are still a valuable tool to assess the ‘quality’ of an investment that you are looking at making. There are three main credit…
Being a parent involves nurturing and caring for your children. While it would be nice to think that this obligation ended at age 18 or 21, the reality is that it tends to exist for many many years into your children’s adulthood. My mother continually reminds me that although I am a well established adult…
The tax legislation around overseas foreign superannuation holdings has changed. If you have foreign superannuation (except Australia), you need to be aware of these changes and the tax liability associated with those holdings. We recently wrote a blog article about this at Do you have super in the UK or USA? Or have you brought…
Family, food and festivities. It’s what Christmas is all about. At least it should be. Unfortunately for many of us Christmas can also be a stressful time as we juggle social commitments and work our way through the Christmas wish list. When you’re battling crowds at congested malls, it’s easy to get caught up in…
Our most popular KiwiSaver blog posts are when we publish a commentary on the investment returns on KiwiSaver funds. We use the publicly available Morningstar KiwiSaver Performance Survey, which is updated each quarter. Here is the latest survey. Morningstar KiwiSaver Survey to end of September 2013 The Morningstar survey uses information direct from the fund…
With the recent release of the new Sorted KiwiSaver Fund Finder (see the following blog post How is your KiwiSaver going?) several prominent commentators have been vociferous in their opinions that ‘total fees are the most important factor’ in choosing your KiwiSaver provider. We totally disagree with this assertion. Having been practicing financial planners in…