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UPDATE - Sexy investment or Scam

You may recall that in January 2024, I wrote an article about an investment that a client made (deliberately choosing not to ask our advice as they knew we would say NO).Here is a link to that article https://www.moneyworks.co.nz/blog/post/113837/sexy-investment-or-an-investment-scam/.This is an update on what has happened in the last 10 months.Demands for more moneyThe client told FX Revenues that they had no more money and not to ask for any more.  The client had a bad fall just befo...

Dr Pippa's futuristic visions

One of our favourite speakers at the Portfolio Construction conferences that we attend at least annually and often twice a year is Dr Pippa Malmgren https://pippamalmgren.co.uk/index.html and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pippa_Malmgren.Previously a special assistance to President George W. Bush on economic policy, Dr Pippa has a wide network and always amazes us with her insights.  She specialises in working with technology and start ups, that give us a vision of where the w...

Quarterly Stock Intersections

The diagram above shows all the things that we do behind the scenes in relation to investments for our clients. The quarterly stock intersections process is an important part of our due diligence and we are only able to run this process because of our inhouse data crunching robot Millie.Each quarter, all of the fund managers that we recommend are required to provide us with a report stating all of the current holdings in the fund and their % allocation.  A number of fund managers are reluct...

Leading the Charge Against Modern Slavery: A Case Study on Nike

Written by AI (Test version of Google Notebook LM).In my ongoing mission to help you invest responsibly, I often talk about modern slavery and its presence in global supply chains.As we've discussed, this complex issue requires investors like us to be vigilant and proactive. In this post, I want to share a case study from Alphinity's latest report, which highlights how a major company, Nike, is taking a leadership role in addressing modern slavery risks.Nike: Setting the Standard for Ethical Sou...

Travel Insurance - Yes it really is a good idea

A recent survey of 3,000 New Zealanders planning on travelling overseas (or who have recently travelled) indicates that 33% have either never had travel insurance cover, or only take out cover sometimes.We very strongly recommend to our clients that you have cover in place, even if you are only going to Australia.  We also recommend that you contact your insurer, declare all of your existing conditions and pay the premium to cover them while you are travelling.If you think it is too expensi...

Diversity in Action - Pathfinder

You may have heard a whole lot of talk about DEI - Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.  In reality this usually translates into ensuring there are women on boards and in senior management (but not necessarily in ownership), or people of colour.We don't often see DEI in action with people who have different abilities.  That is why it was fascinating to see this post from Pathfinder, about their receptionist Gabrielle.  I encourage you to take a few minutes to watch it.When I asked for...

The Taylor Swift phenomenon

While Taylor Swift's music is not to our taste particularly, nor are we interested in her love life, she is a financial phenomenon.  Here is more information (again, thanks to Alphinity)."The 2024 tour, known as Eras, has sold more than $US1 billion worth of tickets; merch and music sales (even cassettes for goodness sake!) will probably add another billion on top of that. These numbers are extraordinary. The closest gross revenue to Eras is Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Bri...

Artificial Intelligence in action

Klarna is a Swedish payments company set up in 2005 by three students. Using a mobile app, people can 'buy now pay later', with a popular 'pay in 3' instalment plan - where the first instalment is paid at the checkout. https://www.klarna.com/nz/Klarna makes money by charging a fee to businesses for using its services and has about 90 million users world wide.Alphinity shared the following information with us about how AI is working for Klarna - which quantifies the benefits:"What is the ret...

The competitive EV market

While most people are aware of Tesla and the mercurial? Elon Musk, the EV that we drive most is the BYD fleet of Mevo, the transport that we use in Wellington.The Chinese BYD vehicles are lower in cost than Tesla, recently BYD surpassed Tesla's quarterly production both making close to half a million units.  (But Tesla's revenue is still higher than BYD).But what is interesting (as outlined to us by Alphinity), is the huge progress that Chinese EV producers are making, and the low prices th...

Giving back to our industry - RIAA Conference

In addition to working for our clients to manage their goals, objectives and financial arrangements, the team at Moneyworks do quite a bit of volunteer work.  This ranges from work in the community to work in our industry.  Following panel presentations at the 2022 and 2023 RIAA conference,  Carey is presenting at two sessions at the annual Responsible Investment Association of Australasia conference on September 19th, 2024....

A Golden Era of Health Care Innovation

This article is adapted from information provided by Capital Group.Capital considers that biopharma is in the midst of a 'third wave' of innovation.  Referring the picture above, the first two waves were:1.. Chemistry - simple compounds created in labs - that could address everyday sicknesses and illnesses.2. Biotech - moving from largely inorganic to organic chemistry - molecular biology.  this created therapies that are more effective and less toxic, due to their targeted effect on t...

Teeth, Eyes, Ears, Over the Counter Medication, Fitness

As we live longer, and the baby boomers have more wealth, people are shifting their focus to quality of life (particularly in richer economies).  McKinsey estimates that more than US$450 billion was spend on products and services that support nutrition, hygiene and fitness in the USA alone in 2022 (and that is growing by more than 5% annually).Thanks to Impax for the material for this blog post.There are three main categories:1.    Personal care solutions for teeth, eyes and ...

Investor Warning - online 'educational' courses - from FMA

The FMA (FInancial Markets Authority) has issued an investor warning about online 'educational' courses which promise to teach people how to make money trading in crypto, shares, foreign exchange or property.Some are fronts for scams, with victims thinking they're learning how to trade, but are manipulated into putting real money into fake trading platforms.Be extra cautious before sending money - you may even be shown fake returns but can't withdraw it without paying more. Even if you pay the e...

Winner- Best Ethical Financial Adviser 2024

Following on from our award in 2023, Moneyworks have again received the award as the Best Ethical Financial Adviser in 2024.  As Peter and Carey were in Finland, we were proud that Paul was able to represent us (including with a great thank you speech).The judges commented:The entry showed a depth of understanding of ethical and impact investing products. The judges recognised that Moneyworks is thorough and comprehensive in portfolio construction, with innovative use of technology. The foc...

Power Exercises - How to keep fit, strong and youthful

Ten years ago, when turning 50, I realised that it was important that I had strength, flexibility and good balance as I got older.  All things that vanish if you don't work on them.  In addition to my twice weekly strength training, I have added in a weekly yoga class, which on top of my walking and cycling have kept me strong.As I have now entered my next decade, keeping strong, flexible and having good balance is becoming more important.  I want to be able to lift things without...

Climate Change - Adaptation Investments

Climate Change – Adaptation investments(Thanks to Pengana WHEB for this source material)2023 was the warmest year on record by a large margin. And Munich RE (a reinsurance firm), estimates that natural disasters caused $250 billion in financial losses in 2023 alone and over 74,000 lives were lost.We keep hearing rhetoric about how we have to reduce emissions, but that very few of the large emitters actually want to put their hand up and change.This means that the world will keep getting hotter...

What happens when a loved one dies

I am lucky.  I haven’t had to deal with the death of any of my immediate family members.  But I have recently been privileged to assist the family of one of my long term clients to manage the administration of her estate.It has been an eye opening experience for me about how administrative the process is, how time consuming and how much Anti Money Laundering protocols have to be provided (each time an asset has to be dealt with – KiwiSaver, house, dealing with the lawyer, all four ...

Why you need a will

Having a will is something that you do for the people that you love.If you don’t love anyone – then you can live without having a will.But if you do love people, having a will is a kindness for them.  The aim of your will is to express your wishes about what should happen to your body, your estate and any dependents after you die.In the movies and TV shows, the reading of a deceased persons will is regularly depicted as a big event – held in a lawyers office – with suspense and some...

2024 Budget and implications for your financial planning

As promised in the 2023 Election Campaign, the coalition Government has delivered tax cuts.  These tax cuts will apply to everyone and it is IMPORTANT TO NOTE that these will also apply to your PIR (Prescribed Investor Rate) for your PIE (Portfolio Investment Entity) investments (eg in your portfolio and KiwiSaver, and if you have a PIE Cash or Term Deposit investment with your bank.  See the note below about what you will need to do if it affects you.The tax changes are as a result of...

What if things go wrong with someone’s will and it is challenged?

Apart from potentially creating a juicy story for the media, if a will isn’t prepared well, or if someone doesn’t have a will in place (dying intestate – see this article), the death of a person can cause a lot of angst and stress for loved ones.In the 6 years to start of 2024, there were nearly 16,000 applications for probate (if an estate is worth less than $15,000 it doesn’t require an application for probate), there were 352 disputes to the will that arose in either the Family Court ...

AI and the transition to a sustainable economy

One of our fund managers, Impax produces an excellent document at the start of each year outlining the themes that they feel are important for the next investing period (1-10 years).  Impax are a fund manager focusing on sustainable investment, so there is a strong bias in their themes to sustainability.Here are their themes for the 2024 report:1.    The transition to a more sustainable economy won’t be derailed2.    Political tensions create selective opport...

Who is Nvidia?

During 2023 - the stocks that led the markets and the recovery were 'The Magnificent Seven'.  Their share values took off, while many other shares languished until around the start of November 2023. The Magnificent Seven are Apple, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Meta (Facebook), Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla.  You are most likely familiar with the products of the six consumer brands, but who is Nvidia and why is it important?A number of your fund managers are invested in Nvidia and the ...

Millie is not AI

Moneyworks clients will know who Millie is.  Or rather what she is.Since 2018, we have worked with our Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Developer, Saravanan (who lives in Chennai with his wife and two young children) to build Millie – our in-house robot.Over the last five and half years, we have automated pretty much everything we can automate in our business (but I keep saying that and I keep finding things to automate -but surely the process we are starting in March is our last one!).Th...

Artificial Intelligence and your investments

There are a few topics that are highlighted as being ‘leading themes’ for investments over the next five to ten years, including renewable energy and artificial intelligence.Artificial Intelligence is seen as the next big technological leap that will change our world and provides huge opportunities for many companies that you may be invested in (as well as some risks.)We have had a lot of information from our fund managers recently about AI, so thought this was a good opportunity to share th...

Do you use your personal vehicle for business use? It might not be insured…

At Moneyworks, we all own our own vehicles and when we use them for work, we get reimbursed by the company at the IRD rate of mileage.  It is a system that has worked well for us.  We didn’t think twice about it until we read a case note from the Insurance and Financial Services Ombudsman, where we learned that our vehicles may not be insured if we use them for business use and they are insured for personal use.In this situation the insured had claimed for compensation for the delay ...