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What you need to understand about retirement villages before you get anywhere near one

Retirement villages are often sold as a simple solution. Downsize the house, free up some capital, hand over the maintenance, and move into a community where people look out for each other. For a lot of families, it gets presented as the obvious next step.I want to push back on the word obvious.Retirement villages are one of the most complex financial and lifestyle decisions people make later in life. They sit at the intersection of housing, care, ageing, family dynamics, and money. And in my ex...

Maybe this time it is different: what this means for your plan

Last month we wrote about what came through at the Portfolio Construction Forum.Jonathan Pain’s argument that artificial intelligence will fundamentally change what human capability looks like. And Oliver Hartwich’s description of the slow unravelling of the institutional order that investors have relied on, often without realising it, for the past thirty years.It felt different to the usual ‘this time is different’ commentary. We stand by that.But we also said the right response is not ...

New Zealand is finally getting a Modern Slavery Bill. Here is why you should care

Most people, when they hear the phrase modern slavery, picture something that happens somewhere else. In supply chains on the other side of the world. In countries with weak laws and weaker enforcement. Not here.That assumption is wrong.Modern slavery is not a historical term.It is a broad description for a range of practices where people are exploited, coerced, or controlled in ways that strip them of their freedom.Forced labour. Human trafficking. Debt bondage.Situations where someone is worki...

What ethical investing can and cannot do

This is the final post in a three-part series on evolving ethical concern.It is important to be clear about limits. Ethical investing cannot fix global politics. It cannot force cooperation between nations. It cannot stop powerful people from behaving badly.What it can do is help you draw boundaries around what you are prepared to support with your money.That means deciding which kinds of behaviour you are willing to profit from, and which you are not. It means choosing not to fund the worst abu...

Maybe this time is different - Part One

Most years since 2009, we have attended the Portfolio Construction Forum, a conference based in Sydney that we follow each year.It is one of the better investment conferences on the calendar. The quality of the speakers is consistently high, and the format forces you to think rather than just absorb a presentation.Over the years we have heard some very good calls, and some that turned out to be wrong. We have also heard the phrase ‘this time is different’ regularly, at conferences and in the...

What does “US exposure” really mean in your portfolio?

Over the past year, more and more people have asked some version of the same question.“How exposed am I to the US?”It’s a fair question. The US dominates global sharemarkets, US politics fills the news, and many of the companies people recognise most are American. When markets feel uncertain, it’s natural to want to know whether too much of your money is tied to one country.But in practice, that question often mixes together two very different concerns. Untangling them makes the conversa...

When the rules turn out not to mean very much

Over the last couple of years, we have been having a particular kind of conversation more often.A client will ask whether they own Palantir. Or Tesla. Or how much of their portfolio is sitting in Amazon. Sometimes it is about a specific company that has been in the news. More often it is a quieter question about what their money is actually doing while they get on with their lives.These are good questions. They are also harder to answer than people expect.In mid April the High Court delivered a ...

KiwiSaver 2040: Where the System Could Be Heading — and What That Means for You

Over the next 15 years, KiwiSaver is likely to become a far more significant pillar of New Zealand's retirement system. Several converging trends, demographic, political, economic and technological, will reshape how people contribute, invest and ultimately draw down their savings.The biggest change already signalled is the proposed gradual rise in default contribution rates, reaching 6% each for employees and employers by 2032. This shift could double the long-term balances of today's younger me...

Spending is changing. What does that mean for your investments?

Recently, I signed up to a spending monitoring and budgeting app for $120 a year. I did it partly out of curiosity, and partly because I wanted to test it properly before ever considering whether it might be useful for clients. What I did not expect was how quickly it pushed me into thinking more broadly about consumption, not just at a household level, but at an economy-wide level.At the same time, I have been reading more research from fund managers about how people are spending their money no...

When self-enrichment and corruption are openly defended

This is the second post in a series looking at how ethical concern is changing. The first explored why many people have broadened their focus beyond climate alone.Over the past year, a different discomfort has started surfacing more clearly in conversations. A sense that behaviour which used to be hidden or excused is now being openly defended.Under Donald Trump, and led by the US White House, the idea that it is acceptable to use political power to make yourself richer has been brought into the...

Why doing nothing is sometimes the right financial decision

There’s a lot of pressure around money to do something.Change funds. Switch strategies. React to headlines. Tidy things up. Fix whatever feels uncomfortable in the moment.Doing nothing can feel lazy, or worse, irresponsible.In reality, doing nothing is often one of the hardest financial decisions to make. It requires patience, confidence, and the ability to sit with uncertainty without trying to solve it straight away.We tend to see this most clearly when markets are volatile. Prices move arou...

Why concern about climate change has shifted, not disappeared

This is the first in a short series of three blog posts exploring how ethical concern is evolving and what that means for how people think about money.At the Mindful Money Awards in June 2025, when I was announced as Ethical Financial Adviser of the Year, I made an off-script comment in my acceptance speech. I said that many of the people I work with care deeply about showing up on climate change, but they are also tired. Not tired of caring, but tired of being told that individual effort can so...

KiwiSaver’s Growing Pains: The Issues Emerging as the System Reaches Adulthood

KiwiSaver has moved from scrappy teenager to central pillar of New Zealanders’ financial lives.With nearly 3.3 million members and rapidly growing balances, it is no longer a nice extra. It is a critical part of how people get into homes, survive financial shocks, and fund their retirement.But as the system reaches adulthood, a set of structural and behavioural problems is starting to show through.One of the most visible trends is market concentration. Over time, acquisitions, mergers and defa...

Carey and Susie – My journey in ‘mastering’ AI

I didn’t really get AI for a long time. Not because I wasn’t interested, but because everything I tried either didn’t work very well or didn’t actually make my work better.When ChatGPT was launched in early 2022 I was excited about what it might mean for our business. I started by asking it to create images for my blog posts and newsletters, which is always the hardest part of writing. The results were terrible. They were stereotyped and clumsy. When I asked for a non-European New Zealan...

Time for a subscription detox?

The quiet money leak most of us don’t noticeYou may be like us, we love a good tv series on Netflix, or Prime, or Apple, or TVNZ… we share notes and love to find out about new interesting programmes.But, I recently read a New Zealand Herald article that made me pause, not because the numbers were shocking, but because they were so… normal.According to Westpac data, New Zealanders are now spending almost $400 a year on TV streaming subscriptions, with the average household paying about $33 ...

KiwiSaver vs Australian Superannuation: Two Systems, Two Philosophies, Two Very Different Outcomes

KiwiSaver and Australian Superannuation are often compared as if they were two versions of the same idea, but in reality they represent completely different philosophies about how people should prepare for retirement.One is built on voluntary participation and behavioural nudges; the other is built on compulsion, tax incentives, and scale.The outcomes reflect those choices — and the differences are far larger than most New Zealanders realise.Australia’s compulsory system began in 1992, more ...

Is There an AI Bubble in Investment Markets?

You may have heard (or read) that there is speculation about whether there is an ‘AI bubble’ in the investment markets at the moment.  Some people are comparing the current situation with the ‘dot.com bubble’ at the turn of the century, but we believe that this time it could actually be different (but there are still risks in areas of the markets).This article is designed to give you a framework to think about whether there is a bubble – and help you with understanding the varying...

The History of KiwiSaver

KiwiSaver didn’t appear out of nowhere in 2007. It was the end point of 40 years of political argument, economic missteps, market reform, and shifting public expectations about what retirement saving should look like in New Zealand.In the mid-1970s, the Labour Government created a compulsory superannuation scheme that would have transformed national savings.But the timing was terrible.The financial system was still heavily controlled: fund managers were required by law to invest mostly in gove...

Finfluencers in New Zealand: Navigating Influence, Advice, and Regulation

In the digital age, social media has transformed how we consume information — including financial advice. Enter the rise of “finfluencers” — financial influencers who use platforms like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook to share tips on budgeting, investing, saving, and wealth-building. But while these content creators can offer valuable insights and inspire positive money habits, their role also raises questions about legality and regulation here in New Zealand.There is definitel...

What the Moneyworks team has been up to in our Communities

As a team, we have a number of commitments to our communities (both where we live in Cambridge and also to our professional communities).  This is an update on what we have been up to.September 2025 - Paul was on the panel at the RIAA Conference titled 'The conversation gap: Setting expectations and navigating the hard questions'. The panel shared their expertise and answered questions.All Summer (each year) Peter is actively involved as the Secretary and Treasurer of Cambridge Cricket and ...

Purposely Podcast - Why Values Matter in Financial Advice’, Carey Church MD Moneyworks

In November 2025, I was honoured to be invited to talk to Mark Longbottom at Purposely Podcast.  The Podcast number was #276, and I listened to quite a few of the podcasts in preparation for my discussion.Podcast link https://www.purposelypodcast.com/podcast/episode/1f12c472/276-why-values-matter-in-financial-advice-carey-church-md-moneyworks (and on Apple and Spotify.)I was blown away by the range of topics and the stories of the people that Mark interviews, I recommend that you ...

Moneyworks Festive Season hours

Another year almost finished, and it has been an interesting one.  Lets hope 2026 brings better weather for us in New Zealand!  Maybe an Indian Summer?We will be finishing work on Friday December 19th 2025, and will be back on board on Monday January 5th.We look forward to helping you with your financial planning again in 2026 - and a quick reminder that we are moving to a four day week from the start of 2026 - we wil be closed on Fridays....

How does Millie break?

One of the things that can ruin our day is waking up to find out that we have an error message (or two or three) from Millie as she couldn't run the process we were waiting for.To be fair this does happen regularly as we have so many processes, but our key process is our annual review process and we have pretty tight timelines to get these done.  Millie runs the annual review process to produce the annual review document 14 days prior to our meeting with our client.  We have an interna...

How to Outsmart Voice Scammers Pretending to be Family with Safe Words

During our 2025 Annual Review Project with clients, several clients have mentioned that their biggest fear is getting a phone call from their 'child' (which could also be a grandchild), saying that they are in trouble and that they need money sent.  This is a very real possibility of a scam, so we asked Junia Ai to help us write an article and a Guide for our clients (which you can download from the button below this article). Note, these do not have to be small children for this to be...

What do we do to make Millie work?

When we developed Millie in August 2018 we really weren't sure whether she would work, but we were determined from day one that she would be a part of the team.  So we developed Millie with an avatar (see above) and therefore a personality.  Her personality is that she is reliable, clever and works all hours of the day!When we started building Millie it was a very slow process.  The key to having RPA (Robotic Process Automation) work is having consistent inputs.  This took us...