Q&As: The big question: does the doom merchant use banks?; Why NZ banks are not beloved; How couple close to retirement might be able to get a mortgage; When saving beats repaying a mortgage; Low-income reader lives a good life; Housing NZ offers help to retired people too.
Risk is not a dirty word. A man on the radio the other day was talking about risk, and how we’ve become so scared about our children’s safety that we don’t let them climb trees. The kids lose out. It’s similar with investments. Many New Zealanders seem to be too scared of riskier investments, and they too lose from that fear.
Q&As: Time to check a reader’s challenge about banks and gold; And let’s hear it from the reader himself; Why 1-person retiree households spend so much less than 2-person households; Should NZ Super be more for older retired people?; Income manipulation to get student allowances is now curbed; Not every reader agrees with aggressive ones.
Q&As: The extra money retired people can get from the government, above NZ Super; 2 Q&As about information on spending in retirement; People don’t literally invest student loans — so how do they do it?; Reader finds this column not worth reading!; People who make the most of student loans are “not morally bankrupt”.
Q&As: 3 readers are upset about morality and student loan repayment strategies; Is it better to take advantage of the student loan repayment bonus, while it lasts?; Low retirement spending figures challenged.
Retirement spending puzzle solved. It was a question that got people thinking. Massey University senior lecturer Claire Matthews had just finished a presentation at the Workplace Savings NZ conference on how much people spend in retirement. “How come most of the spending totals for two-person households are more than twice the one-person totals?,” somebody asked.
Q&As: New research helps to answer whether couple in early 50s should worry about how much they are saving; KiwiSaver funds won’t be the next finance companies; Should young man overseas repay his student loan?
Tax deductions: Not all they’re sometimes cracked up to be. A comment I overheard from a young man recently worried me. Talking about some kind of investment in race horses, and he said, “I put in $1000 a month. But I can deduct $800, so it’s hardly costing me anything.”
Q&As: The kids are off, the house is mortgage-free, now what?; Couple are disillusioned by pathetic returns on managed funds; What to do with a small KiwiSaver nestegg when it’s your only savings; Clarifying the rules about KiwiSaver withdrawal if you’ve moved overseas permanently.
Excerpt from Upside, Downside. This week we are publishing the second excerpt from a small book Mary Holm has written for the Reserve Bank called “Upside, downside: A guide to risk for savers and investors”. It will be given away free to the public in September. This column will tell you how to get a copy then. Today we look at examples of risky investor behaviour. The normal Q&A column will resume next week.