The Investor 3 November 2009
Fund performance tables can do more harm than good. Some figures I saw recently strengthened my resolve to steer people away from KiwiSaver performance comparisons.
Fund performance tables can do more harm than good. Some figures I saw recently strengthened my resolve to steer people away from KiwiSaver performance comparisons.
Q&As: Tax agent and Inland Revenue differ on treatment of investors selling rental properties; Two big issues lead to bad financial advice results; Is this column dominated by KiwiSaver?; Generally, don’t put lump sums into KiwiSaver.
Q&As: Are house prices less likely to fall in posher suburbs?; Financial advisers paid by commissions can’t do as well as someone who is independent; Two Q&As on why recently issued preference shares are not good investments.
Long tie-up in KiwiSaver no big deal. A Canterbury reader is concerned about whether to recommend KiwiSaver to his daughters. “For someone in their early twenties, the monies invested in KiwiSaver — even if a contribution holiday is taken — will be tied up for some 40 odd years,” he writes.
Q&As: Are preference shares a good investment, despite recent price falls?; Did reader get good advice from an ASB adviser?
Q&As: A reader challenges my advice last week about postponing a first home purchase for three years; How to get around the income cap on the KiwiSaver first home subsidy; How to get around the three-year requirement for KiwiSaver first home assistance; Another reader challenges me — on my advice on whether to sell a Mangere Bridge house or a Whangamata house; The merits of coin tossing; Maybe Lotto will make reader’s decision easier.
Good news goes unheralded. One of the findings in a recent survey caught my eye. Only 12 per cent of New Zealanders surveyed said the value of their financial investments had grown in the previous six months, with 42 per cent saying the value was unchanged and 46 per cent saying it had fallen. The vast majority got it wrong.
Q&As: Couple wondering whether to buy a home now or in three years could gain thousands from joining KiwiSaver; You can’t get in early on the KiwiSaver first home withdrawal and subsidy.
Q&As: Is it better to sell a Mangere Bridge property or a Whangamata property?; Reader who switched to riskier fund, and saw immediate loss, wonders if she should switch back; Share markets have performed really well lately; Two letters about KiwiSaver and “total remuneration”, in which employees more or less pay their own employer contributions.
More than one way to tax investment property. There’s more than one way to skin a cat — or to change the tax system to discourage New Zealanders from investing in rental property.