Holm Truths Summer 2005–06
Can you get rich quick?: Only by taking big risks. Also in this issue: From the Mailbox — Spending in retirement.
The Investor 13 December 2005
Can’t see the forest for the houses?Also: Christmas shopping. Quick question: Which of the following grew fastest in the last year: New Zealand house prices, New Zealand shares, hedged overseas shares (hedging removes the effects of foreign exchange movements), or unhedged overseas shares? Surprise, surprise, it wasn’t house prices. Bigger surprise still: house prices came last.
The Investor 29 November 2005
The student loan lark — what students can and can’t do. Student loans are back in the news. And there’s some confusion about how students will be able to use — or abuse — the system when all loans become interest-free next April.
The Investor 15 November 2005
Borrowing is not all bad — it depends why we borrow. Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard has been telling us off because we keep raising our mortgage debt. But, from the individual’s point of view, how bad is that? It depends on why we borrow.
The Investor 1 November 2005
Borrowing tricky between family or friends. A quote recently caught my eye. “The easiest way to teach children the value of money is to borrow some from them,” it said. But that applies not only to children. Adults, it seems, take much more notice when someone has borrowed from them than when someone has lent to them.
The Investor 18 October 2005
Home ownership not the only road to wealth. Shock, horror! Home ownership is falling and will continue to fall. But is that so bad?
Holm Truths Spring 2005
Kids, cash and cards: Help your children learn about money. Also in this issue: From the Mailbox — Saving for the children’s future.
The Investor 4 October 2005
A message that goes too far — Shares beat mixtures over long term. I take exception to a recent New York Times article entitled, “The long-term lesson: It pays to diversify”. If you look hard at the numbers quoted by the writer, they show just the opposite.
The Investor 20 September 2005
Wellington and Christchurch dwellers big spenders and risk takers. So much for Aucklanders’ image as the big spenders, risk takers and owers of debt! Wellington and Christchurch dwellers are more inclined to put some of their savings into high-risk, high-return investments than Aucklanders, a recent survey shows.
The Investor 6 September 2005
Share pickers respond to my doubts. Even as I typed it, I thought a certain sentence in my last column was bound to cause trouble. “Lots of research,” I wrote, “shows that an individual investor who researches companies doesn’t tend to do any better than someone who chooses shares at random.” Sure enough, a man who describes himself as “a paid-up member of the share pickers guild” emailed me.