The Investor

The Investor 25 April 2006

April 25, 2006
The Investor

Shares easier than reader thinks. It’s like a red rag to a bull. A paragraph in a reader’s email started, “Without getting into the share v property argument…” But why not get into it? After all, it’s at the very heart of most New Zealanders’ thinking about long-term investment. The reader, a mortgage broker, goes on to say, “I believe it is good for people to have a dabble in shares with spare cash but use property as their main retirement plan, even if they go hard out paying off just one rental property.

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The Investor 11 April 2006

April 11, 2006
The Investor

Another reason to spread your investments. I can think of three good reasons to hold lots of different shares, as opposed to one or just a few. Two reasons are obvious, but one is less so, even though it may be just as important.

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The Investor 28 March 2006

March 28, 2006
The Investor

What we don’t know CAN hurt us. One of the first things journalists are taught is to make the first sentence of an article a “grabber”, something that will perhaps surprise readers and make them read on. So this column is officially starting now: Every New Zealander over 65 gets NZ Super, no matter how rich they are.

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The Investor 14 March 2006

March 14, 2006
The Investor

The last word (hopefully) on taxation of rentals. Reader feedback keeps coming about the taxation of rental properties. So I’ve decided to go to the horse’s mouth, Inland Revenue. But first, a typical email on the subject…

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The Investor 28 February 2006

February 28, 2006
The Investor

Let’s keep that chewing gum money. Please forgive us, Dr Cullen, and don’t take away our chewing gum tax cut! I know some of us have been scathing about it. As you said recently, “I have noted that people have said they don’t really think it’s worth having. If people say that, then of course they may find their wish has been granted. Be careful what you ask for, or you may get it.”

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The Investor 14 February 2006

February 14, 2006
The Investor

Views on negative gearing are poles apart. Negative gearing is like the death penalty. People feel strongly both ways about it, judging by reactions to my last column. In that column, I wrote that negative gearing — which occurs when a landlord makes year-by-year cash losses on a mortgaged property — is becoming more common. This is mainly because rents haven’t risen nearly as fast as house prices.

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The Investor 31 January 2006

January 31, 2006
The Investor

Negative gearing may come back to haunt you. Many landlords say they don’t mind or even like to be negatively geared — making year-by-year cash losses on a mortgaged investment. But it never looked all that appealing to me. And recently I heard a rather compelling argument against it.

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The Investor 17 January 2006

January 17, 2006
The Investor

Readers rally to back houses. It always happens. Whenever I write about investing in houses and shares in the same column, people say I’m unfairly negative about houses. In my final column last year, I wrote that the rise in house prices over the previous year was slower than the rise in: New Zealand shares, hedged overseas shares and unhedged overseas shares, all including dividends. That surprised me, and I thought it might surprise you.

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The Investor 13 December 2005

December 13, 2005
The Investor

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.

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The Investor 29 November 2005

November 29, 2005
The Investor

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.

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