The Investor 29 January 2011
Turning interest into your friend. New Zealanders are, apparently, a fairly satisfied bunch — except when it comes to our financial situation. But maybe that’s not such a bad thing.
The Investor 18 December 2010
A financial gift for both the giver and recipient. Christmas or not, here’s a way you can give to someone else and also gain yourself. Sponsor an adult who is struggling financially to make the most of KiwiSaver.
The Investor 4 December 2010
Do we really need more stuff than Americans? Something to ponder as Christmas gift giving approaches: New Zealanders apparently think they need more stuff than the people we often regard as most materialistic — Americans. What’s more, older and male New Zealanders seem to be more into “things” than young people and females.
The Investor 20 November 2010
How to get more out of KiwiSaver. About 40 per cent of people in KiwiSaver don’t know what kind of fund — conservative, balanced or growth — their money is invested in. Many of those won’t be in the best fund for them.
The Investor 6 November 2010
Non-KiwiSavers’ reasons don’t stand up to scrutiny. Many New Zealanders who haven’t joined KiwiSavers are missing out on their fair share of the government booty because they misunderstand how it all works. Meanwhile, others in the scheme are not getting as much as they could out of it.
The Investor 23 October 2010
Where did the finance company money go? A reader is trying to get his head around his finance company loss. “I’m wondering if you would please consider writing an article on how investment companies lose their money — actually our money — and what happens to the money,” he writes.
The Investor 9 October 2010
Prospering from booze, bets, bombs and butts. It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea — or perhaps I should say glass of scotch — but the performance of a US share fund called the Vice Fund suggests that investing in what other people shun can pay off.
The Investor 25 September 2010
Are we bad savers, or was it a bad survey? A recent report on New Zealanders’ savings habits annoyed me — and not because it starts by saying that the Savings Working Group, of which I’m a member, “is likely to face a tough challenge”. What got my goat was its misleading conclusion.
The Investor 11 September 2010
Grab your big chance to painlessly boost your wealth. In the next few weeks, every New Zealand wage or salary earner will get a chance to considerably increase their wealth — painlessly.
The Investor 28 August 2010
More losers than realised from income sharing. When I die, I hope that over my lifetime I’ve paid more in taxes than I’ve got back from the government. That’s because people who do it the other way around — getting more than they’ve paid for — have often led tough lives, with long periods of unemployment, illness or disability.