How the New ‘Smart Investor’ Tool Can Help You. What is Smart Investor? Listeners’ letters and how the tool might help them: Investing beyond term deposits; Mortgage or KiwiSaver? And saving outside KiwiSaver; Diversifying beyond KiwiSaver.
Q&As: Market timing is upside down – but reader shouldn’t do it anyway; Another reader seeks advice on timing, plus switching KiwiSaver providers; Use bond funds, not balanced funds, in retirement; Have I followed my own financial advice?; A correction about percentages of retirees in long-term residential care.
Q&As: It’s great to be a cash buyer; Should couple in 70s panic about their KiwiSaver?; Reader plans way to get more from the government; Retired couple should consider retirement villages.
Q&As: We compare term deposits with bonds…; …And with an income fund; …And with high-dividend shares; Questions for over-65s if they gain access to KiwiSaver.
Q&As: How to tell if you’re on track with your KiwiSaver savings; Reader is saving too much, spending too little on fun; Even conservative KiwiSaver funds go negative sometimes; Allowances paid to employees not included in KiwiSaver contributions.
Coping with a falling KiwiSaver balance: What share market declines do and don’t mean; How much does a drop in shares affect KiwiSaver and other investors?; What you should do; Another way your balance could fall — interest rate changes.
Bonds — Most of us are in them. How safe are they?: What are bonds?; A key investment in many KiwiSaver funds; A worried listener’s letter; Two types of risk — and how to cope with them. For a brief explanation of credit ratings: tinyurl.com/CreditNZ.
Q&As: Couple should try share investing, despite the ’87 crash; Current interest rates not too bad, because inflation is so low; Should family move once or twice?; A reader’s suggestions for last week’s couple not all that helpful.
KiwiSaver performance, and timing markets: When should we take note of KiwiSaver performance?; What’s happened since KiwiSaver started; Why shares always do best over long periods; Why timing markets doesn’t work; What to do about that.
More on spreading your money around: How to diversify each type of asset; Chances of your account balance falling; Diversifying… around the world; …With mortgages; …Over time.