Debt repayment

NZ Herald 20 October 2007

The Other B Word. Budgeting is rather like eating healthily or exercising. Some people like to do it, but for others it’s a chore. And for many it’s a source of guilt. They think they should do it, but they don’t. This article could be yet another telling the laggards how they will be much better people if they keep track of all their spending. But that’s hardly likely to make any more difference than other such articles. As poet Robert Frost wrote: “Nobody was ever meant, to remember or invent, what he did with every cent.”

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NZ Herald 7 April 2007

Q&As: A year-old letter shows the danger in trying to predict what the Kiwi dollar will do; “Plodders” wonder how to match the investments of their landlord friends; Traders in shares beyond Australasia no longer pay the old tax on capital gains; How about taxing rental property the same way as international shares?

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The Investor 6 March 2007

Digging your way out of the big hole. You’re never in debt so deep that you can’t get out again. At least one reader of this column will be reassured by this message from Raewyn Fox, chief exec of the Federation of Family Budgeting Services.

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Holm Truths Summer 2006–07

The other B word: While some people find it easy to follow a budget, others struggle. Here are some tips for the latter group. Also in this issue: From the Mailbox — Couple who sold their house save heaps by renting. But should they wait for a price fall before buying again?

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Holm Truths Spring 06

Mortgage moves: How you can make the big loans work better for you. Also in this issue: From the mailbox — Is it a good idea to increase your mortgage and invest the money elsewhere?

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The Investor 28 March 2006

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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