Q&As:
– Do fund managers “do nothing but take fees”?
– A good alternative to KiwiSaver hardship withdrawals
– Switching to a cheaper rental property has its pluses
– Control inflation by raising KiwiSaver contributions?
Q&As:
– Tips for a 26-year-old on how saving for a home
– A 50% house price drop? 30% has happened
– Changes strengthen landlord argument
– Tough gifting rules for elderly care subsidy
– One way around the care subsidy rules?
– Divorce not the answer unless real
Q&As:
– Life insurance is usually for more than the funeral
– How to run elderly relative’s finances
Plus:
– Upside Downside: Risky behaviour: Expecting past performance to continue
How much insurance should we have?
– Email from listener: Do we have too much insurance?
– Attitudes to insurance
– Types of insurance
– Keeping insurance costs down
Setting up emergency money
– Many NZers don’t have access to emergency money
– A good tradeoff — increase hardship but gain mental health
– Imagine your pay has been cut
– Where to put emergency money
– Make use of mortgage situation
25th anniversary of this column!
– Reflections on what we’ve looked at over the years
– Readers’ stories about how the column has helped them
Q&As:
– KiwiSaver “sidecar” emergency account would work well
– Even Buffett likes index funds
– Longer-term deposits usually pay more, despite current rates
– One reader wants all short-term deposits…
– … While another wants all long-term ones
– Correction
Spending that makes you happy
Research tends to find the following spending brings the most happiness:
– Getting rid of money worries — paying off debt, getting insurance etc
– Experiences — events, travel ….
– Changes that give you more time — hiring others to do tasks etc
– Beautiful things — art, plants etc
– Spending on others — charity, shouting a friend, gifts
3 clever types of mortgages
But first: Christmas Gift Book Giveaway. How to enter
– Offset mortgages
– Redrawable mortgages
– Revolving credit mortgages
– Can you switch to one of these if you already have an ordinary mortgage?
– A great place for rainy day money
Q&As:
– A classic too-good-to-be-true offer
– KiwiSaver government contributions to some over 65s? No — let’s make it beneficiaries
– Mortgage paydown probably better than buying shares
– Let’s get this widow mortgage-free before retirement
– Reader unhappy with te reo in last week’s column