Take advantage of mortgage rate drop
– Try to keep up old payments and reduce your term and total interest
– Or set up a rainy day fund
– A warning: Don’t expect rates to stay this low forever. How would you cope if rates rise?
Q&As:
– Daughter, 21, puts her Mum right on switching KiwiSaver funds
– Son seeks research on trading versus buying and holding shares, to convince Dad
– Got your visa? Get into KiwiSaver
– Don’t wait until markets recover
– Is it wise to take a “mortgage holiday”?
– Are different bank accounts treated differently if “haircut” happens?
– Should retiree try his luck again on timing the market?
– 20-year-old should get into share market cautiously
– Moving to higher risk is a good move
Paying off your mortgage allows you to get stuck into some serious saving
You’ve paid off your mortgage. Yay! But what now?
Q&As:
– 2 readers ask whether this is a good time to buy a home
– Drip feed into an investment, but preferably not out again
– How COVID-19 affects KiwiSavers planning to withdraw to buy a first home
– 65-year-old in KiwiSaver should relax
– More on “blood in streets” quote
Q&As:
– Reader: “We” are lucky to have KiwiSaver — I’m not part of that “we”
– 2 letters on why KiwiSaver should work for beneficiaries too
– Last week’s correspondent has found a way to spend more, but worries about teen son
Recommended changes to KiwiSaver
The Commission for Financial Capability has made 19 suggestions on how to improve KiwiSaver. Mary and Jesse discuss four of them:
– Set up “Small Steps”, so people’s contributions rise gradually each year if they wish
– Add “sidecar savings” to KiwiSaver for short-term emergencies
– Exclude fixed fees from KiwiSaver accounts with balances under $5000
– Show members how much their fees are likely to total over the years in KiwiSaver, compared with average fees for that type of fund
Also: an unusual letter from a listener — grow marijuana or join KiwiSaver?
Q&As:
– The 3 ways a reader has “chowed through” her mortgage
– It’s not wise to skip health insurance altogether
– Reader gives us a stats lesson, through Bonus Bonds
– Banks’ bonus savings products too complicated
– 2 readers tell of easy ways to give to charity
– No I don’t screen readers’ letters because of their attitudes
Notes from a conference
Westpac Massey Fin Ed Centre conference on “Building financially capable communities: our pathways to success”
– Current Financial teaching in schools is not effective, especially for lower sociology economic kids
– Self efficacy — whether you believe your actions and effort will affect your outcomes — is more important to wealth than things like financial literacy. Can it be changed?
– Changes coming to regulate payday lending. Will they help?
Are New Zealanders insured for bad things happening to them? Findings of a recent survey. Letters from listeners and discussion on: Loss of income insurance; Health insurance; Life insurance.
Q&As: Should couple in their 40s splash out on an Italian holiday home?; How to invest savings 5 years before retirement; 3 rules of thumb on how much to spend in retirement …; … And how they apply to one couple.