Another reason to spread your investments. I can think of three good reasons to hold lots of different shares, as opposed to one or just a few. Two reasons are obvious, but one is less so, even though it may be just as important.
Q&As: Man panicked and bailed out of share fund. No!; Real Estate Institute denies that it’s hard to buy a house in NZ.
Q&As: Couple reluctant to sell their shares in a takeover; Owning 19 shares is good, but it’s too soon to judge performance.
Q&As: Man who has made $3 million from shares; How much risk for a 53-year-old?; How good is advice from banks?
Can you get rich quick?: Only by taking big risks. Also in this issue: From the Mailbox — Spending in retirement.
Can’t see the forest for the houses?Also: Christmas shopping. Quick question: Which of the following grew fastest in the last year: New Zealand house prices, New Zealand shares, hedged overseas shares (hedging removes the effects of foreign exchange movements), or unhedged overseas shares? Surprise, surprise, it wasn’t house prices. Bigger surprise still: house prices came last.
Q&As: How well do share funds perform?; Comparison of investment performances.
Q&As: Share funds v rental property; Income splitting by the self-employed — is it OK?
A message that goes too far — Shares beat mixtures over long term. I take exception to a recent New York Times article entitled, “The long-term lesson: It pays to diversify”. If you look hard at the numbers quoted by the writer, they show just the opposite.
Keeping financial advisers on their toes — good for the rest of us. A warning to financial advisers: You’d better give good, unbiased advice to your next new client. And the one after that. And the one after that. You never know which one might be a “mystery shopper” working undercover. If you do serve a mystery shopper, they will report on a website whether the advice you gave “is truly in the best interests of the individual client” — something that Joe and Joanne Blow often find hard to judge.