Hope and help for first home buyers. Things are looking up for would-be first home buyers, left out in the cold in the recent house price boom. The numbers are finally getting better, and government assistance is increasing.
Q&As: 2 Q&As on whether homeowners should sell and be renters for a while, to cash in on falling house prices?; Should 62-year-old buy a rental property or join KiwiSaver?
Q&As: KiwiSaver naysayer is the one who is “light on fact”; Self-employed KiwiSaver must contribute 4 per cent of pay when he takes a job — but he won’t starve; Inland Revenue “clarifies and expands” its position on mortgage interest deductions after a family home is rented out.
Take action now to get full KiwiSaver tax credit. June is the month of reckoning for KiwiSaver members who want to be sure they get as big a tax credit as possible from the government. But judging from reader emails and questions at seminars, there’s a fair bit of confusion about it all.
Q&As: Many KiwiSavers double the money they put in the scheme, and some triple or even quadruple it; Act now to make sure you get the full KiwiSaver tax credit.
Q&As: 2 Q&As on how the self-employed can make the most of KiwiSaver; More to come on tax deductibility of mortgage interest when you rent out your former home.
Q&As: 61-year-old struggling to pay off mortgage considers renting out her house and becoming a tenant elsewhere; Self-employed man wants to get back “over payment” into KiwiSaver.
Q&As: Grandma will help grandson more by opening her own KiwiSaver account and giving him the savings; Ultraconservative KiwiSaver funds are as safe as bank accounts, and bring much higher returns; Is lack of self control more prevalent now than in the past?; Government bonds have their place for the ordinary investor.
Q&As: Measuring movements of the Kiwi dollar against the US dollar can be quite misleading; Last week’s boss responds to my response to him!; KiwiSaver tough on small businesses; Many reasons to use Indian labour rather than NZ labour; NZ workers not so bad.
Ethical investing likely to catch on here. Ethical investing — which has been increasingly popular in other western countries — is likely to catch on in New Zealand now that KiwiSaver providers have to state in their investment documents whether they offer this option.