The investment games people play. Let’s say you’re playing a game in which everyone has been given $20. In each round, you choose whether or not to put in $1, and a coin is then tossed. If it’s heads, you get back $2.50. If it’s tails, you lose your $1. How often would you put in a dollar?
Excerpt from Get Rich Slow. This week, and through September, we are running excerpts from Mary Holm’s bestselling book, “Get Rich Slow: How to grow your wealth the safe and savvy way.” Mary’s regular Q&A column will resume in October.
Q&As: A few fewer luxuries and many New Zealanders could afford to buy homes; 2 Q&As on whether the Reserve Bank got it right with the new coins; A financial planner objects to what I said last week about how to choose an adviser.
Owning your home not always the best option. Most New Zealanders grow up expecting to own their own home, but soaring house prices have made it harder for people to get into the market. Does that matter? Is home ownership all it’s cracked up to be?
Q&As: Lessons from the Bible: Is borrowing bad?; Is luck or attitude the secret to wealth?; Sharebrokers shouldn’t always be expected to give ongoing advice.
Q&As: Couple should spend less?; Wealth isn’t always money; How last week’s correspondent made his millions; Making extra payments on fixed mortgages without penalties.
Q&As: Woman in Australian shouldn’t sell her house here; Is the house price boom like the great tulip bulb bubble?; Couple disagree over rental property v shares.
Borrowing tricky between family or friends. A quote recently caught my eye. “The easiest way to teach children the value of money is to borrow some from them,” it said. But that applies not only to children. Adults, it seems, take much more notice when someone has borrowed from them than when someone has lent to them.
Complexity of financial products no accident. Confirmation, at last, of what we’ve suspected all along: Providers of financial products may deliberately make them sound complicated.
Q&As: 2 on renting v home ownership — including the psychology of the choice; The professor who set last week’s question gives me a grade, and notes that house prices have fallen lots elsewhere.