NZ Herald 7 October 2006
Q&As: Should you portfolio be regularly serviced? And how do you calculate the return on it?; How to work out which term deposit is better; What’s in a finance company name?
The Investor 26 September 2006
Australia is not good enough to get the spread. It’s a basic principle of wise investing: Spread your share investments around the world, to spread your risk. But proposed tax changes will increase taxes on overseas share investments beyond Australia. So should we stick with Australasia?
NZ Herald 16 September 2006
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.
The Investor 12 September 2006
When you want to stay but the company goes. The best laid plans of investors often go awry (to paraphrase and Anglicise Robert Burns). A reader has made “an amused comment” about my recent statement that we should always buy shares with the intention of holding them for at least 10 years.
The Investor 29 August 2006
Readers defend stop loss orders. My arguments in my last column — that stop loss orders are a bad idea — failed to convince two readers. What about Feltex, GDC Communications, RMG, National Mail and other shares that have dropped a long way?, they asked.
The Investor 15 August 2006
Stop loss orders a dead loss. A reader writes that he is concerned about my advice in my last column. “Your two rules of share investing are to a) diversify (i.e. neutralize returns), and b) not sell when the market bombs,” he writes. “One would have hoped you would have added a third — enter a stop loss to avoid catastrophic loss if/when the market does bomb.” Not in my rulebook.
NZ Herald 5 August 2006
Q&As: Typical but rich women ask how to find an adviser; Does local government keep house prices up? And will they ever fall?; Let’s not have the government meddling in the housing market; Doing your homework doesn’t necessarily help share investment.
The Investor 1 August 2006
Readers’ questions on renting v home ownership. My last column — which said that you may do just as well renting as owning your home, provided you are disciplined about saving elsewhere — brought interesting questions from two readers. The first one is 40 and planning to return to New Zealand with his family. “I would be happy renting until I retire whilst growing our capital in areas other than property,” he writes. “At some time later I might buy a small place to live in. However, do you think in 25 years that ownership of property might be out of reach?”
NZ Herald 22 July 2006
Q&As: 2 on whether preparation and research plays a part in “luck”. Plus: Winning entries in competition to win a copy of “Get Rich Slow”.
The Investor 18 July 2006
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?