Shares and share funds

The Investor 24 October 2006

Why some advisers don’t recommend index funds. A while back I wrote that I still think index funds are the best way for most people to invest in shares, even though they are scheduled to lose their tax advantage next year. That has prompted an intriguing question from a reader: “If index funds outperform all other forms of sharemarket investing over a long period of time (10 years?), then why do advisers recommend other forms? Is it simply due to their commission?”

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NZ Herald 21 October 2006

Q&As: Is there an 18-year cycle for industrial and resource shares?; Why index fund of Aussie shares has done much worse than its index; Limited submissions on tax changes not good enough; NZ shares, already favoured, shouldn’t get still more favourable tax treatment.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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