Q&As:
– Diversification — the only free lunch
– Drop health insurance and self-insure? It’s risky
– Increasing insurance excess slashes bill
– Leave GST alone, says reader
Plus:
– Meaningful Christmas gifts
– ‘Please don’t stop giving’
The high costs of Christmas
– Survey — NZers value time with family way ahead of giving and getting gifts
– Ideas to cut cost of gifts
– Donate to charity in the name of family member
– Thoughts about Christmas food, drinks and decorations
– I wrote article on this — on RNZ website from December 18
Money and relationships
– Follow-up on last time’s financial knowledge quiz — angry comments about women
– Survey on money and relationship problems
– Worse for the young, and worse for low and high income than for middle incomes
– Conflict more likely if … overspending etc.
– What to do about it
Q&As:
– FIRE movement lets you retire many years earlier
– Keep up basic health insurance in retirement, despite cost
– Rental or shares could save woman from reliance on the state
– Sorry, but overseas relative can’t get KiwiSaver government contribution
Q&As:
– You don’t need nearly a million to retire comfortably
– Should couple sell Covid-struck business now and retire, or wait and hope?
– Report shonky kiwifruit contractor, reader urges
– Reverse mortgage could help last week’s house buyer
Q&As:
– When debt can be good…
– … And when it’s not
– Job seeker benefit not easy to apply for
– Is this NZ Super reduction fair?
Mixed messages to New Zealanders these days
– Some examples: work from home vs support CBD businesses, Buy NZ goods vs imports
– In more depth: Encouraging you to spend vs setting up your emergency fund
– 2 recent surveys: How big are people’s emergency funds? What are people doing about that?
– The big question: Is it selfish to look after your own finances, rather than helping the economy to recover?
Q&As:
– My expertise on cows and farmers’ markets is called into question…
– … Nonetheless, my comments last week helped reader
– KiwiSaver becoming workable for people with special needs
– Change KiwiSaver provider any time, but take care with changing funds
– Who does government borrow from, and how?
– Are we likely to see negative interest rates, and if so, where should we save?
– Not good news on tax and negative interest rates
– Negative interest rates unlikely to threaten banks’ strength
Q&As:
– One less worry: KiwiSaver as an inheritance
– Keep an eye on what’s in your will
– Challenging Westpac over help for KiwiSaver investor
– What happens when KiwiSaver account is empty
– Which is safer, bank deposit or low-risk fund?
– Don’t panic about security of banks
– Ignore past returns when choosing KiwiSaver provider — so how should you choose?
Plus:
– Message to mothers
Q&As:
– Reader plans to retire at 45
– Simplicity defends CEO’s colourful past
– Christmas grinch reports back on progress
– Scrap KiwiSaver and give the money to beneficiaries, says reader
– Hatch exec responds to Smartshares’ comments last week