Biggest personal finance story of 2023: High interest rates
– Mortgage rates too high? What you can do about it
– Term deposit rates high. Shop around.
– Effect on house prices
– How bank profits are affected.
– Conclusion: winners and losers swap places
Q&As:
– Do fund managers “do nothing but take fees”?
– A good alternative to KiwiSaver hardship withdrawals
– Switching to a cheaper rental property has its pluses
– Control inflation by raising KiwiSaver contributions?
Q&As:
– Laddering savings while studying for a new career
– Dodging the rental property bright-line test
– Using KiwiSaver money to buy a UK house
– Go for the pension scheme with the employer contributions
– No need to close KiwiSaver when living overseas
– Are your contributions included in your KiwiSaver return?
Q&As:
– Tips for a 26-year-old on how saving for a home
– A 50% house price drop? 30% has happened
– Changes strengthen landlord argument
– Tough gifting rules for elderly care subsidy
– One way around the care subsidy rules?
– Divorce not the answer unless real
Q&As:
– DIY funeral costs much less
– A better way to set up life insurance
– How life insurance helped a reader who is still alive
– It’s best to ignore fear and greed in the markets
– No tax break on KiwiSaver contributions via employer
– How to set up laddering of term deposits
Q&As:
– Life insurance is usually for more than the funeral
– How to run elderly relative’s finances
Plus:
– Upside Downside: Risky behaviour: Expecting past performance to continue
Q&As:
– Skip the bought coffee and lunch, and retire with heaps more
– Stick with funds despite high term deposits rates
– Three Q&As on grandchildren and inheritances
Plus:
– Sorted Money Month
Which investment? And why cash funds might be best
– Email asks: 4.5% in bank or use KiwiSaver?
– Where to put short-term, medium-term and long-term money
– What are cash funds?
– How they compare with bank term deposits
– How to find a cash fund
Q&As:
– The 27 cents that infuriated a reader
– KiwiSaver government contribution as reader approaches 65
– Managed fund investor must hang in there
– Just buy a home for your child….
– … Or buy part of a home
– Reader didn’t make it to second half of sentence
Q&As:
– Help for low-income people in rundown house…
– … And for woman with inheritance
– … And for reader with lousy luck
– Lend rather than give money to offspring to buy a home
– Letters about banking headed for Commerce Commission