Last year, I had the pleasure and privilege of attending a fund manager conference where Ceri Evans spoke.  At the time, I had no idea who Ceri Evans was.  Ceri Evans was Richie McCaws mental skills coach from just before the 2011 rugby world cup. Ceri started his session by asking us to do a
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You may be looking at the property market and the share market wondering what’s going on here.  We have just had one of the sharpest recessions in 100 years and the markets have gone gang busters.  Usually, recessions take a wee while to come out of.  So what’s driving growing property and share prices and
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In the 90s, alternative music entered the fray with bands like Nirvana, Foo Fighters Pearl Jam, Sound Garden and the list goes on.  They were positioned somewhere between rock music and heavy metal.  It became affectionately known as grunge music.  Many of those bands are still going strong today. In finance, alternatives to the mainstream
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This week, economists having been rubbing their crystal ball and come up with new forecasts.  They have forecast that interest rates on deposits could fall below 1% and mortgage rates below 2%.  This comes after the reserve banks requirement for banks core funding ratio has been lowered to 50%. What’s core funding?  Money that can be
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The 2020 budget was released yesterday.  Now that we have had some time to digest it, I thought I would summarise some key points for you.  You know what’s in the budget, so I thought I would focus on what’s not in the budget, and some likely outcomes of it.   There are going to
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We have all seen the share markets take a tumble in the last month and many of us have experienced either through your Kiwisaver scheme, or your investment portfolio. In an economic crisis shares are often the first asset to fall in value as they are one of the most liquid. In other words, they
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Richie Mcaw delivered probably the best performing All Backs team, possibly sports team we have ever seen.  We sometimes forget that in 2007, the All Blacks had one of their worst defeats in a rugby world cup under his leadership.  The public wanted heads to roll.  Luckily the rugby powers didn’t listen. Instead, they focused
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So, you have decided you want to save the planet.  Of course, you have started recycling the oil from the local fish and chip shop as a substitute for petrol.  Now you want to turn your attention to your investment portfolio. Well what better way to change behaviours.  You can educate people, that takes time. 
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As a Financial Adviser I often get asked what should I do with my money, where should I invest or what should I invest in.  My answer will often depend on my mood, whether I feel like having some fun or how many pale ales I have had.  The real answer is boring to most
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Playing Poker and Investing – What can we learn? 7 elements discussed for your Poker and Investment education I play poker semi regularly with a group of local guys.  It was supposed to happen once a month.  I think due to the toll it generally takes, this has been pushed out to six monthly.  We
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After you have been around for a while you start to see things move in cycles.  I’m not sure I am ready to admit that that makes me old, but it probably does!! I am not just talking about the markets as we all know these move in cycles that no one can really predict. 
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  The sooner you start, the better off you will be  Money invested accrues compounding returns.  What does that mean?  You earn money on money.  The longer your funds are invested, the better off you will be. $10,000 invested now at 5% for 20 years will be worth $26,532 gross $10,000 invested in 10 years
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Term deposit rates have been low in recent times.  At the time of writing, the highest advertised 12-month rate I could find was 3.70%pa.  Interestingly, I found a 9-month rate of 3.85%pa and a 6-month rate for 3.70%pa.  So, the question must be asked why would you invest in 12 months’ vs 9 months vs
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The times are tough now, they’re just getting tougher.  So why is diversification important? I have heard many people talk about the importance of diversification.  Sometimes when I have asked them how they have diversified their wealth to reduce risk, some of the responses indicate that there is a real lack of understanding out there
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We’ve all now heard the result of the election.  Given the polls just before election day, the outcome was a surprise, to say the least.  The result has been compared to Brexit, which was one that was similarly surprising. Perhaps we are less sceptical.  Living in the world of financial markets, we know that probability
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So the latest talk is about interest rates, and that they may be on the move up.  The Federal Reserve, which is the US equivalent of the Reserve Bank, is talking rates up and some wholesale rates (the rates that the banks buy money at) have recently increased.  Are rates going to increase?  Probably over
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So it seems like as Kiwis, we are obsessed with property.  Property is an asset class which does deliver good returns over time.  However, they are not always positive capital returns.  We only need to look back to 2008 to see that.  Historically though, residential property has returned 9%pa capital compounded returns according to Valuation
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Stay close to me.  These are the lyrics from the song with the same title sung by UB40. I chose this song this week because many of us enjoy a tipple of red wine every now and then, and sometimes a little more often than that!!  It became relevant to me when I was doing
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Like the song made famous by the British rock band, Queen, I have finally broken free from the shackles of corporation.  It feels good, if not a little frightening! Anyway, the reason why I chose the title of that famous song is not because of my new found freedom/anxiety, or because I like it, although
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