It’s all to easy to understand that big bills are making life very difficult for a lot of people at the moment. However, coming off the back of what feels like an endless slew of unprecedented times... now is not the time to ditch your insurance if you can help it.
KiwiSaver: Middle-income claims are not a good sign...
Coming off a year of interest rate rises and increasingly painful living costs, the amount being withdrawn from KiwiSaver funds to cover financial hardship has sharply increased.
Stay Vigilant As Interest Rates Rise
In a move that shouldn’t shock anyone, the RBNZ recently hiked the official cash rate (OCR) up by another 75 basis points to 4.25%. This is another record-breaking number; we haven’t seen the OCR this high since December 2008. Yep, 2008 – remember what was happening back then?
Is It Ever Too Early?
The big Santa is up at Havelock New World, and the Christmas tree sculptures have been affixed to the fountains in Hastings - an unmissable sign of the impending jolly holiday season.
FTX: Latest crypto collapse loses billions in customer cash
The so-called ‘King of Crypto’, Sam Bankman-Fried, has lost his crown in a breath-taking blow. His company filed for bankruptcy, and the estimated 1.2 million users who use the exchange to buy crypto have been left in the lurch with their digital wallets frozen.
Stay In Your Seat And Ride Out The Storm
It can be tough not to panic and succumb to a knee-jerk response when markets are experiencing a substantial drawdown like we have seen this year. Stress levels are naturally high and the temptation to “do something” can feel over-powering.
Your KiwiSaver Questions Answered
KiwiSaver is a great vehicle for retirement savings, especially since the contributions are directly taken from your pay before you have time to miss them.
Inflation, Savings, and Investing
By now we’re all well aware of the pocket-pinching nature of rampant inflation. But thinking a little further ahead, what might this mean for your investments and savings?
Not much relief in latest CPI figures
As with the most recent OCR rate hike, the latest announcement on the NZ Consumer Price Index (CPI) comes with good news and bad news.
Retirement v Super: Are you ready for your financial future?
If you’re working, you should be thinking about your retirement. Most of us have some type of planning by default these days in the form of KiwiSaver schemes – but beyond that, what are you doing to prepare yourself financially for the future?
The RBNZ Goes Five for Five
For the fifth time in a row, we’ve seen a 50 basis point hike from the RBNZ. What does this mean for you?
7 Lessons on Volatility
Everyone is an expert after the fact. Predicting the future is nigh impossible, but it’s quite easy to look back and say “we saw that coming” when making a call on either the behaviour of markets, or economic factors.
Exodus to Australia: Greener grass, or rose-tinted glasses?
If you’re feeling dissatisified in little old God’s Own, you may find similar factors at play in the land down under. 65 per cent of Kiwis feel they’d be better off financially in another job... as do 59 per cent of Australians.
Invest in your future - regardless of today's news...
If you live for the headlines, the future can seem like a scary place with too many questions and not enough answers. We see this in investing, as in life; it pays not to get caught up too much in the ups and downs, no matter how influential they may seem at the time.
Wealth: Not in the blood, but in behaviour
There’s a Chinese proverb that states, wealth does not last beyond three generations. One to make the wealth, one to maintain the wealth... and the third to spend it.
Risky Business
Risk is a scary word to the average person.
In investment, however, there is no potential reward without risk.
Take Cover...! Insurance more important now than ever
Have you noticed the ever-growing frequency of sad stories around folk trapped overseas with large medical bills, or a family struggling to bring a loved one home for a funeral, and all they can do is start a crowd funding page?
Insurance is something that a lot of people don’t prioritise – but they should.
To Catch a Falling Knife
Financial markets are one of those things that move fast and slow at the same time. Not much happens in the short-term, yet so much happens over longer periods of time. We get so caught up in and sweat the small stuff that we miss the forest for the trees.
Horrific Burns from Celsius
The recent failure of several cryptocurrency platforms has illustrated the leaps of faith some take with their money. They’re highly unregulated, and there’s still no good answers on what they are.
Hang in there, KiwiSavers
The markets are never predictable, even in times of positive growth. Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to sell you something.
