The best things in life are free; one of the best things you can do for your kids is prepare them for adulthood by teaching them about money.

This time last year, everything ground to a halt. Telecommunications and electricity were down for weeks in some areas. It was a long time before the damage could be fully understood, and to date, some places still have not recovered or been rebuilt.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a motivational theory in psychology comprising a five-tier model of human needs, often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid

If Stewart Group was a person, we would be firmly in the middle of the typical accumulation phase of life. Having just celebrated our 37th anniversary in business, our minds are always on retirement… not ours (we’re only just getting started!) but on what people ought to know when planning for this stage in life.

There’s been plenty to whinge about in the past few years – but is the world getting worse, or are you just in the middle of the U-shaped happiness curve?

Marking another calendar year provides an opportunity to reflect on several lessons, not the least of which is the difficulty of investing based on past performance.