Why?

Why does the average New-Zealander see their home as a nest egg for retirement. This is fantasy. As a financial planner what I see is when the family home is sold, and a retirement home purchased, the pull of new furniture, whiteware, car and overseas travel is irresistible. In many cases not only has the "nest egg" vanished but funds earmarked for retirement income are utilised. What to do? No matter what your age and stage get yourself to a financial...

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Who's Counting?

Joan Rivers said "People say that money is not the key to happiness, but I always figured if you have enough money you can have a key made." If you don't have enough money to have the key made try this: Go through your expenditure for the last month or so and figure out those items which engender feelings of happiness - for example does the coffee and muffin you buy everyday make you happy or is it a habit? If it is a habit you can save $10 a...

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Finance & Investments

A recent Forbes article by Mindy Crary identified the four stages of awareness we need to master before learning a new skill. Unconsciously Incompetent. This is the stage where you don’t know what you don’t know. This skill or thing isn’t even on your radar. Many people are unconsciously incompetent with wealth creation because while growing up, it wasn’t an issue for them. Things got bought and paid for and no one ever talked about money....

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Musings and Amusings

A fascinating new study out of Australia knocked the stereotype of selfish, single, Sex & The City-style women on its head this week with findings that it’s not career ambition that’s keeping young women from settling down, but rather a long list of reasons outside of her control. First and foremost, a lack of a willing, able—and kid-friendly—partner. Housing ranked highly, too, with women wanting to reduce a mortgage, to renovate or to...

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Womenomics

Worldwide women are crucial to economic growth. It's not a topic which is widely discussed but a recent McKinsey report on the US economy makes for interesting reading. Click here for graph Since women’s participation in the workforce took off, in the 1970s, their productivity has accounted for about a quarter of current GDP. But women still aren’t reaching their full economic potential. One important reason is that far too many highly skilled women simply don’t progress up the ladder in corporate America. A new report, delves into the details...

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Everyday Money

I really dislike the term budgeting - it implies a restrictive regime - somewhat like dieting and ends up being something else we fail at and can feel guilty about. Current psychobabble talks about living consciously; I am advocating spending consciously. I have written before about the "black hole," the area where we can't identify our spending. Get a torch and peer into your black hole - are you buying takeaways too frequently - say $50 a week?...

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