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Trump, Tariffs, Nobel Peace Prize

On 19th February 2025, we attended our annual Portfolio Construction Summit.  This is our one day 'get the year off to a hiss and roar' conference, where there are fantastic speakers talking about what is happening in the world and more detailed information on portfolio construction.Pre-covid, we used to travel to Sydney for this conference and an associated Finology conference, but for the last 4 years, we have watched this online (a long day from 10am until 8pm, but worth it!)There were t...

Podcasts to help understand the investment environment

The world is changing continually and investments and investment strategies need to adapt to these changes.  With the significant change in US politics as the result of the 2024 US election and the rapid evolution of AI, in many areas, it is important that investors are continually updated on what is happening in the world and how this might affect investments.Your fund managers are continually monitoring, questioning and learning.  But many of our clients also want to understand more ...

Unpacking the Nasdaq Composite

The Nasdaq Composite is one of the most recognised names in the investment world, often making headlines alongside the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500. But what exactly is the Nasdaq Composite, and how does it work for retail investors like us here in Aotearoa?Generally, the Nasdaq is used as short-hand to see what the technology sector is doing.  We monitor the DJIA (See January newsletter), the S&P 500 (See February Newsletter) and the Nasdaq each day to get a feel for wh...

The new Scam 'Stealing Unlocked Smartphones'

For many years now, we have all known to have a PIN to lock our smartphones so that the data (and our money) doesn't get stolen.  With modern phones, there are biometric protections - where you use your fingerprint or your facial image to lock and unlock the phone.Quite safe right!  Well yes, unless you are standing in a public place where someone can whiz past on an electric bike or scooter, snatch the phone out of your hands while you are using it, then quickly change your passwords,...

CyberSecurity from CertNZ - Robust Routers

Your router (the thing that sends you your wifi) is a potentially easy way for hackers and bots to get into your systems.  Everything from your computers, to your TV to your garage doors - if they are linked to your wifi.The information below was from cert.nz (the NZ Government cybersecurity organisation).  We strongly recommend that you skim read this and maybe at the very least, look at your password and logon details.That little box blinking away in the corner is not just your gatew...

S&P 500 index - the key indicator of market moves

Last month we wrote an article about the Dow Jones Index - the DJIA and why it isn't a reliable measure of what might be happening with your investments.  Although it has been operating since the 1800's, it only reflects 30 stocks and is 'share price weighted',  which can provide some distortions to the picture of how investments ar working.This month we are following up with some information on the more reliable S&P 500 which is the more common index that professional investors (a...

Sustainable investing snippets - thanks to Nanuk New World

In 2024 we carried out an audit of all the information that we receive from our fund managers, grading it from 'don't bother, not worth it', to 'this is fantastic, everyone has to consume this when it arrives'.One of the communications in the 'this is fantastic' category is the monthly report that we receive from Nanuk New World Fund.  This fund is in the majority of our clients portfolio's.  Nanuk invests through nine broad themes of environmental sustainability and resource efficienc...

Moneyworks 2024 Christmas Function - Puzzle Solving

A key part of our work as financial planners and ethical investments advisers is puzzle solving.  We all really enjoy solving puzzles like - how much do our clients need to have a financially comfortable retirement?  Which are the most suitable investment managers for our clients and why?  What is likely to happen to the investment environment in the short and long term?So, now that we only have three of us (plus our robot Millie who doesn't really have a good enough personality t...

Scams are big business now

In February 2025, The Economist is starting a new podcast series about a global scam that managed to scam $47 million US from the CEO of a midwest American Bank.  It requires a subscription (which we will get), but the concerning thing is that the producer has stated that scams are now a bigger international business than the drug trade.  In response to that and to our clients requests, we will start providing you with more information on scams - it is the project in our annual review ...

Gradual Damage and house insurance payments

A short video from the Insurance and Financial Services Ombudsman clarifying that gradual damage is not usually a claim under your house insurance cover....

FIF - Overseas Income Tax Alert

Are you up-to-date with your FIF (Overseas Tax) obligations?A recent article in the financial media highlighted the low compliance rate with the Foreign Investment Fund (FIF) rules, with a tax consultant suggesting that Inland Revenue (IRD) will likely catch up with those not declaring their FIF income.The article points out the surprisingly low number of people who declared FIF income in recent years, suggesting a significant degree of non-compliance.What is FIF and why is it important?In essen...

The Dow Jones Industrial Average - how does it work and why does that matter?

The DJIA (the Dow Jones Industrial Average) has been the 'go to' indicator of how markets operate since the 1800's for investors.  But until we read an article from Alphinity recently, we didn't realise how monitoring this index probably doesn't really help us with understanding how our investments are performing.It is generally understood that indexes are 'market weighted'.  What this means is that if the total value of an index (eg the S&P500) is US$45.84 trillion dollars, then t...

Fund Manager Profile - Stewart Investors

Each year at our Annual Review meetings with our clients, we are telling them about a different fund manager and how they work.  The goal with this project is to illustrate the different methods, processes and styles of the fund managers.  In 2023 we profiled the Pathfinder Global Responsibility Fund, which is a top down, data driven, desk based fund.This year, we profiled Stewart Investors, which are about as opposite in methodology to Pathfinder as you can get.  While Pathfinder...

More than 50,000 property investors making losses

This is the headline from an October 2024 RNZ article - 'More than 50,000 property investors making losses'. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/529846/more-than-50-000-property-investors-making-lossesWhile this may surprise you, it is old news to us.As the RNZ article states, the average loss on these 53,350 taxpayers rental properties was $9,020 pa.  This was when 75% of interest costs could be claimed as an expense (it is now 100%, but mortgage interest rates are higher).People are ...

What might a Trump Government mean for your investments?

“Trump considers the stock-market to be his measure of his job performance” This quote stuck with me from the Capital Group webinar on Friday last week.  The ‘sugar-rush’ of the markets since the US Election results were confirmed on Wednesday night New Zealand time reflects three things in particular: 1.    Delight of the markets that there is certainty about who the Government will be.  Many people were anticipating a long drawn out process of legal c...

Du Val shows us the importance of regulation and personal advice

There has been quite a bit of publicity about the Du Val group investment issues.  We have had discussions with prospective clients about Du Val and how and why we would not have recommended this investment to our clients as from our perspective there were clear signals from day one. One of our strongest adage's when deciding whether to even look at an investment is 'how are you going to make money out of the investment and 'how are you going to take money out of the inv...

Annual Fund Managers project

The diagram above shows all the things that we do behind the scenes in relation to investments for our clients.One of the unique things that we do is our annual Fund Manager Project.  We have been advised by a number of our fund managers that we are unusual for doing this project because a. This is usually only work done by research houses and b. We make a point of ‘actively engaging’ and giving back with constructive feedback for our fund managers, which is acknowledged and appreciated...

Dr Pippa's futuristic visions

One of our favourite speakers at the Portfolio Construction conferences that we attend at least annually and often twice a year is Dr Pippa Malmgren https://pippamalmgren.co.uk/index.html and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pippa_Malmgren.Previously a special assistance to President George W. Bush on economic policy, Dr Pippa has a wide network and always amazes us with her insights.  She specialises in working with technology and start ups, that give us a vision of where the w...

UPDATE - Sexy investment or Scam

You may recall that in January 2024, I wrote an article about an investment that a client made (deliberately choosing not to ask our advice as they knew we would say NO).Here is a link to that article https://www.moneyworks.co.nz/blog/post/113837/sexy-investment-or-an-investment-scam/.This is an update on what has happened in the last 10 months.Demands for more moneyThe client told FX Revenues that they had no more money and not to ask for any more.  The client had a bad fall just befo...

Quarterly Stock Intersections

The diagram above shows all the things that we do behind the scenes in relation to investments for our clients. The quarterly stock intersections process is an important part of our due diligence and we are only able to run this process because of our inhouse data crunching robot Millie.Each quarter, all of the fund managers that we recommend are required to provide us with a report stating all of the current holdings in the fund and their % allocation.  A number of fund managers are reluct...

Leading the Charge Against Modern Slavery: A Case Study on Nike

Written by AI (Test version of Google Notebook LM).In my ongoing mission to help you invest responsibly, I often talk about modern slavery and its presence in global supply chains.As we've discussed, this complex issue requires investors like us to be vigilant and proactive. In this post, I want to share a case study from Alphinity's latest report, which highlights how a major company, Nike, is taking a leadership role in addressing modern slavery risks.Nike: Setting the Standard for Ethical Sou...

Six future food trends and investment opportunities - Capital Group

The world's population is expected to reach nearly 10 billion by 2050 (8.178 billion now), and it is estimated that this will create a 56% food gap in calories produced versus those required.The changing climate (heat, rain, wind, drought), along with conflict are producing additional pressures on food supply. Our food systems account for up to 1/3 of greenhouse gas emissions, 80% of biodiversity loss and consumption of 70% of available freshwater according to UN estimates.The traditional method...

IRD 'cracking the whip' on platform share-traders

This blog article is based on two articles written by David Chaplin for Business Desk and also for Investment News (our Monday summary of all things investment in New Zealand).IRD have issued a draft 'interpretation' statement to remind online share-traders of their tax obligations.  As the IRD says 'Most people understand that share traders or dealers who buy shares for resale need to pay tax.  But it is not so well understood that people who make only occasional sales also have to pa...

Diversity in Action - Pathfinder

You may have heard a whole lot of talk about DEI - Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.  In reality this usually translates into ensuring there are women on boards and in senior management (but not necessarily in ownership), or people of colour.We don't often see DEI in action with people who have different abilities.  That is why it was fascinating to see this post from Pathfinder, about their receptionist Gabrielle.  I encourage you to take a few minutes to watch it.When I asked for...

Travel Insurance - Yes it really is a good idea

A recent survey of 3,000 New Zealanders planning on travelling overseas (or who have recently travelled) indicates that 33% have either never had travel insurance cover, or only take out cover sometimes.We very strongly recommend to our clients that you have cover in place, even if you are only going to Australia.  We also recommend that you contact your insurer, declare all of your existing conditions and pay the premium to cover them while you are travelling.If you think it is too expensi...