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Do you really need $809,000 to retire on?

Every two years Massey University carries out an analysis of how much people need to have invested/saved to be able to retire.  The guidelines are based on various assumptions, and as usual, it is vital that you understand what these assumptions are before you start to relate this information to your personal situation. A key part of our role at Moneyworks is to do a detailed analysis for each of our clients based on their actual situation, and work out how much they need to have invested t...

Climate Laggards and Leaders - the poor performance of listed companies

In our big Ethical Investment Analysis project we have found that it is difficult to get information on Carbon emissions from our fund managers that are in a consistent format.  This is a good example of how the field of ethical investing is difficult, there are a number of different formats for reporting, there is disagreement about whether reporting should be on a 'per revenue', 'per profit' or absolute basis. Further, reporting is difficult as there is no mandated consistent measure of r...

Sustainable investing, Climate Change and Sea Level Rise

Climate change threatens 1.1 meter sea level rise before 2100 unless climate change is tackled.Analysis by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) makes the prediction in its ‘Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate’, which studies the effect of global warming on sea levels. It says 90% of the 1 degree Celsius rise in average global temperatures above pre-industrial levels seen thus far has been absorbed by the oceans, having a major impact on sea life and c...

Flood risks and insurance being withdrawn

Fire & General insurance (or house, contents, car, boat insurance) is different to life insurance cover.  Life insurance (trauma, income protection etc), are a contract that you enter into and it remains in force until you cancel it or it expires (usually when you are very old), or until you stop paying your premiums. In comparison, F&G insurance is an annual contract, which means that you are entering into a new contract with the insurer each year.  What this means is that the insurer...

Insuring your e-bike

Well, I did it. Having heard from my clients about how much they loved their e-bikes I bit the bullet and purchased my commuter e-bike.  The plan is to use it to commute to my lectures in Hamilton (1 1/4 hours ride each way).  I got one ride in, then the weather was foul, then we got locked down.  But I still love my bike (but still ride my non e-bikes as well). So I thought it was important to understand about  whether my fire and general insurance policy covered my e-bike.&...

Getting your unclaimed Australian Super back to NZ

For a number of years, you have been able to bring your Australian Super back to New Zealand IF you are retired and past the age to access the super OR if you put it into your KiwiSaver. The process is administratively time consuming, but after lots of follow ups with the Australian providers we have helped our clients bring their Aust super back into their KiwiSaver.  The funds are ring-fenced and are not available for deposits on houses and can only be withdrawn at the age of eligibility ...

Elder Abuse - help your family hold on to their money

A recent Stuff article reminded us about how invasive and destroying elder abuse can be.  Read more here about the 92 year old who was 'cleaned out' of $500,000 - ‘She cleaned him out’: Family seek answers after 92-year-old ‘left with nothing’ Elder abuse can be physical and or financial.  It can be psychological, sexual, institutional or arise from neglect.  Over 10% of over 65s living in our community experience abuse, but only 1 in 14 abuse incidences are repo...

The Great Wall of Trees

A giant wall of trees that is being built across Africa is making a huge contribution to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The 16 km wide wall of trees, bushes and shrubs crosses Africa’s Sahel region at the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, is now 15% complete. It will eventually span almost 8,000 kms and pass through 21 countries, starting on the west coast in Senegal and ending on the east coast in Djibouti. Started in 2007, the USD 8 billion project is expected to create 350,000 ...

Welcoming a new team member - Grace

Grace joined Moneyworks as our Administration Manager in 2021 and works part-time.  While Millie Moneybot (our robot) does most of the routine administration, there are still a number of things that need to be done by a human, and Grace is helping us by taking the load off advisers, enabling them to spend more time with their clients and researching and analysing investments and financial solutions. Grace was previously the Office Manager at Cityside Properties,  where she looked after...

Sustainable Investing - Climate Change and human activity and how investing can help slow down change

At Moneyworks we use the shorthand terminology 'Ethical Investing' to cover a range of investing styles that can also be referred to as 'Sustainable', 'Responsible', 'ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance).  One of the main things that these 'ethical' investments have in common is that they are looking for investments that are long term, that will make our planet and environment, and human lives more sustainable and last longer.  There are a number of different ways that we can invest...

​ Banks being held responsible for fees, conduct and lending practices

Our banks are an integral part of our lives and pretty much hold us hostage with their fees and decisions, unless we choose to be part of the barter economy, or become self sufficient, we will always have to have an involvement with banks. Over the last year we have seen banks phase out cheques, close more branches, limit branch hours and replace humans with chatbots on line.  While we are active users of technology to make everyones lives more streamlined, some of these changes from the ba...

How to retire - well, how to get ready to change your life

Our byline on our logo is 'Helping you get to and through retirement - ethically'. Yes, this is mainly about making sure that you have enough money to enable you to retire, and that if something happens before you have enough money, that you have insurance to step in to make sure that you get to retirement.  When our clients engage with us and follow our advice, this side of retirement planning works. We have lost track of the number of conversations we have had with clients about the ...

Is your house properly insured - to take into account the rising costs of building in New Zealand?

Covid has seen many industries impacted by shortages - both of clients (tourist businesses), supplies and labour.  Finding a builder these days can be quite tricky, with long wait periods - because of labour shortages, but there are also materials shortages, because of shipping routes and global demand for building materials. It is easy to ignore this if you aren't planning on building or renovating (or going back to the drawing board if you are and the cost and time delays are too much), b...

Should New Zealand Superannuation continue to exist as it is?

Moneyworks was established in 1997, which was the same year that the referendum on compulsory superannuation was held as a result of Winston Peters negotiations to form a Government.  This referendum confirmed the role of New Zealand Superannuation as a political football – in 1993 New Zealand politicians had come up with a ‘cross party accord’ about the future of NZ Super (well, all politicians except for Winston).  That accord included the continuation of the superannuation sur...

Should adult children be able to challenge their parents wills?

You will have seen the headlines in the media about families at war over their parent’s wills.  The arguments of the Green family (https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/82480390/divorce-possible-in-family-of-business-magnate-hugh-green) , the saga of the Supreme Court Judge (Robert Chambers) and the issues with their blended families (https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/92972957/where-theres-a-will-theres-a-way-to-challenge-it), are just two examples of how the Courts have been u...

The Dow Jones turns 125 years old

If you have been investing for some time - even it has just been in KiwiSaver, you will know that markets go up and down in value depending on market events, but over time they do increase.  This is one of the things that we spend quite a bit of time talking to our clients (particularly newer ones) when markets go down. The human reaction when markets go down and you can't seem to see the upturn, is to pull all your funds out (which is the wrong thing to do if you are a long term investor, ...

Cyber Security issues and protections are getting far more important

As your financial adviser, we work with you to reach your goals, in particularly to get you to and through retirement - ethically (for those who want ethical investments).  But a big risk to your financial security is if you have a cyber attack or have your identity stolen. While identity theft has traditionally been something that you read about in books and articles in the USA, it definitely happens in New Zealand.  This article in the New Zealand Herald (which hopefully isn't paywal...

Abuse of people knows no limits

We all know the stories of people being abused within closed doors, and New Zealand has the Family Violence Act (was Domestic Violence Act) to recognise the harm that abuse incurs. Email and social media are common tools used by abusers, but it was shocking (to me) to hear about the latest tool - using the messages on bank statements to continually abuse people. This excellent article in the Sunday Star-Times recently investigated the issue, where abusers are transferring small amounts of money ...

Do you know what is in your insurance policy?

Fair Go and the media regularly cover situations where insurance companies don't pay out on a claim.  Having been an intermediary between insurers and the insured party for 25 years, we have seen very few claims not paid out. The key is to ensure that you disclose all relevant information (which can be more information than you might think, and it is our role to help you to do this when you are signing up for a life/trauma/health/income protection insurance policy) and that you un...

Some interesting things that we have read or listened to recently

This post is a little different, as it doesn't have a commentary on these articles, but they are interesting articles that might be worth a quick look at: How to dismantle the Absurd Profitability of Nuclear Weapons (2019, but still interesting)Boom: 88 KiwiSaver Funds invested in nukes.  & War of words over nukes Nicole Perlroth: they cyberweapons arms race (Podcast of interview with Kim Hill) - so interesting, Carey is reading the book. :  In her new book, This Is How ...

Ethical Investing Update

As we have signalled, we are working on a big project this year to become internationally certified as Ethical Investment Advisers, and to be able to provide our clients with certainty over what 'nasties' they have exposure to within their portfolio.  This is an update on where we are up to. UNPRI Academy and RIAA CertificationCarey has completed her United Nations Principles of Responsible Investment Academy Certification, and is now in the process of becoming Certified by the Responsible ...

No more cheques - technology has taken over

You may be aware that I am quite a fan of technology and adapt technological advances (in the belief that it will make my life easier, but we all know that technology brings its own challenges - it is always nice when it just works smoothly). Two months ago I destroyed all the cheque books that had been sitting at the bottom of my drawer unused for years as I prefer to use the phone app or online system for electronic payments. However, I am aware that many people are still more comfortable usin...

Stuffing up NZ Super - make sure you get it right

This blog post comes from an excellent article written by Rob Stock that highlights how easy it is to muck up your New Zealand Super entitlements.  Here is a link to the article. Some important points about making sure that you are aware of all your entitlements relating to NZ Super: 1. Check that you fulfil the residency tests for application for NZ Super.These residency tests have been static for many years, but there are mutterings that these might be changed in the future (to make the t...

Investment Markets - updated graph

From time to time fund managers put together a wallchart for their advisers to hang in our offices for clients to see what has happened in investment markets over time. We feel that it is more useful for us to provide this to you to review and wonder over.   To download a copy of this PDF - see the link below This wallchart, produced by Booster, one of our favoured KiwiSaver fund managers (particularly their Socially Responsible Investment KiwiSaver funds), is one of the best that we h...

Is your PIE tax rate too high - going forward you can get a refund

A subtle change to PIE tax rules was delivered behind the scenes, which benefits investors.  If you get your PIE tax rate wrong and overpay your PIE tax, you will get a tax refund going forward. Historically - since PIR rates (Prescribed Investor Rates) and PIE's (Portfolio Investment Entities) were launched in 2007 - if you under-stated your PIE tax rate you owed the IRD money, but there were no refunds if your PIE Tax rate was over-stated.  For the tax year ending 31 March 2019 ...