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Millie is not AI

Moneyworks clients will know who Millie is.  Or rather what she is.Since 2018, we have worked with our Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Developer, Saravanan (who lives in Chennai with his wife and two young children) to build Millie – our in-house robot.Over the last five and half years, we have automated pretty much everything we can automate in our business (but I keep saying that and I keep finding things to automate -but surely the process we are starting in March is our last one!).Th...

Who is Nvidia?

During 2023 - the stocks that led the markets and the recovery were 'The Magnificent Seven'.  Their share values took off, while many other shares languished until around the start of November 2023. The Magnificent Seven are Apple, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Meta (Facebook), Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla.  You are most likely familiar with the products of the six consumer brands, but who is Nvidia and why is it important?A number of your fund managers are invested in Nvidia and the ...

AI and the transition to a sustainable economy

One of our fund managers, Impax produces an excellent document at the start of each year outlining the themes that they feel are important for the next investing period (1-10 years).  Impax are a fund manager focusing on sustainable investment, so there is a strong bias in their themes to sustainability.Here are their themes for the 2024 report:1.    The transition to a more sustainable economy won’t be derailed2.    Political tensions create selective opport...

Artificial Intelligence and your investments

There are a few topics that are highlighted as being ‘leading themes’ for investments over the next five to ten years, including renewable energy and artificial intelligence.Artificial Intelligence is seen as the next big technological leap that will change our world and provides huge opportunities for many companies that you may be invested in (as well as some risks.)We have had a lot of information from our fund managers recently about AI, so thought this was a good opportunity to share th...

Do you use your personal vehicle for business use? It might not be insured…

At Moneyworks, we all own our own vehicles and when we use them for work, we get reimbursed by the company at the IRD rate of mileage.  It is a system that has worked well for us.  We didn’t think twice about it until we read a case note from the Insurance and Financial Services Ombudsman, where we learned that our vehicles may not be insured if we use them for business use and they are insured for personal use.In this situation the insured had claimed for compensation for the delay ...

Cyclone Gabrielle: Insurance pays out flood-affected family, but their bank won’t release the funds.

This situation is complicated, another Free-To-Read NZ Herald article https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/cyclone-gabrielle-insurance-pays-out-flood-affected-family-but-their-bank-wont-release-the-funds/SLXXPI54KFGO5LSQZWRL36CIZQ/, but it is important to understand the principles.This is about a couple who were hit hard by the Cyclone and claimed on their insurance to rebuild a variety of dwellings and sheds on their own property, as well as purchasing a neighbouring property to ren...

CCTV and Privacy and Insurance

You may know the feeling - you get back to your pristine car in the supermarket carpark to find a ding in it that wasn’t there before.  There is no note, no indication of who dented it. If the damage is bad enough, you may want to get the CCTV footage of the carpark to see who damaged the vehicle, to assist with getting your excess on your insurance policy waived.Unfortunately, under the privacy laws in New Zealand, this is unlikely to happen.  This free to read article in the NZ Her...

New Zealand Superannuation Rates

When you reach 65 in New Zealand (the current age of eligibility) you are entitled to receive the New Zealand Superannuation income.  This is subject to residence requirements: Currently, to get NZ Super or Veteran's Pension, you must have lived in NZ for at least 10 years since you turned 20. The 10 or more years must include 5 years since you turned 50.The rate at which New Zealand Superannuation is paid changed on the 1st April each year.  This is broadly linked to the increase...

You shouldn’t retire…. My thoughts

I don’t know if it is because Peter and I each have significant birthdays coming up this year, but I feel like I am being bombarded with articles in different media saying ‘don’t retire’.This is an interesting topic and we have talked with our clients about it for over a quarter of a century.  While working provides you with an income (to save and invest so that you can retire), it also provides you with a big part of your identity and ‘value’.  For many people working can ...

Why you should never retire….

The first article we received was in The Economist on 25th Jan 2024.  If you have an account with the Economist (you can get a free account where you can read a handful of articles each month), you will be able to read this article here https://www.economist.com/business/2024/01/25/why-you-should-never-retireThe article points out that Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger (the investing guru team at Berkshire Hathaway) haven’t retired.  Warren Buffett is currently aged 93 and Charlie Mu...

What are you going to do in retirement? How long will that be satisfying?

When we are working with our clients to discuss their retirement planning, a key part of our discussion is ensuring that our clients have planned what they are going to do in retirement.What are you going to do to feel useful? How are you going to replace the meetings, deadlines, and buzz of being part of the action? The boxes to tick for aging well are health, novelty, community and purpose.Look after grand-children?  It that is an option (if you have grand-children, if they don’t live o...

Human Skin - created as an alternative to Animal Testing

Just because a company is tagged as a ‘nasty’ for animal testing, does not necessarily mean that they are doing bad in this area.  A number of the companies are actually involved in a lot of research and development into alternatives to animal testing, and are regularly only carrying out animal testing when required to pay for it to allow distribution of their products in China.One of the companies in our clients portfolio’s (through Capital New Perspective Fund and Booster Socially R...

What does the weather and natural hazards mean for your house insurance premiums?

Cyclones, Floods, Heatwaves, Fires, Droughts.  These are all the side effects of the global climate changes.  We have seen the first three in New Zealand during 2023, but we have also seen the other two in different years.The health hazards from the smoke from fires, and the destitution from droughts hit people all over the world, as do floods and temperatures for days in the range of 40° to 50°.But floods, cyclones and the rising sea levels (as more polar ice melts each year) may di...

Is your jewellery (and valuable art) insurance worthwhile?

As we get older and more wealthy, we tend to increase our spending in line with our higher income.  For some people this may include buying more expensive jewellery or items of art that are quite valuable.  While these give you pleasure, it is vital that you make sure that your house and contents insurance cover gives you the protection that you are anticipating.We personally use an insurance broker in this area (as it is quite technical and we aren’t knowledgeable in this field) to ...

Sexy investment or an investment scam?

Sexy Investment or Scam?We have recently been assisting one of our intelligent clients to extricate themselves from an investment that looked exciting but turned out to be a scam. (More on that below).But we thought this was a good opportunity to let you know that as part of our legal responsibilities, we have to monitor your withdrawals from your portfolio and from your KiwiSaver.  If we see unexpected withdrawals, we need to discuss them with you, as the law requires us to do this under o...

Scam warnings - again - but this is important

Nearly $200 million of New Zealanders money was lost to scams in the last year, with a huge rise in the number of investment scams (and these are just the ones that have been reported.)Since 2020 the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has received more than 1,300 complaints and issued 373 warnings about investment scams. At Moneyworks we monitor the investment warnings through the information that we receive from FMA, and discuss the new warnings at each of our business meetings. We want to ...

Using Humans as volunteers for testing instead of Animals

Testing products and drugs on animals has been the main method of testing efficacy and danger for many years (since 500BC in ancient Greece – starting with vivisection and developing into experimental surgical procedures and over the time to the more ubiquitous environment that we have today).However, using human volunteers for testing is an alternative (albeit with ethical issues). Animal experiments often don’t mimic how the human body and diseases respond to drugs, chemicals or treatment,...

Moneyworks Christmas and Holiday hours

Moneyworks Christmas and Holiday HoursMoneyworks will close up at 5pm on Wednesday 20th December 2023 and  be back in the office from 9am on Monday January 8th 2024.We hope you all have a sunny great break, sharing it with friends and family, driving safely and return to welcome in the New Year refreshed and with more Vitamin D (from some sun) in your body....

Couples who pool their money are more likely to stay together

Many of Moneyworks clients are part of a couple and we have a surprisingly low rate of relationship dissolution amongst our clients – or as it could be referred to ‘wealth division’.  We have talked about this often, and wonder if it is a chicken and egg situation.Does the fact that our clients openly discuss their financial situation on an annual (or more regular basis) lead to a happy relationship, or is it because there is a happy relationship that means that they are open to discu...

Do you have some unclaimed money - the amounts have increased

We have written before about unclaimed money, but there has been a recent law change, which has led to the amount of unclaimed money doubling to $400 million over the last three months.This is money that is left untouched by its owner in a bank account or trust, or unpaid wages and life insurance payouts.  Amounts less than $100 can be kept by the organisation that holds the funds or paid to charity.Banks used to have to hold the money for 25 years (what an administrative hassle), but that ...

Replacing Animal Testing with Cell Cultures and Organs on a Chip

One of the most exciting developments in replacing animal testing is what we refer to as ‘cell cultures’ or ‘organs on a chip’.These got a huge boost in the arm from the HELA cells (a fascinating story – read about it in this book, and thanks Trish for the introduction – “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” https://www.amazon.com/Immortal-Life-Henrietta-Lacks/dp/1400052181, or watch the movie at Neon). HeLa cells (which were the very aggressive cervical cancer cells of Hen...

What if you win Powerball in Lotto?

You probably buy a lotto ticket every now and then like me, and then try and get your money's worth by dreaming about what you would do it you won it.With recent Powerball jackpots over $30 million (the one in August was $37 million), I never really fantasise about winning that much.  For some weird reason I think that if I fantasise about winning less then maybe it will happen . Ha.  Hasn't worked yet!But what if you do win something decent on Powerball, what should you do?There are q...

Computer simulations - Alternatives to Animal Testing - Crash Test Dummies vs Live Pigs

Computer simulations and roboticsDid you know that prior to the invention of mannequin crash test dummies in 1949 that live pigs (and human cadavers) were used in testing car crashes?  This is a great example of how computers and technologies can be used to replace Animal Testing – the mannequins have internal sensors and videos. Human Patient Simulators that breathe, bleed, convulse, talk and even ‘die’ have been shown to teach students physiology and pharmacology better than cu...

Why it is important that your fund managers carry out good quality research.

Each of the fund managers that Moneyworks recommends have different methods of choosing the investments that they select.  From top down, data driven, desk based research, to the total opposite where the fund manager focuses on the people in the company and understanding what they are doing, and how they will and do make decisions.Whatever their approach is, we are looking for fund managers that have a deep commitment to research and are adding value to their investors (apart from the small...

More overseas travel tips

After our previous blog, we had lots of great feedback, here are some more tips, in no particular order:RFID protectionThis is a security measure for your cards.  Now that your cards have pay-wave on them, a new scam is for people to use scanners when you are in a big crowded place to pick up the radio signals from the cards, and access your accounts.You can buy special wallets or money belts that will protect your cards, or wrap them in tin foil.  OR you can take the suggestion from a...