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Proposed changes to KiwiSaver in the National Party's election 2023 manifesto

KiwiSaver has been a huge success story in New Zealand since it's launch on the 1st July 2007. People have money set aside for their retirement, they have learned about investing in financial assets (as compared to the traditional residential investment property investment).With the billions of dollars invested in KiwiSaver, yes there are a number of fund managers who have a profitable business from operating KiwiSaver and there are now 38 schemes available (often with multiple funds that people...

The 3 R's principles - Animal Testing

Three R’s – Replacement, Reduction and Refinement.Developed in 1959 these core principles are used in many testing organisations globally for more ethical and humane treatment of animals in animal testing and scientific research.  In many countries, these 3Rs are now explicit in legislation governing animal use.   In New Zealand, an ethics committee must take the 3Rs into account when considering proposals for research, testing or teaching - https://www.mpi.govt.nz/animals/ani...

What do we consider best practice in ethical investment advising

This seminar is an interview with Mindful Money in our capacity as a winner of the 2023 Ethical Financial Adviser of the year Award.The key focus of the session is what we consider to be best practice, and we have some pretty strong ideas on that.  Listen in for more information, but for our clients we will be sharing more at our Annual Review meeting in 2024.Find out more here https://mindfulmoney.nz/learn/meet-the-2023-best-ethical-financial-adviser-award-winners/...

Collaborative Engagement in action - Stewart Investors

One of the things that we ask our Fund Managers about is what kind of collaborative engagement they are involved with.  The majority of the fund managers in our portfolios are involved in one to one engagement between the fund manager and the companies they do (or don't) invest in.But often collaborative engagement can achieve far bigger things.  There are formal networks around the world through UNPRI and climate change organisations that investors (fund managers) can get involved in ...

Travel Tips - Travel Cards and E-Sims

We are just about to head off to Europe on a long holiday, the first one since 2019 (this holiday is the one planned for May 2020) and it is amazing how much has changed in travel-land.  Thanks to Michelle for the idea for this blog post.Money and Travel CardsFour years ago we travelled with cash (converted to the local currency), credit cards and the (then exciting) Air NZ OneSmart Card.  Things worked well.  But fast forward four years and so much has changed.Covid created a wor...

How do researchers (and companies) conduct themselves when carrying out animal testing

Many people are concerned about animal testing of non-pharmaceutical products on animals and the impact (and associated cruelty) associated with that testing.According to PETA (www.peta.org.) while some of the experimentation conducted on animals today is required by law, most of it isn’t. In fact, a number of countries have implemented bans on the testing of certain types of consumer goods on animals, such as the cosmetics-testing bans in the European Union, India, Israel, New Zealand, Norway...

Winners - Best Ethical Financial Adviser Award 2023

The third Mindful Money Awards recognising leaders in the Ethical Investing world in New Zealand were held on Thursday June 29th. It was the first time that we had entered, and we were proud to be awarded the Best Ethical Financial Adviser of the Year along with our friends at Ethical Investing New Zealand.Many of your fund managers were also winners, highly commended and finalists, we have outlined the information below for you to share in our successes.For the second year, Carey was also ...

What to do if you are involved in a car accident (from the AA)

One of my clients told me that he prints out this information (attached in a document for you to use below) and gives it to his grand-children to put in the glovebox of their car in case they are involved in an accident.I thought that was a great idea, not only for grand-children, but for anyone - even our family members that are getting older.  So I am sharing the information below - and in the attachment below.  Hope it is usefulReady for the road?No matter how carefully you drive, s...

Free tool to keep your mind and body active

One of the annoying things about getting older is that your body doesn't want to be as flexible, supple and balanced as it used to be.  Your mind doesn't want to be left out of these changes either, and it can slow down too.Thanks to a suggestion from one of our clients, we thought we would introduce you to the FREE tool made available by ACC to anyone in New Zealand - Nymbl.It helps you with your balance and cognitive skills, by letting you choose fun games to play while giving you simple ...

Animal Cruelty ‘Nasties’ – how do we identify the companies?

Moneyworks uses the Mindful Money research database to calculate our clients’ exposures to nasties, so that our clients can understand what $ and % allocation they have in their portfolio, but also what kind of companies are associated with that ‘nasty’.Mindful Money are continually updating their categories and definitions and from July 2023, the category name has changed from Animal Welfare to Animal Cruelty.The core research input for Mindful Money’s analysis is the Sustainalytics res...

Warning from FMA about compare term deposit website scams

The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) – Te Mana Tātai Hokohoko – is urging New Zealanders to exercise extreme caution when dealing with a phony interest rates comparison website. The FMA believes the website is harvesting users’ personal information for criminals to sell fake investments. The website “Compare Fixed Term Deposits (CFTD)” claims to offer consumers a way to compare all registered and regulated fixed income investments in New Zealand and find the highest ra...

Warnings about Wholesale Investments and Syndicated Property Trust

Since January 2023 our inboxes have had a solid stream of emails from the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) and from Business Desk warning about the risks of Wholesale Investment Offers and about Syndicated Property Trusts that are in trouble.The information below has been gleaned from a Business Desk article.  Please read it and share the information with your friends and family so that the awareness of the risks and issues is increased.In our business at Moneyworks we don't know any clien...

I got text toll scammed (Along with 99,999 other people) - and updates on other scams that have been in the news

Scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated and we thought it was time to update you on things to watch out for.  There are three different scams that we will cover in this blog post.  Please read and be aware.Text Toll ScamsI am a hyper-vigilant person when it comes to cyber security and scams, but I am also a very conscientious person.  So on a Saturday morning a few weeks ago when I got a text telling me that I owed a toll, I was caught off guard and went to pay it.  At ...

Failed Mammograms, Dense Breasts, Breast Cancer

In Australia, all women have a mammogram annually until they are aged 70 (when it moves to being every two years).  In New Zealand, we are entitled to have a free mammogram every two years if you are a women aged 45 to 69.In February 2022, our wonderful sister in law Kerrie went for her mammogram and the results were all clear - nothing wrong.In November 2022 as Kerrie was getting dressed, her arm brushed her left breast and she felt a lump. After seeing the doctor and then having more test...

How do women make a difference in the financial and business world?

Since I began my career in the financial world in 1985, I have been an anomaly – as a professional woman.  When I worked in Australia, I couldn’t compete with the male Business Development Managers who entertained the male advisers at strip clubs (nor did I want to).When I began the financial planning business which is now Moneyworks in 1997, I was one of two women that I knew in the advisory eco system that I was working in.  This has been slow to change, and I’ve adapted and do...

Women on Boards and in Senior Management produce greater shareholder returns

MSCI have observed a correlation between female directors and strong talent-management practices and higher growth in employee productivity. Where there is a minimum 30% representation of women on boards, the evidence shows that there are greater shareholder returns. Boards in New Zealand, Australia and globally (but not in emerging markets) are seeing an average of 30% of women on boards.  But there are still companies that have no representation.  Based on the greater shareholde...

Gender Diversity initiatives in the financial industry

In addition to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG5) which relates to achieving gender equality and empowerment of women everywhere, there are specific initiatives that aim to increase the representation of women in companies. The 30% club and 40:40 Vision are two initiatives that some of our fund managers have signed up to.  40:40 vision aims to see women fill 40% of executive roles in the top 200 listed Australian companies by 2030 – again based on a clear a...

Having Women Fund Managers in the investment team increases your return

For many years we have heard about how individual women approach investing differently to men and make more money (on average 0.40% pa).Women tend to invest for longer, don’t try and time the market, are generally more risk-averse than men.  Men engage in 45% more trading activity than women, while women focus more on the big picture. Numerous studies have shown these patterns over time for individual investors, with women being more prepared to ask for assistance and education, instead o...

Ai for bad (instead of for fun or good means) - tax season scams

We have warned our clients about scams and cyber security for many years.  But Artificial Intelligence or AI is going to take the threat to a new level.While it was relatively easy to spot the spelling mistakes and bizarre writing and images in old school scam emails and text messages, the ability of AI to personalise a message to you, or create a fake person or a fake voice, AI is going to make it harder to spot a scam.Tax ScamsWith 31st March being the end of the New Zealand tax year, sca...

Authenticity beyond Greenwash - Carey Church with Mindful Money seminar

As part of Moneyworks commitment to educating the public and other advisers about ethical investing, Carey participated in the Authenticity Beyond Greenwash seminar with Mindful Money.Watch the seminar by clicking here....

Some interesting Graphs about markets and economies

At Moneyworks we attend many (many) presentations about what is happening in the world and the economy and our fund managers outlook on the world.  As we outline to you in our 'fund manager focus' at the annual review this year, all active fund managers are continually looking at what is happening in the world (inflation, employment, interest rates, megatrends like cyber security, climate change, demographics) to work out where the world is going and how that will impact on the investments ...

Actively Engaging on Diversity Equality and Inclusion - a case study

While many of the fund managers that Moneyworks recommends label themselves as 'ethical, responsible or sustainable' fund managers along with the relevant certification, we have found that one of our fund managers who doesn't carry those labels is very actively engaged with their investee companies.Moneyworks has recommended Magellan Global Fund to our clients since around 2008 and continues to recommend the fund as a core investment in our hybrid portfolios.  We like the style of the fund ...

Mens Underwear and Lipstick - predictors of recessions

Recessions are a normal part of the economic cycle (unless you live in Australia which apparently deserves its 'lucky country' moniker - they haven't had a recession since 1991 - all those resources and banks...)There are a wide number of indicators that fund managers, economists, Central Bankers look at to predict recessions, including real gross domestic product, income, employment, manufacturing, and retail sales. However, there are some more quirky indicators that people in the know loo...

Fossil Fuel companies working [not] to reduce fossil fuel production

Last year, when talking about how tricky it is to invest in fossil fuels, one of the reasons that we said it was tricky is because the big fossil fuel companies (think BP, ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron) have the huge cash inflows that mean that they can commit to investing in renewable energy and research and development, therefore they aren't 'all bad'.Well, all it took to change that was an invasion of Ukraine and the associated increases in the price of fossil fuels.  (See the graph above f...

Heart Attacks in women - they are different to men - and can affect healthy women

As many of our clients are women, when I heard this podcast about a particular type of heart attack that affects healthy women, I thought it was important to share the information. [ Interestingly, when looking for a photo to attach to this article, I couldn't find a freely available photo of a women having heart attack....]Here is the blurb from the podcast (that I strongly advise you to read) from RNZ:And here is the link to the podcast: https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoo...