Amanda

27 articles published

The best gift you can give to a kid is a debt-free education. Here’s how:

FinanceFebruary 21, 2025348Views 0Likes 0Comments

The secret to a good life? The answer, according to the late great Sir Winston Churchill: "Choose your parents well." Unless you're a Buddhist, you'll find that a mind bender but don't hurt yourself thinking on it. The point is that parents (and willing grandparents) greatly impact how we all turn out. I have mine to thank for several…

The road to riches start with self-appreciation and gratitude

FinanceFebruary 7, 2025258Views 0Likes 0Comments

Repeat after me: "I am an appreciating asset." Even if you don't understand what that means, repeat it three times daily and see what happens in a month. In finance, an appreciating asset is something that increases in value. By contrast, a depreciating asset is something that goes down in value. Some examples of the latter are:…

Walking the talk in personal finance; doing versus knowing makes the difference

FinanceJanuary 20, 2025382Views 0Likes 1Comment

Personal finance isn't much different from other goal-driven areas where the difference between achieving and not achieving boils down to distilling and applying both theory and behaviour. Learning is essential, yes, but if you don't act on any of that knowledge, it's useless. That was the hour's topic at my latest appearance on NewstalkZB Collective's Smart Money…

What women get wrong about money

FinanceJanuary 14, 2025358Views 0Likes 0Comments

The current narrative around women and money, in New Zealand anyway, is that women aren't good with money. I cringe when I hear this and get annoyed with all the cliches about 'girl math' and women preferring to buy shoes and make-up over managing and investing their money. The women I'm lucky enough to know are the…

Financial habits that will help, not hinder your wealth creation progress

FinanceNovember 18, 2024438Views 0Likes 0Comments

Old habits die hard. Can the same be said of good habits? That is once good habits are set, are they unbreakable? I've been reflecting on financial habits while reading Jim Davies' book "Being The Person Your Dog Thinks You Are; The Science of a Better You." While I'm a huge dog lover, this book…

Investing on a limited budget: Part 2/5 questions from the Octagon

FinanceOctober 23, 2024454Views 0Likes 0Comments

This is the second of five questions I am tackling on request by a group of Otago students who are graduating soon or entering the second phase of their education. The question was: "How should I begin investing with limited funds?" Great question. Many people interested in 'investing' forget that they probably already are via their KiwiSaver accounts.…

Financial tips for students based on actual student questions: Part 1 of 5 How do I improve my credit score?

FinanceAugust 28, 2024328Views 0Likes 0Comments

I give my two sons a hard time about prioritising boxes of beer above all else when it comes to budgeting, so I decided to ask them and their mates what financial information would be most helpful for them at their stage and age. Some are graduating from university, while others are embarking on lengthy postgraduate…

The Hidden Lessons in Your Annual Retirement Report: A Guide to Smarter Savings

FinanceAugust 26, 2024365Views 0Likes 0Comments

There are a lot of big numbers swirling around KiwiSaver, most of them designed to get you fizzed up about saving for retirement or else lure you into a competitor's scheme.' Unfortunately wording for what is effectively a regulated investment product. Of all those dizzying numbers, like the $100 billion sugar pot that has accumulated…

Riding the rollercoaster that is investing

FinanceAugust 9, 2024377Views 0Likes 0Comments

The week started with a bang. In the investment markets anyway. My overly simplified spin: Japanese monetary policy and its attempts to resurrect interest rates and the yen from the dead, all of a sudden had a catastrophic effect on its stock market which fell like a climber from the summit of Everest right to basecamp. It triggered…

To Switch or not to Switch? A cautionary tale of accidental KiwiSaver switching

FinanceAugust 1, 2024358Views 0Likes 0Comments

For as long as I have been writing about money, which is longer than I would like to admit, I have shared my knowledge with others, my kids included. Here's the rub: As any parent will know, kids love to ignore parental advice. It must surely be Murphy's Law, that the more you harp, the deafer they…

Giving is good but how much is enough?

FinanceJuly 22, 2024343Views 0Likes 0Comments

Is giving part of your wealth creation strategy? If not, why not? Money gurus Tony Robbins and Robert Kiyosaki are amongst those who advocate giving regularly as part of a holistic financial plan to grow your wealth. On Robbin's Foundation website, visitors are greeted with the headline; "The Secret to Living is Giving'' with a…

Contribution rates comparisons: What’s your number?

FinanceJuly 8, 2024464Views 0Likes 1Comment

A recent article published in Bloomberg Business news highlighted the increasing contribution rate trends for our American friends on the savings front. Based on research from Vanguard Group's How America Saves report, the article states that Americans contributed an average 11.7% of their gross salary into their retirement savings or 401ks as they are better known. That…

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