Clearly anyone can quickly pick up cooking, laundry or start the hedge trimmer if needed, but finances can be daunting and difficult if there’s no familiarity there. A lack of financial knowledge can be paralysing if a person is suddenly confronted with financial demands.

New Zealand appears to be stuck in an economic malaise. Household debt has never been higher, wage growth tends to lag, and gross domestic product per capita (everyone’s share of the economic pie) annual growth has been shrinking. And this was with interest rates already at record lows. Solution? Cut interest rates further.

Owning something valuable, such as a house, car or boat, without insuring it means taking a huge financial risk. For that reason, around 95 per cent of New Zealanders have insurance to protect against loss due to disaster, accident or theft. However, when it comes to protecting themselves and their family’s future, the majority have little or no insurance cover.

Ross Asset Management was the biggest Ponzi-scheme ever happened in NZ when it unfolded in 2012 – it is said investors had $450 million with Ross but only $10m was recovered.  In reality the figure invested was closer to $110m as most of the $450m were accumulated fictious returns. About 200 have signed up to the claim so far.

Heard of Warren Buffett? You probably have. You might not really know much about him, but that’s ok. World’s most famous investor. World’s greatest investor. Take your pick. He’s reasonably well known and has been reasonably successful, to put it mildly.

Our income is our most valuable asset. If you had to stop working due to an injury or illness the Government’s safety net (ACC) would catch you, but only just.  

An adviser once said he did not so much have people with investment problems as he had investments with people problems. Your assumed rationality can vanish in a crisis. So why not build your human imperfections into your game plan?