There is currently a lot going on: coronavirus (COVID-19) concerns, market volatility, interest rate cuts, cancelled meetings, oil supply war and the upcoming US election. In short, COVID-19 presented a new variable, one not on anyone’s radar. So what does this mean for your investments, your business and for the economy?
Pandemic fear jolts markets, emergency rate cuts | Covid-19 Special Focus
Panic is in the air. For weeks there was calm, markets have been moving upwards without a hitch and shrugged the coronavirus off with breaking little sweat, but then there is this sudden panic now. The world is watching with concern, and it is unsettling on a human level as well as from the perspective of how markets respond.
First balance and then re-balance
Balance, and finding balance. It evokes pictures of rocks stacked upon each other at the beach. It’s something of an ongoing search for time-crunched people. How they can bring balance to various aspects of their lives?
Diversification a Great Luxury
New Zealanders are not keen on diversifying. NZX makes up 0.01% of the world’s share market capitalisation, but most New Zealand investor portfolios are overly weighted to the home market. In other words, a New Zealand investor with a strong home bias would have just a 7% allocation to technology, compared to approximately 16% in the global portfolios.
Returns are Random
The chart shows the variability of asset class performance on a year-by-year basis from 2010 through 2019. The best-performing asset class for each calendar year is at the top of each column. Please remember, past performance does not guarantee future results.
Closing the gap
Women need to educate themselves about how to mitigate things like illness and the loss of a partner and talk to an expert about things like estate planning, life and health insurance, investing and retirement planning. The more informed and prepared women are for these things, the better they will feel, and the more protected they will be.
Timing isn't everything
It's been quite a time for the markets this August. First the Reserve Bank cut the Official Cash Rate to a new record low of 1 per cent and last week we observed the first inversion of the US yield curve between two-year bonds and 10-year bonds since 2007.
Five Lessons from a Ponzi scheme victim
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.
Make sure you have a 'fire drill' for your investment plan
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?
Déjà vu all over again
Investment fads are nothing new. When selecting strategies for their portfolios, investors are often tempted to seek out the latest and greatest investment opportunities.
Take the rough with the smooth
A key to a successful investment experience is understanding how markets behave and developing the discipline to avoid rash decisions based on short time periods.
Stay in your comfort zone
Go back to the 1995 film, Clueless. After a driving lesson goes terribly wrong, the valley kids are almost squashed by a tractor-trailer, harassed by a motorcycle gang, and given the finger for driving too slowly by old people. If only they had remained in their comfort zone and taken their lesson on quiet residential streets rather than a 12-lane highway!
Q3 2018 Review
World economic data remained encouraging throughout Q3. Global equities, particularly developed markets performed strongly. Emerging markets were punished, while Australia made small gains. And another reason to be wary of what you share online.
NZ and its ongoing property obsession
It's on TV; it's on the radio, it's in the newspapers and online. It seems everyone is buying it, making money from it or renovating it. The data providers have been pushing down the timing on their price indices from monthly to weekly to daily updates.
KiwiSaver: Can your investment path be improved?
When KiwiSaver was established on July 1, 2007, the scepticism it had faced turned out to be unfounded. In a little over a year, more than one million people had signed up.
Unhealthy attachments to bad investments
Have you ever made yourself suffer through a bad movie because, having paid for the cinema ticket, you felt you had to get your money's worth? Some people treat investment the same way.
Which hat are you wearing?
Most of us have multiple roles — as business owners, professionals, workers, consumers, citizens, students, parents, and investors. So, our views of the world can differ according to whatever hat we're wearing at any one time.
Rainy-day Investing
Like farmers planning a harvest, investors pinning their expectations on statements about arithmetical "average" investment returns can be disappointed. As with rainfall, market returns are rarely evenly distributed either across time or place.
In and out of currency fashion
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are receiving intense media coverage, prompting many investors to wonder whether these new types of electronic money deserve a place in their portfolios.What are investors to make of all this media attention? What place, if any, should bitcoin play in a diversified portfolio?
Fine-wine investment too good to be true
Wine investment has barely been on the scene for two decades, and If you have a taste for investing in wine, it could be a hobby worth the money one can spare.
