From good to great – How to best investNow

Article written by InvestNow

How good was 2019?

According to NZ investment consulting firm Melville Jessup Weaver (MJW), last year was one of the best ever – for equity investors at least. Both NZ and offshore equities ended the decade with a final burst of enthusiasm that likely caught even the optimists off-guard.

MJW reports that the “return in 2019 accounted for 20% of the total return for the global shares sector for the decade”. […]

REITs: a great income solution – APN Property Group

Article written by Corrine Ng, Portfolio Manager, Asian Real Estate Securities

What are REITS and why should investors use them?

Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) have unique characteristics that can make them attractive to both income and growth investors. REITs own property and pass the rent collected from tenants that occupy those properties onto investors in the form of dividends. Listed on the stock exchange, REITs are listed investments, trade just like stocks and […]

Will NZ property fund returns keep building, or will they crumble?

Article written by Carlie Eve – Property Portfolio Manager, Mint Asset Management

Property – it’s a New Zealand love affair that’s created a lot of wealth over recent years in the residential market for Kiwis; but what’s been happening where the big guns play in the listed market?

The Listed Property Sector has had an incredible run over the past few years, in particular over the last 12 months.  As Portfolio […]

Hot property – 33% of InvestNow investors hold property funds

Article by InvestNow

It’s no surprise that we’ve seen investors flooding into property funds, given the consistent performance of the asset class over the last 18 months. Our October 2019 fund performance report show returns far superior to any other asset class – 7 out of the 10 top performing funds on InvestNow were property funds over the 12 months up to October.

Over this period the Smartshares NZ Property Fund lead the pack, returning 35.48% […]

Why Doing The Right Thing Is Good For Your Bank Balance: A Beginners’ Guide To Responsible Investing

Article by David Boyle, Mint Asset Management

If you asked a hundred Kiwis on the street what responsible investing means I bet you would get a hundred different answers. That’s because we all have our own moral compass on what we think is good or bad when it comes to the environment, social impacts and the way companies behave.

The other problem we have are the many and varied terms […]

Adjusting to Low Interest Rates – The Alternatives

The world is flat – almost completely, if you measure it in money.

Here’s the proof. Interest rates on New Zealand Term Deposits (TDs) are almost the same stretching from 6 months out to 5 years. In fact, currently you’d be more likely to earn less on a 5 year term than a 6 month term. This is what is referred to as an inverted or negative yield curve, as depicted in the below InvestNow Term Deposit rate chart. […]

How Do Income Funds Really Work?

Article by David Boyle, Mint Asset Management

With global bank deposit rates sinking faster than the Titanic, the hunt for returns on savings is becoming a real challenge, especially for those on a fixed income in retirement. This has driven investors to search outside the square for a better return and it’s why income funds are starting to gain popularity against bank deposits, particularly over the past five years or so.

They’re not a proxy for bank Term […]

Flying through turbulence – Market volatility

On September 19 en route from Atlanta to Fort Lauren, Delta Airlines Flight 2352 dropped, unannounced, out of the sky.

According to media reports, the Boeing 757 “plunged” to an altitude of “10,000 feet from 39,000 feet in seven minutes”, allegedly sending passengers into panic mode.

In a breathless post-flight interview, Harris Dewoskin, a Delta 2352 passenger, told press the rapid descent triggered chaos in the cabin.

“Life is fragile. There was a scary 60 to 90 seconds where we really didn’t know […]

Investing for and with your kids – Starting young with good financial habits

Parental money worries are not just confined to the demands of early childhood – prams, cots, car-seats, nappies, childcare and whatnot – but to those future big-ticket expenses that your kids will inevitably encounter. And as most parents do, you’ll feel obliged to help out.

However, many of these potential future costs can be quantified and offset with a well-designed and proactive investment plan.

Some of the obvious post-childhood expenses likely to pop up include: […]

On the way home – How to build a dream house property portfolio

The Kiwi dream of home-ownership remains a potent force in the national psyche and a key driver of real financial decisions.

Admittedly, the New Zealand property market has moved on somewhat since the hallowed era of the ‘quarter acre block’ and the cheap-as-chips suburban bungalow. But if the dream has been down-sized, the real estate reality appears further away than ever for the latest generation of Kiwi house-shoppers.

A long period of rampant house price […]