When I receive questions from time to time asking about student loans and whether I think it’s worth taking one on to invest the loan amount and make money out of taking on debt, you better believe, I’m interested in finding out more!
Book Review: EVERYDAY MILLIONAIRES by Chris Hogan
I might be unusual in the fact that I couldn’t wait for this book to arrive. Who else do you know that is excited about reading a book that would fall into the ‘personal finance’ section of the bookstore? But this book had been touted as a best seller, before it even went on sale, offering an inside view into the way “ordinary people built extraordinary wealth” and how I could do it too. And I wanted to know how to do that!
How I Help My Daughter Invest
Every week I receive one or two emails specifically asking about how to help children invest and there are often comments on various social media about whether you even should help your kids and if you do, whether you should tell them about it. Over the years we’ve evolved an investment methodology for our daughter that appears to be working so I thought I would share with you what we do in our own whare and that might give you some tips for what you can do in your own household.
Simplicity and The Icehouse - What does it mean?
If you are a Simplicity investor you will have received an email where they announced: “We’re now investing in high growth Kiwi companies”. I did a bit of reading to get an understanding of what they are trying to achieve here because it’s not enough to just contribute to my KiwiSaver, it is important that I understand and feel comfortable with the choices they are making on my behalf.
Margin Lending - Borrowing money to invest in shares.
Borrowing money to buy shares is something that I don’t hear about that often and I have only really come across a small handful of examples of it in the last couple of years of blogging. Whereas we borrow vast sums of money all day long to get into the housing market, without the word ‘risk’ ever really being used, when we borrow money to buy into securities our first instincts are concern and fear.
Your Questions Answered
A while back I asked you to send me in any questions that you are looking for an answer to and I received well over 100 responses. So, I’ve hand-picked just four to answer today and I'll come back to the others in the future. On with the questions!
Saving Money on My Car Insurance
A few weeks ago I blogged about how much our cars ACTUALLY cost to run. Several people got in touch (thank you) and to cut straight to the point they said “you are being screwed over Ruth, you should take a look around for a new insurer”. So I did…
Time in the market is your money’s best friend.
I interviewed a bloke for an upcoming episode of my podcast and he had a lot to say about investing in individual shares and why he used to buy them, but now no longer does. He took the advice of a good friend when she told him, back in the 1980s, just buy into today’s equivalent of an index fund and let time in the market be your money’s best friend. Low and behold, she was correct.
Sharesies have made a few tweaks...
Sharesies have been making a few tweaks to their system. If you already use them they will have emailed you (but if you are like me, you may not have read it) and I felt the changes are worth mentioning for those investing with them already or for those thinking about doing so. Sharesies is now “tidier” to use and I think probably less confusing for newbie investors too.