One of the things most people thinking about retirement are asked to consider is what they are retiring to.

Often we think about the money aspect of retirement only. Of course, vitally important, but we also need to consider […..]

After speaking with many retirees about their finances, it has become abundantly clear that one thing many miss is the regular income provided from a job and they […..]

In the FIRE community there is this constant need to define your retirement label.

Retired or not retired

Early retired or not early retired

Semi retired

Working or not working

Honestly, who really cares? Why should […..]

Not too long ago I wrote about one problem rarely discussed with all in one encompassing managed funds in retirement, such as balanced, conservative, growth etc. Funds that hold a mixture of stocks, bonds and cash.

The gist of the problem being that with these funds you don’t get to decide whether to drawdown from stocks or bonds, because the fund doesn’t differentiate between the two. End result is the health of your investment balance will be worse off than otherwise.

Well today I have […..]

Many Kiwis are significantly behind on their retirement savings. Their plan, if they have one at all, is likely to work past retirement age.

Sounds good in theory, but in practice it is […..]

I have many clients approaching retirement that have a lot of their money, if not all, in one fund. Such as a growth fund, balanced fund or conservative fund.

When building your investments this isn’t the worst thing. In fact, many funds are […..]

I know that as individuals we don’t live as the average, but I thought it may be interesting (or depressing) to see how things may look for the average future retiree.

We will of course have to make assumptions. We will assume […..]

t’s funny how our minds are wired sometimes. I was thinking about how there are significant differences in the way most of our brains differentiate between spending and saving.

Many people put retirement saving on the backburner because it […..]

Retirement is far more nuanced than a number. It is a target that is dynamic and forever moving.

Often people will say that they are striving for a certain number, such as […..]

There seems to be a common opinion in New Zealand that as long as you own a house with a paid off mortgage, your retirement will work out just fine financially.

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple […..]

If you are a risk averse investor, retirement at the moment does not come cheap.

With interest rates on savings accounts so low, it takes a lot of money for not much in return. You will need an extremely large deposit if you want to live off the interest from these accounts.

If you […..]

It appears many people think a paid off house and 3% of their income towards Kiwisaver will be enough. If you are spending 97% of your income, then 3% towards Kiwisaver will be nowhere near enough, unless you […..]

Retirement planning is more important now than ever. Even more so for the young. Retirement readiness is getting […..]

Annuities can seem attractive to many retirees. It is a regular paycheck into your account. It’s an easy way to turn your lump sum savings into a regular fortnightly income.

One of the main annuity providers in New Zealand is Lifetime Income. You invest your money with them and you are guaranteed a certain amount of income every fortnight for the rest of your life. Even if your investments lose money, Lifetime income will still pay you the same flat amount every fortnight. If your investment balance grows, so does your fortnightly income.

Sounds amazing right […..]

For many people, they spend their lives saving and investing to ensure they have enough saved for retirement. But what if I told you that the success of your plan can often come down to the year you retire?

Up until about 5 years ago, I thought there was only one way to retire. Work for 40 plus years until my mid to late 60’s, until I had enough money to retire with some help for NZ Superannuation.

Since then, I’ve learned a lot about financial independence and how to achieve it. Simple concepts such as compound interest, index fund investing and high savings rates have helped me understand there are other options, one of which is early retirement.

But what if traditional retirement nor early retirement suit you? Are there other ways to approach your retirement and work life?

We have no problem saving for holidays, presents, cars, or any other short to medium savings goals we have. Yet, judging by the numbers, we keep delaying saving for the most important goal of all. Retirement.

Maybe it’s time to start thinking of retirement in terms of […..]

The 4% rule is the golden tenet in the FIRE community. It is a calculation that tells you how much you need to retire, based on your annual expenses. Spend $50,000 per year? You would need $1.25 million ($50,000 x 25). You can read more about the 4% rule here and how it comes about.

As a financial adviser I generally dislike […..]

In many ways the first few weeks of this self isolation feels like more people are living like those who are retired […..]

When many of us retire we are well into our 60’s and tend to be pretty conservative with our investments. And fair enough. We have hopefully built up a significant stash by now, and any large losses could be quite devastating.

Just before we finish work is generally the time of our lives where we have the most money we ever have. So a 30% loss on $500,000 when we no longer have income coming in, has a much more significant impact on us than a 30% loss on $300,000 at age 50 while we are still working.

We have more time to recover and we have the income coming in so we have […..]

A common scenario in New Zealand is to buy a house as soon as we can afford one. We spend as much as the bank will lend us.

As our incomes increase over the years, or maybe our family size increases, we tend to buy […..]

Generally speaking, New Zealander’s are mad for housing. We love owning houses and we are willing to pay over 10 times our incomes for them. We are willing to pay more than […..]

In the last blog we discussed the results of New Zealand based research of the 4% safe withdrawal rate study. In it we highlighted how big an impact a share market crash can have on whether or not we run out of money in retirement.

I won’t be leaving this this to chance. The first ten years of retirement tend to be the most important indicator of whether […..]

There is a United States based study called the trinity study that looked into how much someone can successfully withdraw from their investment portfolio over a 30-year period. The result of the study concluded that […..]

he best retirements are planned. You know what you want to do in retirement. You know how much it will cost. You know how much you will need saved. Less surprises will mean less stress and a greater likelihood of outliving your money.

The problem is life doesn’t always work as planned. We may […..]

Show of hands how many readers have a written will or trust of what will happen when you get sick or die? I can’t see your hands but the statistics show […..]

Life insurance deserves a topic of its own as it is such as a large amount of money. The cost of life insurance grows at a rapid rate once we hit the age of 50. Many of us don’t question this cost though. Yes, we know it is increasing, but many of us don’t believe we can […..]

Myth 1 - NZ Superannuation will not be around when you retire

Maybe, maybe not. It could still be available in 40 years but it may be modified. The age of retirement could be 70. There could be a tiered a structure, where the longer you delay […..]

Retirement is often looked upon as an escape. An escape from work. An escape from routine. An escape from structure. It is seen as a new stage of life. A life where we have a bit more freedom to do things we have been waiting 40 years to do. To […..]

The landscape for retirement is not the same as it used to be. James is retiring today (born in 1953) and has a life expectancy of 78 years. Kevin is born today and can expect to live to age 91.

James has just 13 years of retirement for his money to last. Kevin has almost double the time – 25 years. He needs […..]

Let me explain using two fictional employees – Mike and Jacob.  They worked for Megacorp Inc and were identical in all aspects of their job. They both started working at age 25 and both worked for 40 years. Their salary and salary growth were identical, along with their Kiwisaver contributions. They made the same investments with their savings during which they both earned […..]

There are two commonly dispelled methods that tell you how much you need to retire. I will go over why they may be wrong for you and how to calculate a more reliable number […..]

If I am being honest, I never thought that early retirement used to even be a possibility on an average middle-class income. I thought we HAD TO go to university, get a job for 45 years and then retire. End of discussion.

But I am here to tell you early retirement is a definite possibility and I have […..]

Retirement is a big change in our lives that cannot be underestimated. Generally speaking, we transition from working for 40-50 years according to someone else’s timetable. Our days are structured. We know exactly […..]