December 12, 2017 Index Fund, Investing AMP Capital NZ, investnow 6 Comments

New AMP Low-Cost Index Fund VS SmartShares ETF, Which one is the better deal?

by Alpha

AMP Capital NZ introduce three new low-cost index funds for New Zealand investors. Yay! They are available for AMP’s client and on InvestNow platform.

Three New Index Fund

AMP Capital NZ have been offering investment fund and KiwiSaver fund for New Zealander. Most of their funds are actively managed. So its great to see AMP bring the passive fund to their client. According to Investment News article, AMP Capital NZ managing director Grant Hassell said, “there’s been a lot more demand than we expected from retail investors [for passive options].” It great to see more New Zealand companies on board with the low-cost passive investing movement.

Here is the summary of those new index Fund

NZ Shares Index Fund

Description: Aims to provide a return that closely matches the return of the S&P/NZX 50 Index (on a gross basis and including imputation credits).
Risk Indicator: 4
Management fee: 0.33%
Buy/Sell Spread: 0.10%
Similar Fund/ETF: NZ Top 50 from SmartShares

All Country Global Shares Index Fund

Description: Aims to provide a return that closely matches the return of the MSCI All Country World ex Tobacco Index in New Zealand dollars with net dividends reinvested (69% hedged to the New Zealand dollar).
Risk Indicator: 5
Management fee: 0.38%
Buy/Sell Spread: 0.15%
Similar Fund/ETF: Vanguard International Shares Select Exclusions Index Fund (Hedged) – NZD Class on InvestNow

Hedged Global Fixed Interest Index Fund

Description: Aims to provide a return that closely matches the return of the Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate Index, fully hedged to the New Zealand dollar.
Risk Indicator: 3
Management fee: 0.39%
Buy/Sell Spread: 0.10%

They are structured PIE funds, do not have annual admin fee, and minimum investment amount is $50.

Unlike some fund manager which charge active management level fees on their passive investment options, those index fund options from AMP Captial are actually cheap in New Zealand standard. Kudos to AMP!

Well Done AMP!

Buy and Sell Spread

You may notice apart from the usual management fee; there is a Buy/Sell Spread for the fund. All AMP fund have Buy/sell spread, and they are your entry and exit fee.

For example, if you decided to put $10,000 into All Country Global Shares Index Fund, 0.15% of $10,000 will be taken out as buying cost. So only 10000 – (10000 x 0.15%) = $9,985 will be in the fund.

Three years later, your investment in that fund grow to $12,000, and you want to cash out. When you cash out your investment, 0.15% of $12,000 will be taken out as selling cost, and you will end up with $11,982.

When you buy and sell shares, there will be a transaction cost. ASB and ANZ charge a retail customer $30 or 0.30% for each transaction. The fund manager also needs to pay for buying and selling shares for their fund.

You may not see Superlife and Simplicity charging a separate buy/sell spread, but it doesn’t mean they don’t have to pay a transaction cost. They decided to include those costs into the management fee and make it simple for investors.

Usually, I’ll prefer simple fees structure because in some cases, a fund manager will list multiple fee item to confuse the customer and charge more fees. However, I do believe having a buy/sell cost will benefit long-term investor like me.

First, buy/sell cost separated from management cost means the management cost can be reduced to a lower level (it’s no guaranteed fee will be lowered. Some other fund just use that as an excuse to charge more fees). Second, as a long-term investor, I will only buy a small amount every month, so buy/sell spread won’t reduce my return much. Finally, for those who think they can time the market and try to get in and out a lot, they will pay for their transaction. I am happy to know my money are sitting nicely in the fund. The cost of the transaction from other investors won’t eats into my return.

Therefore, having a Buy/Sell Spread will be good for the investor as long as it reduces the overall cost for investors. On the other hand, it does make it harder for investors to compare the cost. Don’t worry; I’ve done the hard work for you.

SmartShare Vs AMP Capital

AMP Captial NZ Shares Index Fund will track S&P/NZX 50 Index, which is designed to measure the performance of the 50 largest, eligible stocks listed on New Zealand stock market main board. SmartShares NZ top 50 ETF is tracking a very similar index, the S&P/NZX 50 Portfolio Index, which also measures the performance of the top 50 companies in New Zealand stock market main board. However, there is a 5% cap on the individual stock, that is more aligned with what a retail investor may hold.

S&P/NZX 50 Index returns are: 3 Years – 9.79%, 5 Years – 10.99% and 10 Years – 2.51%.

S&P/NZX 50 Portfolio Index returns are: 3 Years – 10.15%, 5 Years – 11.72% and 10 Years – 3.31%.

SmartShares NZ top 50 ETF will charge 0.5% management fee. If you are in the SmartShares saving plan, there will be a one-off set up fees for $30. If you invested in Superlife NZ top 50 ETF Fund, the management fee would be 0.49%, no setup cost but there will be a $12/admin fees. On my previous post, we calculated SmartShares would be cheaper if the value of your fund is under $120k. Earlier this year, InvestNow added SmartShares NZ Top 50 ETF fund on their platform. InvestNow customer can bypass the $30 set up fee which made InvestNow be the best options for NZ top 50 Index fund.

Now AMP Captial NZ Shares index fund offer no setup fees, no admin fee, and management fee at 0.33%. There will be a buy and sell spread for 0.1%.

10-Years Analysis

Since the costing structure of SmartShares and AMP’s is a bit different, I decided to run a 10-years analysis for both options to see which fund will pay less on fees and provide a better return for the investors.

I will be using NZX Gross return from 2004 and 2014 as my return data. It has a right mix of bull market (04-07), recession (07-10) and recovery (10-14). The tax will be ignored in this analysis.

We will compare an investor putting $50/month in each fund for ten years and will cash out all investment at the end. For SmartShares NZ Top 50, we will use InvestNow platform as this is the most cost-efficient way.

Here is the result for SmartShares NZ top 50 ETF via InvestNow

Here is the result for AMP NZ Shares Index Fund.

SmartShares balance was higher at the beginning as there was 0.10% buy spread charged on AMP investor. However, since AMP charge less on management fee, the money stays in the fund generated a better return. In the end, AMP NZ Shares Index Fund valued at $8,481.82 and SmartShare NZ Top 50 ETF valued at $8,423.70. AMP total fee paid is $124.95 (1.47%) compare to SmartShares at $166.55 (1.98%).

Therefore, for long-term investing, AMP NZ Shares Index Fund came out ahead by a small margin, 0.69% at the 10th year mark. Since there is no fixed-dollar fee, this result will be the same if you invest $50 or $500/month. AMP investor will have a better return from year 3 and onwards.

What Not to DO

In some situation, AMP will cost you more. Since AMP charge 0.10% on Buying and selling, if you move your money in and out a lot, it will cost you a lot of fees.

The simple way to understand is to imagine you move some money into the fund, got charge 0.10% on buy spread; you keep the money in for one year, got charged 0.33% management fee; you move it out at the end of the year, got charge 0.1% sell spread. So in that year, you’ve got charged 0.10% + 0.33% + 0.10% = 0.53%. So it charged more than SmartShares ETF.

If you keep putting money in and stay in the fund, the money in the fund will charge a lower management fee. Lower management fee means more money is remaining in the fund and it should provide a better return for you. Therefore, to optimise your return, you should avoid moving your money around and stays in the fund.

Tax on Investors

Those three funds are PIE funds. Investors with PIR lower than 28% will benefit from AMP fund because SmartShares ETF is listed-PIE fund. You will be tax at 28% regardless of your PIR with SmartShares. Check out my previous post on Listed-PIE vs multiple rated PIE fund and work out your PIR here.

Should You Switch?

The margin of difference is not that big, we are talking about 0.69% after 10 years, so it’s not a “drop everything and switch NOW” situation. However, if you are aiming to optimise your return, AMP should be the better choice. If you are on lower PIR, or you still don’t like SmartShares’ improved user interface, switch over to AMP.

Personally, I think I will invest in this AMP fund via InvestNow. Since I already have an account with InvestNow, I can quickly put some money in without signing up with AMP.

Conclusion

Three New index fund from AMP Capital NZ
No annual fee for all funds, lower management fees, the investor will be paying buy/sell spread, minimum investment from $50, structured as PIE fund.
NZ Shares Index Fund – is the cheaper version of NZ Top 50 ETF, management fee at 0.33%, Buy/Sell spread 0.10%
All Country Global Shares Index Fund – is the more expensive version of Vanguard fund in InvestNow but as structured as PIE fund (no tax return required), management fee at 0.38%, Buy/Sell spread 0.15%
Hedged Global Fixed Interest Index Fund – managed fee at 0.39%, Buy/Sell spread 0.10%
Buy/Sell spread is buying and selling cost for the investor. In this case, its benefit long-term, buy and hold investor.
NZ Shares Index Fund will be cheaper than SmartShare NZ Top 50 ETF if you hold it for long-term
It will cost you a lot of fees if you try to time the market and move your money in and out a lot.
All three funds are available from AMP Captial NZ and on InvestNow platform

October 3, 2017 ETF, Index Fund, Investing investnow, Sharesies, SmartShares, Superlife Leave a comment

Fund Update: Regular Investing with InvestNow, Cheaper SmartShares and More Funds in Sharesies

by Alpha

Got a couple fund updates in October 2017 including regular investing with InvestNow, cheaper SmartShares management cost, more fund options in Sharesies and new fund with Simplicity.

Regular Investing with InvestNow

InvestNow just rollout their regular investing options. Yay! Before that, every time investors transfer money to InvestNow, the money will be sitting in their “Transaction account”. The investor was required to log into their account and manually invest that money into funds. Not very robust.

Now with regular investing, you just need to instruct InvestNow how you want your fund distributed once and they will do it automatically. Also, with regular investing, the minimum transaction amount is lowered to $50. Here is how it works.

Once you login to InvestNow, you will see a new option called “My Plan”.

Click create to start a new plan.

You decide how much you want to invest and how frequently. You can invest on a weekly, monthly, quarterly or six-monthly basis. Also, you can choose when the plan start and end. Below is an example for $100 invested monthly with no end date.

Next is to instruct which fund you would like to invest by percentage. The minimum investment amount for a single fund is $50/transaction. If you are investing $100, you can invest in 2 different funds at $50/each or $100 in a single fund. Below is an example for $100 invested into two Vanguard funds.

After that, click save and you are done. Make sure you set up an automatic payment from your bank!

I am glad InvestNow introduces regular investing options and lower the transaction amount to $50. It makes it easier for investors to set up automatic payment and use the dollar-cost averaging method to invest. It further lowers the barrier of entry and makes InvestNow be a “set and forget” investment solutions.

Check out their Regular Investment Plan page for more info.

Just be aware that minimum lump sum investment amount is still at $250/transaction.

InvestNow buy RaboDirect’s managed funds line

InvestNow just announced they acquired the Managed Funds product line of RaboDirect. RaboDirect started a marketplace for investment funds in 2006. In fact, the InvestNow’s managing director, Mike Heath, set up RaboDirect’s platform back then.

Now InvestNow acquired the Managed Funds product line from RaboDirect, their customer will transit to InvestNow platform.

I think it’s great as RaboDirect customer get to stay in the same fund and will save more on fees because InvestNow does not charge admin or transaction fee. It will also expand InvestNow customer based. I hope it will lead InvestNow to bring more high quality and low-cost index fund to New Zealand like Vanguard and Blackrock.

Check out my blog on InvestNow here.

Investnow – Invest in Vanguard Fund with 0.20% Fee

InvestNow Added SmartShares ETFs into their Offerings

Smartshares reduces fee on award-winning ETF

SmartShares’ NZ Mid Cap ETF recently won the New Zealand Equity Sector Fund of the year at the 2017 FundSource Awards.

The NZ Mid Cap ETF tracks the share price of 38 New Zealand Stock and its median market cap at 1,090 million. The index is made up of top 50 companies in NZ stock exchange but excluded the top 10 companies and product issued by non-New Zealand issuers. You can find the stock of The A2 Milk Company, Xero, Air New Zealand, Mercury, Mainfreight and Port of Tauranga in this ETF.

Here is the sector breakdown on Mid Cap ETF.

SmartShares just lower their management fee from 0.75% to 0.60%. So this is good news for their current investors. This ETF used to have the biggest cost difference with their ETF fund counterpart in SuperLife. Now the cost is more in line with SuperLife ETF fund. However, SuperLife still has the lower management cost at 0.49%.

Check out my comparison on management fee between SmartShares and SuperLife.

Sharesies added New Socially Responsible Funds

Sharesies, the new Wellington start-up, just added two socially responsible funds from Pathfinder Asset Management. They are The Pathfinder Global Responsibility Fund and the Pathfinder Global Water Fund.

Socially responsible investing also known as sustainable, socially conscious, “green” or ethical investing, is any investment strategy which seeks to consider both financial return and social good to bring about a social change. Those funds will invest in companies practices that promote environmental stewardship, consumer protection, human rights, and diversity. They avoid business involved in armaments, gambling, tobacco, thermal coal and pornography.

Pathfinder Asset Management said Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) scores as one of the factors to invest with those two funds. Pathfinder Global Responsibility Fund targets 250 stocks from around the world and Pathfinder Global Water Fund target on 50 to 100 companies that generate significant income from water-related activities. Both funds are actively managed, and the management cost is 0.93% and 1.3% per year. Also, those two funds have a transaction fee on buy and sell of 0.05%. So if you invested $50 in either fund, $0.025 would be charged as a transaction fee.

I think Sharesies did a great job adding socially responsible funds on their platform as the fund will appeal to their core customers. However be aware of those two funds are actively managed, and there is a transaction fee on buy and sell.

Check out the fund info here. The Pathfinder Global Responsibility Fund and the Pathfinder Global Water Fund.

One More Thing

One last thing, Simplicity added Guaranteed income fund and I’ve got a sperate blog on that.

September 19, 2017 ETF, Index Fund, Investing Children, investnow, Kids, Superlife, Vanguard 9 Comments

The Best Way to Invest for Your Children in New Zealand – What to Invest

by Alpha

This is the second part of my investing for children series. In a previous post, we talked about why should we invest for your kids and what you need to know beforehand. Now, let’s dive into what to invest for your children in New Zealand.

Index Fund & ETF for Kids

In case you don’t know, I am a big fan of the low-cost index fund and ETF because this is a low-cost investment option with a diversified portfolio and low entry requirement. Naturally, I will put my kid’s investment into them as well as a managed fund with ETF and Index fund in it. However, lots of investment services won’t accept anyone who is under 18 years old as investors. Basically, under their terms and conditions, you will have to be 18 years old or over to sign that agreement. Therefore, there are not a lot of choices for children.

Looking for investment options for my kids

Furthermore, a good investment for kids is kind of the hidden gem out there. The one that advertised heavily aren’t very good, and you will have to dig deep to find the good ones. After lots of googling, emailing and reading, here are my top picks.

SuperLife MyFutureFund

Hidden Gem No.1 is Superlife MyFutureFund. This is a different service from SuperLife KiwiSaver and SuperLife Invest (non-KiwiSaver Service). This service doesn’t have a web page at the moment so you won’t find it on SuperLife web site. The information is buried under SuperLife Invest Product Disclosure Statement, page 26 and 27 of that PDF file.

(Superlife is currently redesigning their website. The myfuturefund page will return after that.)

MyFutureFund itself is NOT an index fund or managed fund, it’s just a way that allows children to invest in SuperLife’s product. The account is in the child’s name but the guardian/person opening the account has control of the account including access to the funds through until 18 years of age. The account is separate from parents account, but you would be able to view the account through a “linked” membership.

MyFutureFund has access to the all Superlife investment options. There are over 40 different investment options available for kids including ETF, index fund, sector fund and managed fund. My personal picks for my kids are SuperLife 100 and Overseas Shares (Currency Hedged) Fund.

SuperLife 100 is made up of mostly Vanguard Index fund and ETF plus fund from Somerset. The investment included, 55% of international shares, 33% of Australasian shares and 12% listed property. The management cost is 0.52% and risk indicator at level 4. Three years return after tax (PIR at 28%), and fees are 8.35%. Seven years return is not available.

Overseas Shares (Currency Hedged) Fund is made up of eight Vanguard ETF. Invested 100% in international shares and mainly in US and Europe stock market. The management cost is 0.48% and risk indicator at level 4. Three years return after tax (PIR at 28%), and fees are 7.52%. Seven years return is 11.47%.

I picked those two funds because they are both diversified and contain 100% growth asset. Regarding fees, the management fees are relatively low, and SuperLife’s annual admin fees are only $12/years. They do not have regular contribution requirement, minimum investment amount can be just $1. So Superlife is great for both regular and irregular investing for your kids. I already got an account with SuperLife on my own so linking the kid’s account is straightforward and easy.

What about Investment for Mid-term

Those two fund that I suggested were 100% growth asset, so they are aggressive fund. They provide a great return for long-term investing. However, they will be too risky for mid-term investment. If you plan to use that money within 4-10 years, you may consider some other fund with lower growth asset.

SuperLife 30, 60 and 80 are similar to SuperLife 100 but added a different percentage of income asset. Fund with more income asset will have a lower range of gain and loss in any given year, and better return during recession compare to 100% growth asset fund. On the other hand, when the market is booming, those funds will have a lower return.

I think Superlife 30 will be ideal for 4-6 years investment, Superlife 60 will be great for 6-8 years, and Superlife 80 will be ideal for 8-10 years. For example, if your kid is 12 years old and planning to use that money for the university at 19-year-olds. Your investment timeframe will be 7 years, and you should consider Superlife 60. For any plan under 4 years, term deposit with the bank is a good choice.

How To Join MyFutureFund

SuperLife doesn’t have the easiest way to join so there is how you can join them. You will need to fill in the application form from SuperLife and send it over by mail or email.

Download and read SuperLife Invest Product Disclosure Statement
Go to Applications form (page 22 of the PDF file) and fill out your kid’s details and use a separate email set up for kids investing.
Under Saving section, you choose how you are going to invest. It can be one lump sum investment, regular investment or both. The example below starts with $500 lump sum investment with NO regular contribution.
Fill out the Communications and ID verification. You should be using NZ passport or NZ Birth Certificate for the kid.
Under Investment strategy, they will ask if you would pick their managed fund first. If you wish to join SuperLife 100, just tick as below.
If you wish to join other funds or join multiple funds, you’ll need to tick “My Mix” and go to the next page.
At page 5 of the application form (page 26 of the PDF file), fill in initial investment or regular investment. You can set the amount by actual dollar value or by percentage. At the example below, I invest 50% to Superlife100 and 50% to Overseas Shares (Currency Hedged Fund).
On the right side of My Mix page, you can decide what to do with your investment income. They can be reinvested into the fund or save the return in cash fund. Reinvestment is the most common choice for kids. Below that, you can decide rebalancing options, I suggest to use the standard rebalancing for the kids.
At the next page (page 25 of the PDF file), after you pick the beneficiaries (usually “My estate”), DO NOT sign at the bottom. You should move onto the next page.
At the next two pages (Page 26 and 27 of the PDF file), you will have to fill in your own information as the guardian, supply the ID information, and sign it.
Once you completed the application form, you can send it over to SuperLife, and the investment account will be ready in a couple days.

If you have any other questions, contact Superlife with superlife@superlife.co.nz or call them at 0800 27 87 37.

InvestNow’s Vanguard Fund

The second gem is InvestNow. InvestNow is an online investment platform provide multiple investment fund for their investors with low entry require and no middle-man fee. You can check out my blog post on InvestNow here. Unlike other investment services, InvestNow’s term and condition do not have an age restriction. Therefore, InvestNow opens the door are a whole range of investment fund for your kids. You can check out the full range of investment fund from InvestNow here.

Out of all those investment options, my pick for my kids is Vanguard International Shares Select Exclusions Index Fund. That fund launched for AUS and NZ market in late 2016. It contains about 1500 listed companies across 20 developed international markets (without Australia). This fund is an ethical fund as they excluded Tobacco, controversial weapons and nuclear weapons investment.

The BEST things about this fund are the cost. It only charges 0.20%/year on management fees and NO annual admin fee. The fund itself is a wholesale fund, which means it usually only accept institutional invest. The minimum initial investment required was AUD $500,000. The good news is, investors can join this fund via InvestNow with just $250 investment. (InvestNow will lower that requirement to $50 shortly.)

There is two version of this fund, one with NZD currency hedged with 0.26% management fee and one without currency hedged with 0.20% management fee. Without currency hedge, the fund is exposed to the fluctuating values of foreign currencies. So this fund will have a higher risk and lower cost. On the other hand, you will pay a higher fee for a more stable return with the currency hedged fund.

Here is the link to check out those two funds in details.

Vanguard International Shares Select Exclusions Index Fund

Vanguard International Shares Select Exclusions Index Fund – NZD Hedged

Pay Tax on Investment

Those two funds have a different tax treatment compare to common PIE fund. With PIE fund, the investor usually just need to submit their IRD number and PIR rate once, then they don’t need to worry about tax. With those Vanguard funds in InvestNow, they are Australian Unit Trusts and will be taxed under Foreign investment funds (FIF) rule. Investors are required to submit their income from FIF and file a tax return every year. If the holding amount is under NZD $50,000, which should be the case for most children investors, you will need to pay tax on the dividend you received with the kids’ RWT rate. If the holding is over NZD $50,000, you will have to calculate your taxable income with either Fair dividend rate (FDR) method or Comparative value (CV) method.

For children investors with portfolio value under $50,000, filing a tax return on dividend received is not too hard. You will need to file a Personal tax summaries (PTS) with IRD, and it can be done online. I will share how I do that with my kids next year. Regarding FDR and CV method, I personally don’t know how to do it. You better to talk to a tax accountant for that.

How to Join InvestNow

InvestNow sign-up process is very straight forward so there won’t be a step by step guide. You’ll need to click on the join link on InvestNow home page and use a separate email address to sign up. After you sign up an account, InvestNow will ask you to provide information on identification. You don’t have to complete that. Instead, contact them directly with contact form or call them at 0800 499 466 and let them know you want to set up an account for your children. Make sure you got the following information ready

Email address of the account
NZ birth certificate or a passport for a child
IRD number of the child
PIR and RWT rate for the child
Proof of guardian’s address

InvestNow will be able to set up an investment account from here. They can also link multiple child accounts to your current InvestNow account if you have one already.

Update on functions

Currently (at 19 Sept 2017), InvestNow don’t have auto-invest function, and the minimum transaction amount is at $250. So it’s not the best choice for someone who wants to regularly invest for their kids because they will have to transfer $250 into InvestNow, then login to their platform and manually invest that money into the fund. The Good news is InvestNow will implement auto-invest function and lower the minimum transaction limited to $50 shortly. So Investors can set up instruction to let InvestNow automatically invest into your preferred fund everytime you transfer money to them.

(Update, InvestNow added auto-invest function with $50/transaction.)

Conclusion

Here is the breakdown of my top picks compare to our kid’s investment requirement.

Superlife MyFutureFund provides a full range of fund for different investment timeframe. They have all necessary function for you to setup different investment plan for your kids. A great “set and forget” solution. However, they don’t have the lowest fee.
InvestNow allows user to invest in a great Vanguard investment fund with 0.20% management fee and no annual fee. However, you will have to do a tax return for your kid every year.
Feel free to contact them before you sign up and understand the process. I found both companies is great with answering customer questions.

In next part of my investing for kids series, we will look at some other investment options including KiwiSaver, Bonus Bond, SmartShares and more. If you are currently invested in or considering some investment program for your kids and want me to cover them, drop me an email at thesmartandlazy@gmail.com. I will try my best to cover that.SaveSave

SaveSave

June 13, 2017 ETF, Index Fund, Investing, Personal Finance Advanced Financial, Investing, investnow, Simplicity, SmartShares, Stock market, Superlife, Tax 5 Comments

SmartShares, SuperLife, Simplicity & InvestNow. ETF & Index Fund Investing in New Zealand

by Alpha

ETF and Index Fund are simple, low-cost and diversified investment option with a positive result in the long term. It plays an important part in my plan to achieve financial freedom by only do a few smart things and nothing much else. To put my money where my mouth is, over 90% of my investment is in ETF and Index Fund. I believe everyone should have at least some investment in those products. SmartShares, SuperLife, Simplicity, and InvestNow are the four investment services in New Zealand that I am currently using. Here is a breakdown of them.

The Breakdown

(updated Oct 2017)

SmartShares

New Zealand Stock Exchange owns SmartShares. They issue the ETF for local share markets such as NZ Top 50 (FNZ), NZ Top 10 (TNZ), NZ MID CAP (MDZ) and NZ Bond (NZB). They also repackage ETFs and index funds from overseas to sell to New Zealand investor. Those ETFs cover Austraila, Europe, Asia Pacific, US, emerging markets and world markets. You can check out the list of offering here. The most popular overseas ETF is US 500. It tracks the top 500 companies on US stock example, most of them are top international corporations.

Some people have mistaken SmartShares as an investment service provider but in fact, SmartShares is an ETF issuer. Their job is to manage and issue ETF for New Zealand stock exchange. That’s why investor can’t log onto SmartShares site for track their holding because they are not managing the holding for you (hence there is no annual admin fee).

If you invested in their ETF, you are basically buying a share on the share market. You can but those ETF directly on share market if you wish. SmartShares will direct investor to Link Market Service to register and track their ETF holdings. An investor can track their holding on other services like ASB securities, ANZ Securities or Share Sight.

SuperLife

Superlife offer the most ETF and Index Funds investment options in New Zealand. They not only offer SmartShares ETF in fund format but also provide managed fund and sector fund options for the investor. All of those funds invested in a passive index fund or ETF.

The Sector fund cover different country (NZ, AUS, Overseas), industry (Property, Shares) and investment vehicle (Cash, Bond, Shares). Those are great options to build your own balanced and diversified portfolio.

The Managed Fund is is a grouping of financial assets such as stocks, bonds, and cash equivalents. The nature of those financial assets can be classified into two groups, income asset, and growth asset. Income asset includes cash and bond. They tend to carry lower risk levels and, therefore, are more likely to generate lower levels of return over the long term. Growth assets are shares and property. They tend to carry higher levels of risk, yet have the potential to deliver higher returns over longer investment time frames.

Superlife managed fund has different names, like SuperLife 30 or SuperLife 80. The number at the end show the target portion of growth asset in that fund. Superlife 30 will aim to hold around 30% of growth asset and 70% of income asset in the portfolio. So this fund is a low risk (or conservative) fund. On the other hand, Superlife 100 will aim to invest 100% into the growth asset. So the risk is high. Here is a breakdown.

SuperLife offer the most options, functions in the breakdown. The entry requirement is basically nonexistent, and the cost is relatively low. That’s why I recommend the beginner to start with Superlife.

Simplicity

Simplicity started as a nonprofit KiwiSaver provider. They provide low-cost KiwiSaver options to New Zealander while donating 15% their income to charity. Simplicity recently opened up their investment fund as non-KiwiSaver options as investors can deposit and withdraw their investment anytime they want. Simplicity only offers three managed funds as conservative, balance and growth fund. The majority of Simplicity fund invested in Vanguard’s funds or ETFs. The management fees are the lowest in New Zealand at 0.31% for managed fund. However, the initial investment requirement is $10,000.

InvestNow

InvestNow is a new online investment platform. Investors can directly invest into the selected fund on their platform with as little of $250. InvestNow does not charge any transaction, admin, setup or exit fee at this stage. Investor only needs to pay the management fee on an individual fund.

The biggest advantage of InvestNow is to allow the investor to directly invest into two Vanguard index fund in Australia. They are Vanguard International Shares Select Exclusions Index Fund (currency hedged and non-hedged version) with management fee at 0.20% and 0.26%. Those two funds are not PIE fund, means you will have to do your own tax return. For under 50k holding, you will only have to do tax return on dividend received, which is not that hard. You can check out the detail in this blog post.

Fund Comparison

I picked a couple of index funds and ETFs from each provider and made a comparison. Here is the breakdown.

(updated Oct 2017)

As you can see, most of the option’s underlying asset are Vanguard ETFs and Index Fund. That’s basically what I am trying to do on my international exposure, putting money into low-cost Vanguard cost for long term.

Accurate description of my international investment strategy.

Conclusion

Superlife have the most function, investment options and easy to start. Also, have the lowest cost aggressive managed fund in NZ. It is great for both beginner and experienced investor.
Simplicity has the lowest cost managed fund in Conservative, balance and growth area. Great for anyone with $10,000 to start investing.
InvestNow user can easily invest in Vanguard index fund in Australia with 0.20% – 0.26% fee. Great for someone who can handle their tax return on dividend received (not that hard) or calculate under FIF rule.
SmartShares is good if you wish to buy ETF on the share market.
There are other ways to invest into a passive fund and ETF in New Zealand, like ASB Investment Fund, AMP, and Lifestages. However, the cost of those funds is quite high compared to these four services, which defeat the purpose of low-cost passive investing.
New Zealand investors can buy Vanguard ETFs on Australian Stock market. The management fee can go as low as 0.04%. I will go into that later once I’ve done it myself.

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May 31, 2017 Index Fund, Investing, Personal Finance Basic ETF, Index Fund, Investing, Personal Ffinance, Superlife, Vanguard 8 Comments

The Best Way to Start Your Investment as Beginner in New Zealand

by Alpha

You may already know you need to start investing for your future, but you have no idea where to start. There are so many options out there like the sharemarket, investment property, P2P lending, the bond market, active and passive fund, etc. You have no idea which one is the best for you.

Well, I don’t know what is best for you because everyone’s situation is different. However, I think it’s better to start somewhere rather than sit here and do nothing. People say, “you need time in the market, not timing the market” or “The earlier you start the better”. I believe both of them are true. So, here is my suggestion on where to start your investment.

What you need to do before you start investing

Before you jump into the world of investing, you need to have a solid financial foundation. Here is what you should do.

Pay off your consumer debt like credit card balances, personal loans, store credit, overdrafts and hire purchases. It doesn’t make sense to chase for 6-7% return on investment while paying 19-22% interest on your credit card debt.
Join KiwiSaver. KiwiSaver is one of the best investments available in New Zealand because of the employer contribution and member tax credit. You will have an instant risk-free return on your investment.
Set up an emergency fund for 3-6 months of living expenses. This fund will help you to deal with any unexpected situations, so you’re not forced to cash out your investment, especially during a market downturn
Live on less than you make. Naturally, no one can become successful with their money without first learning how to live on less than they make. Where will you get the money to invest if you live paycheck to paycheck?

Better to start with a plan, however…

You should have a plan for your money before you start investing. Failing to plan is planning to fail, right? That why in my previous post I said the first thing you’ll need to work out is how long can you leave the money in the investment? Or how long before you will need to use that money?

On the other hand, I know how hard it is to come up with a plan when you don’t understand most of the investment terms. It’s hard to learn something from the outside when you don’t have personal experience. You may be afraid you will make a mistake and lose your hard-earned money.

I also understand how busy life is and how lazy we are (Well, at least how lazy I am). It took me six months to finally put down some cash into an investment. I kept making ‘plans’ and doing ‘research’ for my investments (actually I’ve been putting it off because I am lazy).

I started looking into investment strategies on the Internet in April, but I looked around without making any decisions for 4 months. I remember I found out about Smartshares and SuperLife and decided an index fund is the way to go in August, but it still took me two more months to pick which fund or ETF to invest in. Who knows if that is analysis paralysis or just laziness paralysis?

It may be just me, but I know lots of people are in the same boat, especially the beginners. You know you need it start investing, but you don’t have a complete plan yet. So you wait. To those people, hear me out!

If you don’t have a plan, just start without one.

Start small and start early

I am not talking about putting in your life saving without a plan. I suggest you dip your toe in the water. Just put under $500 into an investment and get it started. TODAY!

That small amount of cash should not affect your financial situation (if that is a problem, you should make sure you have a solid financial foundation). You should be able to move it quickly to start a small investment. You may not even care if you lost it, so you don’t need a plan for that small initial investment. You can put it in almost any fund as the start of your investment.

The most important thing is to get you started on something. Once you dip your toe in the water, you’ll have a personal stake in the investment. Looking at the value go up or down will motivate you to know more about investment. It will help you put together a plan for your investment.

Best way to start – SuperLife

SuperLife provides 40+ different passive investment fund to New Zealander. They also offer superannuation, KiwiSaver, and insurance solutions. They are great for beginner to start because:

No minimum investment requirement – You can invest by making regular or lump sum payments to the scheme at any time. There is no minimum contribution amount.
Passive Index Fund – All investment fund with SuperLife are passive index funds. They either invest in a fund designed to track an index or in a number of assets for the long term. It is a cost-effective and diversified investment opinion with a proven result.
Low cost – The annual admin fee is $12/year (or $30/year if you want paper documents) which covers all fund in SuperLife. The management cost on each fund is around 0.39% – 0.94%, fees for the most popular funds is around 0.49%. SuperLife’s fees are relatively low in New Zealand standard(2nd lowest in the country), and some aggressive funds and sector funds have the lowest cost in New Zealand. There is no joining fee, exit fee, and no cost for you add/close/or switch funds.
Flexible – SuperLife provides 40 different investment products on managed fund, sector fund and ETF. An investor can invest in a single fund or multiple funds with their own asset allocation. You can switch fund allocation on SuperLife website.
Web Site and App – Investors can log onto SuperLife website to check the performance and value of their holding. They’ve also got an iOS and Android App for that.
Simple Tax – SuperLife’s investment fund is a portfolio investment entity (PIE). The amount of tax you pay is based on your prescribed investor rate (PIR). SuperLife will pay the tax from your holding, and you don’t need to manage your tax return.
Lots of functions – Investors can make lump sum investments or regular contributions with direct debit from their bank account. You can organise your portfolio and allocation your contribution into different funds based on your preferred percentage. SuperLife can auto rebalance your portfolio, which is a great tool for the investor who wants to build a portfolio with their own asset allocation. It can also reinvest your dividends.
Owned by New Zealand Stock Exchange – NZX is New Zealand stock market operator. They 100% own SuperLife. In my opinion, this makes SuperLife a very safe company.

Start with Index Fund

For those who don’t have a plan and want to start small and test it out, here are a couple Funds/ETF in Superlife I think are ideal for beginners.

SuperLife Age Step: This is a managed portfolio invested in multiple Vanguard ETF in both income and growth assets. The ratio between income and growth assets depends on your age. When you are young, over 90% of that portfolio is invested in growth assets (shares and property). It will increase the ratio of income assets (Bond and fixed income assets) as you age. If you join at 28 years old, 80% will be in growth assets, and 20% will be in income assets. On the other hand, if you join at 58, 60.5% will be in growth assets, 30% in income assets and 9.5% in cash. This is a great fund to start especially if you aim for retirement. You can basically set it up and forget about it for decades. The management fees are 0.45%-0.52%.

NZ Top 50 ETF: This growth asset ETF is the same as FNZ from SmartShares. They invest in financial products listed on the NZX Main Board and is designed to track the return on the S&P/NZX 50 Portfolio Index. You are basically investing in the 50 biggest companies on New Zealand Stock Market. The concept is simple and easy to understand, so this is a great starting point for beginners. One disadvantage is this ETF is not as diversified as others because it is only invested in 50 companies in one country while other funds invest in between 100 to 7000+ companies all over the world. On the other hand, investors can take the tax advantage on local investing. You only need to pay tax on dividends and no tax on capital gain. The management fee is 0.49%.

Overseas Shares (Currency Hedged) Fund: This growth asset fund invests in shares in major stock markets all over the world via the Vanguard ETF. The number of companies included is over 7000. This fund is currency hedged, which reduces the currency fluctuations and exchange rate risk on the fund. The management fee is 0.48%.

Conclusion

Make sure you have a good financial foundation before you start investing. Clear your consumer debt, Join KiwiSaver, have an Emergency Fund and live on less than you make.
Best to start with a plan
If you don’t have a plan, start small while you make your plan.
The hardest part is getting started. By starting small, you make the first step so much easier.
SuperLife is the best place to start your investment in my opinion because there is no initial requirement, and it is diversified, low-cost, flexible and straightforward.
If you have no idea what fund to invest in, consider SuperLife Age Step, NZ top 50 ETF and Overseas Shares (Currency Hedged) Fund
Start small and START NOW!

Email thesmartandlazy@gmail.com or follow me on Twitter @thesmartandlazy if you have any questions.

May 24, 2017 Index Fund, Investing Financial, Index Fund, Investing, investnow, Managed Fund, New Zealand, Personal Ffinance, Simplicity, Superlife Leave a comment

Simplicity Cease Offering on InvestNow… but Don’t Let it Stop You

by Alpha

Last Friday I wrote about investing Simplicity non-KiwiSaver fund via InvestNow from as little as $250.

However, I am sorry to say this opinion is no longer available. Simplicity decided to cease offering on InvestNow.

You can read the statement from InvestNow here.

I am personally disappointed as this is a great way for anyone to invest in a quality low-cost fund with a low initial investment. I was planning to invest in Simplicity fund but I don’t have the fund until next month, so I missed out on that.

What does it mean for the investors?

If you are InvestNow user and you already invested your money into Simplicity fund via InvestNow, you will be able to hold your investment in the fund, but you will not be able to make new investment.

For those who wanted to join Simplicity Fund but don’t have $10k available, you will have to keep saving until you reach $10k…. or not. Hear me out!

Don’t wait, Start NOW!

If you have some money to invest now, you don’t have to wait. I would suggest you invest those fund elsewhere rather than save for months and years to reach $10K.

I know Simplicity fund is excellent, and I may even say it’s the best fund in this country. However, that is just the best fund when you have $10k or more. It doesn’t mean you can’t invest in anything else before you come up with $10K.

You can invest in Superlife 80, which is similar to Simplicity growth fund. Superlife 80 holds 80% growth asset (Share, property) and 20% income asset (Bond, cash). They also invested in Vanguard fund and ETF. Superlife a higher management fee (0.50%) and small annual fee ($12). The most important thing is there is no minimum initial investment requirement. If you are young and happy with the risk, you can go with Superlife 100, a managed fund with 100% growth asset, something Simplicity do not offer.

If you already put the money in InvestNow, you can invest in their Vanguard fund with just 0.26% fee. Simplicity Growth invested 60% into that fund (and you will have to pay tax on dividends received). I’ve done a blog post on that.

My point is, there are lots different opinion for investor out there. Don’t let that $10K hurdles stop you and start investing. You will reach $10k before you know it.

May 9, 2017 Index Fund, Investing, Personal Finance Advanced Financial, Index Fund, Investing, investnow, New Zealand, Personal Ffinance, Vanguard 11 Comments

Investnow – Invest in Vanguard Fund with 0.20% Fee

by Alpha

Investnow is a new online investment platform and fund management service just started this year in New Zealand. It is NOT an investment firm but a marketplace for investment funds. Kiwi investor can directly invest into the selected fund on investnow platform without the middle man. I’ve done some research on the company and invested some money via the service. Here are my findings.

Screen Shot 2017-05-04 at 2.39.11 PM.png

Range of Fund

Investnow offers 33 different investment funds from both local and international fund manager. The investor needs to deposit minimum ~~$1000~~ $250 into Investnow transaction account and invest into the fund on their platform at $250 minimum.

Here is the list of the fund provider

No Transaction/Admin/Joining/Setup/Exit Fee

The main selling point for Investnow is no transaction/admin/Joining/Setup/Exit fee at all. When you put ~~$1000~~ $250 into Investnow, Investnow won’t charge anything on your money. You can invest that full ~~$1000~~ $250 into different funds. You only need to pay the cost of each investment fund.

Investnow made their profit by charging investment fund providers to list their funds on their platform.

The REAL selling point

Since investor can contact most of those investment funds directly and set up an account, no transaction/admin fee is not a real selling point here. For me, the real selling point for Investnow is low barriers to entry and Vanguard fund.

If you want to invest into those funds directly without Investnow, the majority of those funds have a minimum initial investment amount from $2000 to $500000. For example, Fisher Fund’s International Growth fund require minimum $2000 initial investment and Mint asset management’s Australia New Zealand Real Estate Investment Trust minimum investment is $5000. If you invest from investnow platform, you can put only $250 into those funds. It dramatically lowers the entry requirement for those funds and makes it more accessible to the average retail investor.

Vanguard fund

The most significant benefit with investnow (for me at least) is you got access to Vanguard International Shares Select Exclusions Index Fund. That fund launched for AUS and NZ market in late 2016. It contains about 1500 listed companies across 20 developed international markets (without Australia). This fund is an ethical fund as they excluded Tobacco, controversial weapons and nuclear weapons investment.

Simplicity Kiwisaver invests heavily into this Vanguard fund. 61% of Simplicity Growth fund invested in Vanguard International Shares Select Exclusions Index Fund.

There are two versions of this fund. Vanguard International Shares Select Exclusions Index Fund has a low managed fee at 0.20%. The Fund is exposed to the fluctuating values of foreign currencies, as there will not be any hedging of foreign currencies to the Australian dollar. So this fund has a higher risk due to foreign exchange fluctuation. Vanguard International Shares Select Exclusions Index Fund – NZD Hedged are hedged in New Zealand Dollar with a higher management fee at 0.26% but with lower risk.

For individual investors, if you want to invest into this fund directly, you will have to start with $500,000 AUD. Investnow lower that entry barrier down to just $250. In my opinion, this is a great fund to invest because of the low-cost, diversified portfolio and low barriers to entry.

Everything sounds good, so what’s the catch?

Yes, there one thing not so good about Investnow. You’d need to do your tax return if you invested in Vanguard funds.

Admittedly, I am not good at tax. So the following information may be wrong.

From what I understand, those two Vanguard funds are not the same with other listed fund on their platform as they are not PIEs fund. Vanguard funds are Australian Unit Trusts. Accordingly, they are taxed under the FIF rules (that apply to global shares). Investors need to do their own tax return. Investnow produces consolidated tax information to help investors to complete their own FIF tax return.

My Experience

After some research and background check on the company, I invested $1000 into Investnow and tested it out.

The sign-up process was quite simple; I managed to complete in 5 mins. The interface is easy to understand. The funding and investing took 1-2 days to complete. You can check out your holding and performance any time.

Check out the screenshots below.

Simple sign up process

Instruction to fund your Investnow account

The fund turns up the next day

Investing into two Vanguard Fund

Processing my Invest order, it took about 1-2 days to complete

Check back later, My holdings are in managed fund now

Showing the value for Individual holding

Monthly report

One thing worth mentioning is Investnow use a Two-Factor Authentication for login. You need your username, password and a six-digit passcode that send to your email or phone to log in. I recommend using your phone to received that passcode in txt.

Conclusion

So far I am happy with the Investnow as its allow me to access Vanguard fund with just ~~$1000~~ $250 investment AND no one charging me extra fees in the middle. The service is straightforward and easy to use. The only concern will be the tax implications on its investor if you invest in the Vanguard fund. (Personally, I need to figure that out before next April.)

InvestNow is free to join. You don’t have to deposit $250 to become a user. You can just sign up with an email address and check out the offering.

Investnow is a new company; some investor will (and they should) question the legitimacy of the company/service and the safety of their investment. I’ve done research on that and I will share that in the next post.

(UPDATE: InvestNow recently lower their minimum deposit amount to just $250.)

Email thesmartandlazy@gmail.com or follow me on Twitter @thesmartandlazy if you have any questions.

April 11, 2017 ETF, Index Fund, Investing, Personal Finance Basic ANZ, ASB, Cheapest, Comparison, ETF, FNZ, Investing, New Zealand, Personal Ffinance, SmartShares, Superlife Leave a comment

Cheapest Way to buy and hold NZ Top 50 ETF

by Alpha

I always encourage people to start a small investment with NZ Top 50 ETF and US 500 ETF when they are starting out. Those two ETFs are easy to understand, diversified, low-cost and have low minimum investment requirement ($500). They are ideal for long term (7 years+) investment. So here is the cheapest way to buy and hold NZ Top 50 ETF.

I will be discussing average investment here. I do not include KiwiSaver opinion here because you can’t get the money out before 65. (Anyway, ETF still an excellence option for KiwiSaver, especially for anyone aged under 50)

What is NZ Top 50 ETF?

Quote from Smart Shares Web Site:

The NZ Top 50 Fund invests in financial products listed on the NZX Main Board and is designed to track the return on the S&P/NZX 50 Portfolio Index. The S&P/NZX 50 Portfolio Index is made up of 50 of the largest financial products listed on the NZX Main Board. The S&P/NZX 50 Portfolio Index is made up of the same financial products as the S&P/NZX 50 Index, but with a 5% cap on the weight of each product.

So basically when you invest in NZ Top 50, you will have a share in the top 50 companies in NZ stock market.

Stock code for NZ Top 50 ETF is FNZ.NZ

Where and how to buy?

There are three ways to purchase NZ Top 50 ETF, on the stock market, with investment fund or monthly contribution.

Trade on the stock exchange – NZ Top 50 ETF can be traded as share on stock market via any stock broker. I will be using ANZ Securities online and ASB securities online here as they are amongst the cheapest brokers in New Zealand.

Purchase with Fund – Superlife (Smartshare’s sister company) offer NZ Top 50 ETF fund that holds shares in NZ Top 50 ETF. You can set up an account and purchase those fund with Superlife.

Purchase via monthly contribution – This is the most accessible and fixable way to buy into ETF, both Superlife and Smartshare offer that service. You need set up an account with at least $500 initial investment, and contribution $50 monthly to purchase that ETF or fund.

What’re the fees?

Basically, you should look for the lowest fee when you consider investing into the same product.

ANZ & ASB Securities online: You can purchase FNZ directly on the stock market with ANZ Securities. ANZ cheapest rate is $29.90/trade under $15000. However, you have to be an Online Multi-Currency Account (OMCA) holders with sufficient cleared funds available to fully cover the purchase of securities prior to submission of the order. Otherwise, ANZ charge $29.90 + 0.40% on trade. If you are not an OMCA holder with ANZ, go with ASB Securities, they charge $30 or 0.30% per transactions, whichever higher. On top of that, NZ 50 ETF charge 0.50% p.a. on management fee base on your total holding before they pay out. If you did the calculation, in order to pay the least amount of fees, you should only make one trade a year with over $10000, which will bring the fee% to 0.80%.

Smartshares: You can make lump sum investment and monthly contribution with smartshare. They will charge a one-time $30 account setup fee and charge 0.50% p.a. management fee base on your total holding. Check out the SmartShares disclosure statement here.

Superlife: Same as Smartshare, you can do lump sum investment and monthly contribution. They charge a $12 p.a. administration fee and 0.49% management for NZ 50 Top ETF. Check out Superlife disclosure statement here.

Cheapest Way?

Smartshares is the cheapest way to buy and hold FNZ. Superlife’s fee will become cheaper once the holding passed 120K.

I personally used both Smartshares and Superlife, and I think Superlife have a much better user interface and app. The $12 admin fee can be shared with other Superlife funds.

So if you just want to buy FNZ, Smartshare is the best deal out there. If you already have other funds with Superlife, there is not much difference in cost between Superlife and SmartShares.

Although ASB and ANZ Securities’ cost are higher, you should open an account with them if you got ETF from SmartShares. Since you are buying actually share of ETF via Smartshare, you will need a stock broker when you need to sell your share.

Email thesmartandlazy@gmail.com or follow me on Twitter @thesmartandlazy if you have any questions.

March 31, 2017 Bond, ETF, Index Fund, Investing, Personal Finance Basic Bond, ETF, Financial, Investing, New Zealand, Personal Ffinance, property, term deposit 1 Comment

Where to invest your money in New Zealand (Part 2)

by Alpha

At the last post, I made a simple graph to explain where to invest your money. Now let’s break it down in more detail

Mobile-friendly version

Within 1 year – Cash in Savings

For such a short terms, your best bet will be keeping your money in a savings account. Most banks offer serious saver or notice saver accounts with interest around 2.25 – 2.75%. I know it’s not a good return but its better than nothing. You may also consider a 6 months to 1-year term deposit for higher interest (3 – 3.5%). However, if you need to get your money out early, you may lose the interest and pay a break fee.

2 to 3 years – Cash in Term Deposit

You still want to play it safe so you should keep the money in cash. In this time frame, you can use a term deposit as they have a higher return of interest, around 3.5 – 4%. As mentioned previously, watch out of the penalties for early termination.

Recommended products: Term Deposit for all major bank.

3 to 5 years – Income Asset (Bond and Dividend Stocks)

If your money can stay in the market for 3-5 years, income assets become a feasible opinion. BBonds are not as stable as term deposit return, but they do offer the potential to earn a higher yield. I would suggest investing in a Bond ETF or a Bond Fund over buying individual bonds via a stock broker for small investors due to the cost of trade. Bond ETFs and Funds invested in multiple corporate and government bonds, which should reduce the risk

If you are willing to dip your toes in the share market, you can buy some dividend shares at this stage. Dividend shares are usually associated with established and mature companies on the board that pays out dividends constantly. Don’t expect those companies to have rapid growth but they usually pay out dividends every quarter. The volatility of those shares is smaller compared to other shares on the market. Spark, Auckland Airport, and power companies are considered dividend stock in New Zealand.

5 to 7 years – Shares, Property, and Bond

At this stage, growth assets will play an important part in your investments. Growth assets are shares, properties, and managed funds. The reason we shouldn’t touch growth assets until this stage is because of the volatility of the return. Year-to-year return can be ranged from -80% to +80% , but over longer periods it usually goes up. Take a look at the graph below. It shows the NZ stock market’s return in 2 years from April 2007 to April 2009.

If you invested in the stock market in April 2007 and planned to exit the market in April 2009, you would have lost about 35% of your investment.

On the other hand, if you had stayed in the market for 7 years, you would have gained 24% on your investment.

The same principle applies to property investment. The House Price index from 2000 to 2016 shows New Zealand property prices are trending up in the long term. You can see there was a dip during the 2008 GFC and the price recovered within a few years.

Therefore, in this timeframe, you should invest more and more into growth assets and the ratio of Bond and Dividend stocks should decrease.

7 years+ Mostly Growth Asset

At this point, I recommend invest 90% of your investments in growth assets and expect a long-term positive return on share and property. You may wonder why the income asset portion goes down to 10%. Although income assets are considered a safer investment, but they cannot match the high return of growth assets. Having a small amount of income assets in your investment will help offset potential downturns in your growth assets. Income assets don’t crash like growth asset, it will act as a cushion to soften any drops in the market.

Some people think if you are young and you can handle a market crash, you should have 100% growth assets as your investment. Whilst I agree with this point of view, it basically comes down to risk tolerance and personal preference.

What’s Next?

So this is the guide that I used to decide where to invest my money based on how long I was going to invest. In the next post, I will talk about risk tolerance adjustment and how KiwiSaver funds fit into this graph.

The timeline and investment ratio used in the graph are based on my own studies and conventional wisdom. Investment suggestions are based on neutral risk tolerance. Investment products listed are based on popularity, ease of access in New Zealand and a bit of personal preference.

Just a reminder, this graph is for GENERAL ADVICE ONLY. Your own situation may be different. Please thoroughly research everything you read here and seek professional advice if you need to.

Email thesmartandlazy@gmail.com or follow me on Twitter @thesmartandlazy if you have any questions.