All in Sharesies
This year, we are excited to give away a bunch of goodies to the fabulous people who subscribe to The Happy Saver. Thank you so much for your support throughout 2023. Nothing says CHRISTMAS like a book on good money management, some budgeting software or buying shares; am I right? Indeed, I am!
A super quick blog post this week because I thought you might find it interesting. My last blog post, Share Market Shocker, shared that our investments had dropped $25,000 between August and October 2023. I said I’d give you an update in a year. Well, just to show how fast and volatile the share markets are, it's only been three weeks, but I have an update for you. The point of this post is to share how comfortable Jonny and I feel with these fluctuations.
Every Tuesday morning, a group of Kiwis takes part in Rebel Finance School. When I meet people and talk about money, a common regret is that no financial education was taught in school or at home. I think this course is your best shot at bringing yourself up to speed. The only sticking point is that while most of what they teach is internationally applicable, some elements are specific to their home country, England. As soon as we reached the investing component, the companies and products they discussed were incompatible with Aotearoa. Today, I want to explain the New Zealand equivalent of the two Vanguard Index Fund options they suggest as concisely as I can.
In my last blog post, where I was giving away a bunch of books on personal finance, I gave you two ways to enter. You could either just click enter and get on with your day, or you could take a moment to answer my wide-open question, “Tell me in 100 words or less how you have improved your financial situation”. I honestly thought most people would just enter to win the books without taking the time to write a response. Gosh, was I wrong! My inbox quickly filled up with over 260 fantastic responses, and I’m sharing all of them below. Yep, all of them.
In early May, Jonny and I made a call; we decided to sell off a portion of our investments to supplement our lifestyle. There is no drama, and we are not doing this due to inflation or the current cost of living; the simple fact is that our journey with money continues. For those who have followed along from the beginning, you’ve seen us slowly growing our net worth in readiness for it supporting us in early retirement. We are not there yet, we still need to work for an income, but we are well underway with our early retirement plans. What has changed is that there are things we want to do now that we need money for now.
November is the only month that I ever buy a Lotto ticket. The reason is that when my Dad was alive, he always liked receiving a Lotto ticket on his birthday. Almost five years have passed since he died, and I’ve continued to buy a single ticket for his birthday, eagerly checking it to see if Dad had better Lotto luck in death than he did in life. Yeah, Nah. He didn’t! Imagine if, instead of buying a Lucky Dip, I began to buy a share investment instead of Lotto when my Dad died almost five years ago; how much would I have today?
I’m delighted to tell you that Christmas is imminent! At the time of publishing this blog post, it’s just 34 days away. Yes, indeed it is. You will no doubt have noticed the headlines telling us to shop early for Christmas and stock up due to a predicted lack of supply? Therefore, I have been doing a little bit of shopping for the readers of my blog. Jonny and I have come up with a plan to give away a bunch of goodies, all of which aim to help you in your journey to financial independence.
This blog post results from a brief yet alarming conversation I had with a 15-year-old who has three years remaining at school before they planned to head off to university. In answer to my question, “how are you going to pay for it,” they quickly replied, “with student loans, because they are interest-free”. It was not my place to comment at the time (although in my head I was screaming to say something), but given I write a blog, I’ve created a space where I can give their response some thought. So, I will.
I received an email recently that brought tears to my eyes if I’m frank. It was from someone who is in despair about not being in a position to own a house in New Zealand. I wanted to create a blog post about it because the struggle that the writer is experiencing is not unique; in the same week, I received several other messages along the same lines.
