All tagged Total World Fund
We’ve had a bit of drama recently, meaning all of our 2026 plans are currently up in the air. Jonny had a serious accident; he fell off the ladder, breaking his arm and fracturing his pelvis in four places. After eight days in hospital, he’s now home resting and beginning what will hopefully be a full recovery. One thing he said to me while in hospital really stuck: “Well, at least money is the last thing I need to worry about. In fact, it hadn’t even crossed my mind.” That peace of mind doesn’t happen by accident. It’s the result of years of building financial resilience so that when life throws a curveball, money isn’t another stress. While Jonny’s job in hospital was to lie still and recover, I suggested he write down a few thoughts about the experience. So this is his writing debut. I’ll let Jonny take it from here, and I’ll add a few thoughts at the end.
The financial clouds parted the day I picked up the 2016 edition of The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins. Instead of picking and choosing individual companies, just buy them all in one tidy package: an ETF or index fund - the simple path to wealth. For years, JL Collins has been known for one beautifully simple idea: Buy VTSAX and chill. VTSAX is an American index fund holding 100% U.S. companies. But readers began asking, “JL, what about the rest of the world?” He has long explained that U.S. companies are so large and globally dominant that U.S. investors could “get away with” owning only VTSAX. So when JL announced that he had added international stocks to his portfolio, people noticed. It felt like a big deal.
If you’ve ever listened to a money podcast, read a finance blog or chatted with that one friend who’s suddenly “really into investing”, you’ve probably heard a whole bunch of money words thrown around. People nod. No one wants to look dumb. And quietly, many think: I should probably understand what that means… So this post is for you. Here are plain-English explanations of the money words that come up again and again, using New Zealand examples and my common sense logic.
At the start of every year, I open one spreadsheet that tells the story of a decade of choices. Updating our net worth spreadsheet helps me see where we’ve been, and where we might be heading. These annual check-ins matter, and I genuinely enjoy this process. 2025 was a good financial year for us, driven primarily by consistent investing in the share market through our ETF and, to a lesser extent, our KiwiSaver. Once again, we prioritised investing, never missing a month, and it paid off.
Our daughter is leaving home, off to Otago University. I’m so looking forward to her finding her next steps, but I will miss her terribly. She is ready to go! And, I’m not going to lie, I am looking forward to a tidier house. As we adjust to a new phase of long-distance parenting, I’m pretty determined to make one last push to get her as financially ready as we can for the big, wide world. I’ve always put a lot of time into making sure she understands how money works, long before she leaves home. In many ways, it all comes down to this moment: can she leave home and be fully financially capable? Without a doubt, I’m pleased to say the answer is yes. So today I’m sharing exactly how we have managed to, I hope, successfully let her financially set sail from home.
I’ve been hitting “reply” to as many emails as I can this week. If you write to me, I will write back, but due to the volume of emails I get, there is often a delay. I respond to every single email because the questions asked are so valid and important to the person doing the asking. Every email is different, weaving together a set of circumstances in a new way, so I provide a bespoke response that links to tools and resources to help answer the questions. While each is different, though, there are commonalities. Most of my emails give people a simple starting point and a rough map to follow, so I thought that, as we head for Christmas, a time when a lot of people do sit down and focus on money, this might help you head into 2026 more prepared.
Is life really more expensive for my whānau of three at the moment? I honestly wasn’t 100% sure. So, I decided to find out - in detail. Why? Economically speaking, it feels incredibly gloomy at the moment. It would be easy to fall into that mindset, which, as an optimist, I am loath to do. So, the best option is to find some facts. Managing personal finances is a delicate art of pulling various income and spending levers, and I wondered if all that I’m doing is working. To calculate what our life currently costs, I pulled up two full years of spending and earning data and compared them; the results were interesting.
Every June, I check in with our KiwiSaver accounts to make sure we’re on track to receive the annual government contribution. If you put in at least $1,042 by the 30th of June 2025, the government will deposit $521 into your KiwiSaver account; a welcome little bonus for those of us thinking ahead to retirement. But from 1 July 2025, that bonus will be cut in half, dropping to just $260 a year. With the government’s contribution shrinking, yet again, it’s time for me to rethink my strategy. In my recent fortnightly email, I mentioned that I was considering ceasing payments into my KiwiSaver. My friend Wayne questioned that move, so I wanted to explain a bit more about what I’m planning on doing with my KiwiSaver, and what Jonny and I are planning as a couple, especially given we will be retiring in our fifties.
Managing our money is never ‘done’. I am constantly tweaking and adjusting. Whether for the little things like an increase in our weekly rates bill, or preparing for a bigger expense. Our income and costs are constantly in flux, and we need to keep monitoring and evolving with those changes. The time has come to tweak our investments. Which is why, once I was up and running with our new KiwiSaver provider, I turned my attention to our US 500 ETF and began researching whether we should also slightly adjust our direction with this investment.
