Passive Income NZ’s blog posts about every everything personal finance. Including how and what to invest in, how to budget and track your spending, where to generate passive income, and general tips on how to save money.
If you’ve been shopping online recently you may have noticed something different when you go to pay. 6 new words below the buy now button. “or 4 easy payments with afterpay”. What do these six words mean, and should you use them? I’m not sure how long afterpay has been around. And I didn’t know much about it. To be honest- I have generally ignored them if I’d purchased something …
Do you like to travel? We tend to travel abroad every few years to experience new cultures and visit amazing natural wonders. And I normally travel to Australia to attend conferences or training courses every year. I know, travel is counterproductive towards our goal of becoming financially independent. You might say that travel is our spending vice. Even though spending money on travel will increase the time it will take …
Are we overdue for another recession? Who knows, and should you care? Now, I know I’m not qualified to write about, or speculate about when the next recession will hit, or what will be the likely cause of the next recession. I don’t think there are many people who are qualified to speculate- But I’ve done some reading. Just like at the beginning of 2018, there have been a number …
One of the cornerstones of managing money is to focus on the big three. The three areas in your life that you spend the most money on. They are housing, transport, and food. If you optimise these three aspects you of your life, you can really speed up your journey towards financial independence. Note I deliberately didn’t say you need to save or cut spending on these three aspects- you …
Read MoreThe Cost Of Housing: to Rent, or to Buy- Regional Data
The team at Cove has offered to pay for the first month of your car insurance if you decide to switch to them using this link. They’ll cover the first month (Up to $100), and they’ll even offer to help cancel your current car insurance policy. Why switch to Cove? I’ll tell you below. I had to renew my car insurance recently and I’d wished I had shopped around more. Optimise …
Getting your kiwisaver sorted is one of the most crucial aspects of your personal finance for Kiwis. I’ve previously written about different aspects of Kiwisaver- about some of the myths around kiwisaver, and the downsides of kiwisaver. But, I’ve never really looked into some kiwisaver providers. The default funds that you are automatically enrolled in once you sign up usually don’t align with your investment strategy, ethics, or risk tolerance. …
Whether or not you should go to university is a big question to ask of someone when they are 17 or 18 years of age. And I don’t think anyone can answer this question for you. It’s a personal decision. The problem in recent years is that the price of university or higher education has been increasing year on year- faster than inflation. It’s becoming more and more expensive. Check …
Read MoreThe Value of Education- Net Worth and Income Statistics
The talk around the personal finance water-cooler is that you should invest in low-cost index funds, such as the NZX50, S&P500, and the Vanguard fund offered by InvestNow. But how many people who are invested in these funds actually know what companies they are investing in? Either directly, or indirectly? In reality, when I invested in them really only knew a little about each. I knew that the NZX50 was …
Read MoreWhat are you Actually Investing in? Vanguard, NZX50, and S&P500
Exchange-traded funds (ETF’s) have been around since the early 1990s. And ever since ETFs have been around, the idea of investing in ETF’s have been interchangeable with Passive investing, but in reality- passive investing still has an active component. Passive investing is where you buy a portfolio of assets that replicate a certain index, say the NZX50 or S&P500, or any other fund that is not actively managed by fund …
Today, I’m going to share a truth about investing that some people might not like. One that might not be as obvious to people in recent years. Especially with the rapid rise value in Bitcoin, and weed stocks, and the bull market in tech stocks. There have been a lot of stories around of investment doing very well in recent years. The so call bitcoin millionaires are one example. There …