May 2026

Last week we talked about how to invest for your children. This week is about when. Is it as soon as they’re born? As soon as you open your own investing account? As soon as you can spare $50 a month? Investing for your kids feels practical and generous. It feels like getting ahead. But in finance – […]

Time. This is the absolute key ingredient in investing. When people first learn about evidence-based investing, one of the most common reactions is: “I wish I’d known about this sooner.” And if you have children, it’s natural to want to give them something you can’t give yourself – a longer runway. An extra decade or

Today let’s get practical. If you’ve got some money set aside ready to invest – how much do you actually put in? All of it? Half? A smaller “test” amount first? Short answer: as much as you reasonably can, as soon as you reasonably can – because the biggest player in investing is time. The

At some point, many New Zealand investors come across a new acronym and think: “What on earth is FIF tax – and am I about to do something wrong?” Let’s clear it up. The short version (for most people) If you’re investing through a PIE fund – like most KiwiSaver funds or NZ-domiciled index funds

You’ve picked a low-fee provider. You’ve chosen a diversified global index fund. Then you hit the final hurdle: Hedged or unhedged? What does that even mean – and does it actually matter? Let’s break it down. The two moving parts The return you experience from a global index fund depends on two things: A simple

Over the past few weeks, we’ve covered the investing basics: why index funds beat active management, how diversification protects you, and why starting early matters more than perfect timing. You don’t need to read another hundred blog posts before you start investing. You already know enough to take action. But I also know what happens

Recap: The ‘Beyond the Status Quo’ paper showed that globally diversified all-equity portfolios mathematically outperform lifecycle funds on wealth, income, and ruin probability. So why isn’t this the default advice? Why This Hit a Nerve Target-date funds (funds where the allocation of shares and bonds automatically adjusts for you as you approach retirement to having more

Most retirement advice hasn’t changed much in decades: as you age, reduce shares and increase bonds. This is known as lifecycle investing. In the US: Target-date funds automatically follow this ‘glidepath’. Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. In New Zealand: KiwiSaver defaults encourage growth early, then “de-risking” toward retirement.

In the previous article, we looked at what bonds are and how they differ from shares. Now let’s look at the role bonds actually play in a portfolio – and whether you need them at all. What Bonds Are For Bonds aren’t there to make you rich. Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive

When I first started learning about investing, I kept coming across bonds. I assumed they were just a safer type of share – something you bought on the same market, just with lower risk and lower returns. Turns out, I had it completely wrong. Bonds aren’t a type of share at all. They’re a completely