future

1. 18 September 2020

   Investment and contribution

   Finance is important — it wins wars, and it helps allocate capital to where it's most valuable. There are two broad forms of investing: putting money into creating new capability (think Paypal, Tesla,…

2. 10 July 2020

   Money and time travel

   What is money? Textbooks call it a medium of exchange and a store of value. Both are true — but money is also a time travel device. Borrowing brings future income into the present. Investing and savin…

3. 28 February 2020

   Is “early retirement” another pot at the end of the rainbow?

   What does "retirement" actually mean to you? For many of the people I talk to, early retirement isn't really about stopping work — it's about changing their relationship to work, or getting freedom to…

4. 6 August 2018

   The folly of predicting market downturns

   I'll start with a prediction. At some point in the future, the sharemarket will go down. It might go down in a big way. That's as accurate a prediction as anyone can make — timing and scale are out of…

5. 30 July 2018

   NZ Super and uncertainty in retirement planning

   The future is uncertain — but we still need to plan for retirement. Plenty of variables are unknowable: when you'll retire, how long you'll live, what returns you'll get. The one I want to focus on is…

6. 1 March 2018

   Financial advice for 16 year olds (and the rest of us)

   Some high-level financial advice for 16-year-olds, and anyone who still feels young. The biggest investment in your early adulthood is in yourself. One of the best (or worst) financial decisions you'l…

7. 15 May 2017

   You have a financial plan, whether you’re aware of it or not

   Many people don't think they have a financial plan. They're wrong. Even without clear goals or articulated strategy, you're acting as if you have one — maybe spending more than you earn, maybe skippin…

8. 1 May 2017

   Long-term retirement planning and the uncertain future (speculative)

   Retirement planning is shot through with uncertainty — your costs, your health, whether NZ Super will exist as we know it, what your investments return. Zoom out further and radical technologies, from…

9. 18 September 2016

   The younger you are, the wealthier you are

   If someone asked you to calculate your net worth, you'd add up your assets, subtract your liabilities, and get a number. But for a younger person, that calculation misses the biggest asset of all: the…