retirement planning

20 January 2026
Making the invisible visible

“There’s a gap between knowing something intellectually and truly believing it. Visualising your spending, your financial projections, or your mood data can close that gap — making abstract knowledge…
18 February 2022
Paid off the mortgage? Don’t cancel your income protection insurance just yet

Lots of people reassess their insurance after repaying the mortgage and cancel their income protection. I often think that's a mistake. Mortgage-free years are usually when you build the wealth that f…
18 October 2019
My manifesto

"Wealth" isn't just about money, and "success" is personal. Don't over-complicate your financial life — make it boring so the rest of your life can be interesting. Everyone has a financial plan, wheth…
6 September 2019
Baches (or: some terrible financial decisions can be great life decisions, and vice versa)

File under: some terrible financial decisions can be great life decisions, and vice versa. Owning a bach is almost always the wrong call if you run the numbers — the opportunity cost on half a million…
12 July 2019
How much buffer do you need? (Or: four things I agonise over when providing financial advice)

I have clients worth tens of thousands of dollars, and clients worth tens of millions of dollars. I find it much easier to advise clients with millions rather than thousands. As a general rule, the we…
9 October 2018
Don’t be fooled by the 4 percent rule

The 4% rule says you can safely withdraw 4% of your retirement portfolio each year — so multiply your desired spending by 25 to get your number. I don't like it. Retirement planning is not the place f…
16 September 2018
How to calculate your asset allocation

The most important thing to get right when investing in financial assets is asset allocation. It refers to how your funds are invested across different classes, such as shares and bonds. If you get th…
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…
8 February 2018
Should I use my KiwiSaver funds to buy a house?

The NZ news media keeps warning of "frightening" long-term consequences when people use KiwiSaver to buy a first home. This is a false dilemma. Owning a mortgage-free home by retirement is one of the…
27 October 2017
You may not need to save as much for retirement as you think

Many people want to get to a position where they can "live off the interest" in retirement. It's a laudable goal, but for most people it's unrealistic, and aiming for it creates unnecessary pressure.…
17 August 2017
Career risk and how to manage it

Retirement is often a euphemism for being displaced from the workforce — and involuntary unemployment is one of the few things with an enduring negative impact on life satisfaction. Career risk is rea…
26 June 2017
Weekend reading (24 & 25 June 2017)

A weekend round-up of money writing worth your time. Janine Starks on ten cures for Money Anxiety Disorder. Susan Edmunds on over-50s caught short by job loss or ill health, and on the trauma-insuranc…
10 February 2017
A 30 year mortgage is too long

Note: my views on this have evolved — I'm more comfortable with debt now and less inclined to treat a mortgage as an obstacle to investing. The original argument was that a 30-year term leaves too lit…
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…
14 July 2016
Why I’m keeping my Australian superannuation funds in Australia despite living in New Zealand

After working in Australia for ten years, I have a fair amount of money locked away in an Australian superannuation fund. As a resident of New Zealand, I have the ability to transfer these funds into…
5 December 2014
You shouldn't (and can't) save a fixed percentage of your income every year of your life…

Common advice is to save a fixed percentage of your income every year for retirement, starting as early as possible. It's reasonable in the abstract. But it doesn't really match how life actually work…

retirement planning

Making the invisible visible

Paid off the mortgage? Don’t cancel your income protection insurance just yet

My manifesto

Baches (or: some terrible financial decisions can be great life decisions, and vice versa)

How much buffer do you need? (Or: four things I agonise over when providing financial advice)

Don’t be fooled by the 4 percent rule

How to calculate your asset allocation

NZ Super and uncertainty in retirement planning

Should I use my KiwiSaver funds to buy a house?

You may not need to save as much for retirement as you think

Career risk and how to manage it

Weekend reading (24 & 25 June 2017)

A 30 year mortgage is too long

The younger you are, the wealthier you are

Why I’m keeping my Australian superannuation funds in Australia despite living in New Zealand

You shouldn't (and can't) save a fixed percentage of your income every year of your life…

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