Baby boomers are roughly 20% of the population in Australia and New Zealand, and they own more than half of private wealth. In New Zealand, half of household wealth sits in property, built through the buy, borrow, die strategy. A strategy dependent on banks’ willingness to lend against an asset they helped inflate. Then 2021
Most of us are still living inside the same three dimensions we were born into: time, space, and matter. We earn dollars that lose value, we buy houses that (mostly) go up because more dollars keep chasing them, and we hope the next pay rise outruns the grocery bill. It’s the same game our parents
I was pretty smug in 2008. Back in 2007, when oil hit $90 USD a barrel, I'd already traded in the gas guzzler for a small diesel and I made a plan to fill up six gigantic fuel tanks. When crude hit $147 in mid-2008, I was a freakin' genius! By 2009, oil was back
No, not staring at your phone, takeaways, or eating ham while pregnant – the most dangerous substance to get hooked on is the belief that playing it safe, reduces the chance of bad things happening. Comfort-seeking chases safe bets, predictable returns, and validation‑rich investment narratives. It dulls our risk-awareness, and sets us up
Passive retirement income sounds like the holy grail, right? Imagine the money quietly rolling in while your capital sits there untouched - perfect! Yet when you dig into how this is usually sold to retirees and pre‑retirees, it often turns into something very different: concentrated bets, misunderstood risk, and portfolio structures that look “safe” on
In the 1956 classic, The 10 Commandments, Pharaoh Rameses used the phrase "So let it be written; so let it be done" to assert his absolute power, meaning his decree is law and must be executed. It's tough being a parent who cares about what media his kids consume. Over the past 5 years in
Not a week goes buy where I don’t hear of the difficulties associated with buying digital assets like Bitcoin, from regulated institutions – all in the name of safety, they gate keep, ticket clip, dilute, surveil, ration, throttle, censor, inflate, tax, sequester, audit, and potentially even confiscate wealth that belongs to the people. The last
The US government’s officially reported debt stands at about $37 trillion, but legendary investor Rick Rule boldly asserts the real figure, including all off-balance sheet liabilities, is closer to $150 trillion. This captures not just the national debt, but also the net present value of unfunded obligations like Social Security, Medicare, and various pensions. Yes,
The Official Cash Rate (OCR), which influences the floating mortgage rate, and short term fixed-rates, dropped last week. Everyone has a view around what SHOULD happen, but no one's talking about what WILL happen. Most economists predict the Reserve Bank will deliver perhaps one more 0.25% cut, with Kiwibank being the outlier forecasting a 2.0%
Last week, a seemingly routine visit to my local dentist, Dr Hau, after chipping a tooth, turned out to be unexpectedly insightful. He recognised me from my podcast, and our conversation shifted from dental repairs to the idea of using a gold filling for my tooth. As the gloved fingers of the dental assistant gently
