608002
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ISSN 2744-6085
4-DAY WORK WEEK Let’s work less and get the balance back
FOMO TO FOOP The property market rollercoaster
BUY HAPPINESS Which spending makes you happier?
REGULARS
What We Like A showcase of the hottest products and places that are the talk of the town. An Organised Life x The Curve Finance Investment Planner An Organised Life and The Curve collaborate on a well-designed and highly functional dateless planner to make financial planning and investing more accessible. Ask anyone in finance, having a financial plan and sticking to it creates a far more successful path to wealth than randomly picking stocks, having a good ‘gut instinct,’ or trying to time the market. With this in mind, Victoria Harris and Sophie Hallwright of financial education platform The Curve have teamed up with An Organised Life founder Beck Wadworth to launch a finance and investment planner to make achieving money goals more straightforward. It includes an education section with an investing glossary, guidance on budgeting, financial planning and goal setting, and monthly trackers to help you hit your targets. As a dateless planner, it can be used any time to suit your needs, allowing for both flexibility and structure in planning.
Win
This issue we’re giving away a prize package that includes the Investment Planner, the Curve Tote Bag and an Organised Life pen. To enter go to: informedinvestor.co.nz/win
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W H AT W E L I K E
Spring bling Add some sparkle to your spring – or choose a Christmas present early – with these fresh jewellery designs for 2023.
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1. Green Cushion Tourmaline Ring – $17,150 This stunning dress ring is crafted in 18ct white gold and features a cushion cut tourmaline claw set in the centre and small round brilliant diamonds set into the shoulders. 2. Chopard Ice Cube Diamond Bracelet – $4,000 An elegant white gold bracelet from the Chopard Ice Cube collection. Composed of a rectangle bar with ten 18ct golden cubes, five decorated with 0.10-carats of diamonds.
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3. Roberto Coin Love in Verona Diamond and Sapphire Earrings – $8,550 From the Roberto Coin Love in Verona collection, these small hoop earrings are crafted in 18ct white gold and feature pavé diamonds and small blue sapphire flowers. 4. Ruby Top Drops – $8,175 These ruby earrings feature two oval rubies totalling 2.86 carats with a halo of brilliant round diamonds and two emerald cut diamonds at the top.
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5. ASHOKA® Bloom Earrings – $19,200 These flower-shaped 18ct white gold drop earrings are crafted with unique ASHOKA® cut diamonds in the centre and feature a diamond grain set hook.
Clever thinking at a sharp price What we should like best about the new ŠKODA Fabia Monte Carlo is its fuel efficiency, its use of space, and its best-in-segment aerodynamics. But it turns out that we’re more interested in the creature comforts, so what we actually like best are the smartphone storage pockets, the cupholders, the USB-C socket, the storage compartments, and the removable sun visor. And we just love the umbrella that pops out of the door and the windscreen ice scraper that’s tucked into the fuel flap. We’re also rather taken with the multimedia system which comes as standard. It has an eight-inch colour touchscreen, a Bluetooth hands-free system with wireless phone charging, six speakers with surround sound, and smartphone connectivity via cable for SmartLink with Android Auto or Apple CarPlay. Obviously, we should take some time to appreciate all the safety features, and the Fabia is chock-full of airbags and safety systems, including Lane Assist, Adaptive Cruise Control, Manoeuvre Assist and the optional Travel Assist and Park Assist. With its rally car pedigree, the Fabia is always a delight to drive. Nippy, powerful and practical, it’s a great value, small European car at $39,990 plus on-road costs, and it’s eligible for a NZ Government Clean Car rebate of $2181. Hmm, that red colour does look very Christmassy… S P R I N G 2 0 2 2 | I N F O R M E D I NVESTO R 1 3
YO U R I NVE STI N G
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PERSONAL FINANCE
When You Set Goals, You Set Yourself Apart Throughout his a career as a financial adviser, Martin Hawes has seen first-hand the power of setting specific goals.
The people who do best with money are those who have goals. After decades of working as a financial adviser and advising hundreds of families, my experience is that people who know where they are going are more likely to get there.
There is a well-worn path for this, and that path takes the form of SMARTI goals. SMARTI goals are ones that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable. Relevant, Time Bound and In Writing: •
Specific – you know exactly what the goal is (it will probably be a number – for example, we will have a mortgage-free house and $1m of savings in 2035)
“I have a goal: get rich!” Sometimes people think that they have goals: “I want to be wealthy” or, perhaps, “I’m planning to get rid of the mortgage a bit faster”. In their minds, these are sort of nice-to-haves, things that you might think about one day. However, there is nothing defined about them – and, as such, there is no commitment. They are little better than wishful thinking.
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Measurable – you will know whether you have achieved it or not
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Achievable – you have a means of achieving it (i.e. it may be a stretch, but it should not be pie in the sky)
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Relevant – it is something that is important to you and your life
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Time bound – you are able to give a time for when it will be achieved
Instead, you should get smart and define what you want and when you want it.
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In writing – you have written it down in a way that you cannot fudge
I no longer work as a financial adviser and, looking back at my career and the people I have helped, I know that setting goals works.
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YO U R I NVE STI N G
I Quit! How to Switch From Salary to Freelance Goodbye regular income and paid holidays – hello flexibility and autonomy. Could freelancing give you the lifestyle you want?
“I really don’t like my job.” Five years ago I said those words in a tiny, sterile meeting room 17 floors up a high-rise building on Albert Street. My performance review wasn’t off to a great start. After that out-of-the-blue realisation an idea formed in my head. What if I could do my job but without the stuff I don’t like? No more office, no more commute, no nine to five, no awkward conversations in grey meeting rooms – in other words, complete freedom. You can’t spell freelance without free Two months after my impromptu confession I had arranged a contract with the content marketing agency I was working at, and my career as a freelance writer began. Bonza. Back in 2019 around 144,000 people like me were working as freelancers in New Zealand, but trends suggest that the COVID pandemic has increased that proportion considerably. Why did I make the change and why have so many others done the same thing? There are a few good reasons. Generally, when you’re a freelancer you can work from wherever you want as long as you have an internet connection. For my S P R I N G 2 0 2 2 | I N F O R M E D I NVESTO R 3 6
first six months I was in South-East Asia and I now work remotely from Wanaka. You can also set your own hours – if you’re a night owl you’re free to sleep in as much as you like. If you’re successful you may also earn more than a wage earner with comparable experience because you can set your own rates and have fewer overheads. What’s more, you can choose what work to accept, which means you can work on stuff that truly interests you. Most importantly, as a freelancer you’re in charge of every hour of your day, which improves your work-life balance. You also save a couple of hours per day not commuting, which you can spend however you like (I usually walk my dog or sleep in). It’s not all roses Freelancing can be incredible but it can also be really, really hard. Dan Percival, head of supply chain, procurement and operations at TribeRecruit, found that out back when he was working on his own as a recruiter. “The grass isn’t necessarily greener, it’s just different. The market’s very competitive and you’ve got to work harder than you did before. “For one, you don’t have a big team behind the scenes, or a marketing budget, or much support at all. In the meantime your
PERSONAL FINANCE
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YO U R I NVE STI N G
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PERSONAL FINANCE
Battling the Bear: What Should You do in a Downtrend Market? With the market down 20 per cent since January, what should savvy investors do to protect themselves? Tina Teng, Market Analyst at CMC Markets, provides some guidance on taking a defensive stance in a downturn. The US stock markets ended the worst first half in over 50 years in June, pushing the S&P 500 into a bear market, having dropped more than 20 per cent from the January high. Meanwhile, the ASX 200 took the last but hardest hit from the central bank’s ‘front-loading’ rate hikes, plunging more than 10 per cent in one month. Locally, the New Zealand benchmark index, the NZX 50, tumbled 20 per cent in the first half of the year. It’s certainly a difficult time for investors who hold a bunch of losing positions, and
panic selling often happens when the stock market drops. Eventually the markets will bounce back, so this panic selling can lead to unnecessary losses. What tools could you consider as hedges for your current losing positions? The defensive instruments If the risky assets account for a large percentage of your portfolio, you could consider increasing your proportion of safehaven assets. The traditional safe-haven asset is gold, and the price of gold usually increases when there is a market crash
or during uncertain events. Physical gold can have a high storage fee, so gold-related ETFs are good alternative investment. Gold-related exchangetraded funds (ETFs) such as SPDR Gold Shares (NYSEMKT: GLD) and iShares Gold Trust (NYSEMKT: IAU) are easy to manage and have low transaction fees. As shown in the chart below, gold held its value when the SPX 500 crashed during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), the US-China trade war, and Covid-19.
SPDR Gold Trust and SPX 500 since 2005 300.00%
SPDR Gold Trust
220.00% 220.00% 180.00% 140.00% 100.00% 60.00%
SPX 500
20.00% -20.00% -60.00%
2005
2007
2009
2011
2013
2015
2017
2019
2021
2023
Source: TradingView as of 8 July 2022 S P R I N G 2 0 2 2 | I N F O R M E D I NVESTO R 4 9
YO U R I NVE STI N G
A Bold Spring
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Take inspiration for your home as the season changes. 1 7
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1. Beleno pendant light - cocorepublic.com, 2. Scrubbing people - nood.co.nz, 3. Clada cotton cushion - cocorepublic.co.nz, 4. Overlap sofa bed - nood.co.nz, 5. Reality handbowl in white - designrepublic.com, 6. Deadly Ponies Mr Mini Leopard in Yuzu - deadlyponies.com, 7. Be my guest bar cabinet - goodform.co.nz S P R I N G 2 0 2 2 | I N F O R M E D I NVESTO R 1 0 0
Texture Meets Colour
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Resene Lightning Yellow
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Resene Island Spice 10
Resene Fog 12
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Resene Half Resolution Blue
Wrap your walls in cosy and soothing hues to brighten the dullest days.
8. Symbole sunglasses - prada.com, 9. Greco ceramic tray - superette.co.nz, 10. Lindsay small shoulder bag in Lilac - balenciaga.com, 11. Printworks Chinese checkers - theiconic.co.nz, 12. Icarus paper vase - superette.co.nz, 13. Te Wheke - Paula Coulthard - thepoiroom.co.nz
resene.co.nz/colorshops