All in Sharesies
My inbox is cluttered with hundreds of different threads of conversations, which in turn means I struggled to find a true focus for a blog post this week. But I often think I’m receiving and sending out some real wisdom, and it's a shame it never reaches a broader audience. So, today, I’ve scrolled back through my inbox from the last week or two and pulled out a few threads from some emails I’ve received.
This week, I wanted to show how our US 500 ETF investment is tracking, especially now that this is our only one. And explain how we will use it to provide income for retirement. I also have a quick update on our KiwiSaver. I mainly wanted to share this because investing in KiwiSaver and an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) provides an alternative to investing in rental property, something we have never wanted to do. This blog explains how Jonny and I invest, that investing this way grows our wealth, and how we see our investments providing us with long-term, easily accessible income.
It’s standard for me to get at least one blunt email saying I’m wrong about a financial decision or purchase I’ve made on behalf of my whānau. Generally, the reasoning given will be based on one aspect, often a technical math issue, ignoring all the other points I mentioned. I used to panic that they might be right and that I might have this money stuff entirely and utterly wrong. But I no longer do. Instead, I take their comments with a grain of salt and consider that it’s probably them who are wrong. Although it takes time, often I’ll research their argument and find that they are.
A year ago, I published a blog post titled “We Sold Some Investments: Putting our version of the 4% Rule to the test!” To cut to the chase, we’ve done it again. Having read about The 4% Rule for years and met many people who had retired early and were using it, back in 2023, we decided that we were not yet ready to retire, but pulling some income off our investments would improve our lives at that time. Finding more available cash without working more hours would allow us to do more of the things we wanted to do.
This year, we are excited to give away a bunch of goodies to the fabulous people who subscribe to The Happy Saver. Thank you so much for your support throughout 2023. Nothing says CHRISTMAS like a book on good money management, some budgeting software or buying shares; am I right? Indeed, I am!
A super quick blog post this week because I thought you might find it interesting. My last blog post, Share Market Shocker, shared that our investments had dropped $25,000 between August and October 2023. I said I’d give you an update in a year. Well, just to show how fast and volatile the share markets are, it's only been three weeks, but I have an update for you. The point of this post is to share how comfortable Jonny and I feel with these fluctuations.
Every Tuesday morning, a group of Kiwis takes part in Rebel Finance School. When I meet people and talk about money, a common regret is that no financial education was taught in school or at home. I think this course is your best shot at bringing yourself up to speed. The only sticking point is that while most of what they teach is internationally applicable, some elements are specific to their home country, England. As soon as we reached the investing component, the companies and products they discussed were incompatible with Aotearoa. Today, I want to explain the New Zealand equivalent of the two Vanguard Index Fund options they suggest as concisely as I can.
In my last blog post, where I was giving away a bunch of books on personal finance, I gave you two ways to enter. You could either just click enter and get on with your day, or you could take a moment to answer my wide-open question, “Tell me in 100 words or less how you have improved your financial situation”. I honestly thought most people would just enter to win the books without taking the time to write a response. Gosh, was I wrong! My inbox quickly filled up with over 260 fantastic responses, and I’m sharing all of them below. Yep, all of them.
In early May, Jonny and I made a call; we decided to sell off a portion of our investments to supplement our lifestyle. There is no drama, and we are not doing this due to inflation or the current cost of living; the simple fact is that our journey with money continues. For those who have followed along from the beginning, you’ve seen us slowly growing our net worth in readiness for it supporting us in early retirement. We are not there yet, we still need to work for an income, but we are well underway with our early retirement plans. What has changed is that there are things we want to do now that we need money for now.
