Borrowing money to buy shares is something that I don’t hear about that often and I have only really come across a small handful of examples of it in the last couple of years of blogging. Whereas we borrow vast sums of money all day long to get into the housing market, without the word ‘risk’ ever really being used, when we borrow money to buy into securities our first instincts are concern and fear.
A while back I asked you to send me in any questions that you are looking for an answer to and I received well over 100 responses. So, I’ve hand-picked just four to answer today and I'll come back to the others in the future. On with the questions!
I interviewed a bloke for an upcoming episode of my podcast and he had a lot to say about investing in individual shares and why he used to buy them, but now no longer does. He took the advice of a good friend when she told him, back in the 1980s, just buy into today’s equivalent of an index fund and let time in the market be your money’s best friend. Low and behold, she was correct.
Sharesies have been making a few tweaks to their system. If you already use them they will have emailed you (but if you are like me, you may not have read it) and I felt the changes are worth mentioning for those investing with them already or for those thinking about doing so. Sharesies is now “tidier” to use and I think probably less confusing for newbie investors too.
Have you given any thought to how much your car costs to run? I’m not just talking about how much petrol or diesel it uses. Until now I don’t think I had ever totalled up all of these costs specific to my vehicles. But after getting a question about cars, I decided to look into it a bit further and now its a case of “you can’t unsee what you have seen” dammit!
How important are credit ratings? A credit rating or a credit score is simply a rating of how well you manage DEBT. A high credit score is not a badge of honour, it's not an indicator of your net worth or your ability to earn money, it instead indicates how often you have taken on debt (and paid interest) and how well you have paid it down.
Mary Holm has been on my radar for a long time, she was possibly the first woman I heard speak with authority on how to handle money and has continued to be a great role model. The front page of her new book says she is “New Zealand’s Most Trusted Money Expert”. I bet the publishers angst over that bold claim, but I think it’s true.
Every single day I receive emails from YOU about anything and everything that is playing on your mind in regards to money and I absolutely love responding to them. This week I thought that I would just give you a snippet of the queries I get because to me they are one of the main reasons I blog, to interact with other people who are thinking about PF.
