Does investing in Index Funds or ETFs work?

Ok, so the question is, does investing in index funds or ETFs actually work? Given that last week, I wrote about the fact it has been five years since I started blogging, I thought I’d give you an update on how two of our investments have been tracking during that time. The blog, after all, was created so that I could teach myself about investing by actually putting some money in and then sharing what I have learnt with others. I figured it would save everyone else having to constantly reinvent the wheel!

What I’ve learnt in five years of personal finance blogging.

To my surprise, I’ve chalked up five years of writing this blog! And I can’t quite believe it. I thought I’d blog today about what I’ve learnt, observed and what it’s like to write a blog because there is not a single day that has gone by that I’ve not emailed or spoken with someone about what I tend to refer to with my whanau and friends as ‘blog stuff’.

The Happy Saver Tertiary Scholarship

At the start of 2021, Jonny and I decided that we wanted to increase our generosity and that we wanted to provide some financial support to ‘someone, somehow’. We felt that the time was right to do so and that with a bit of planning and juggling of our finances we could and should make it happen this year. So a few weeks ago we made an exciting move to start The Happy Saver Tertiary Scholarship. And before you start to wonder, no, I am not about to ask you for money! It’s quite the opposite, we are giving some of ours away.

FREE MONEY! Have you contributed enough to your KiwiSaver?

In my email I wrote last week to all of the fabulous people who subscribe to my blog, a decent number of people got in touch to thank me for the prompt I gave them to look at their own KiwiSaver before the 30th of June. So I thought I would do a quick blog post this week, using my own KiwiSaver statement as an example to show everyone how you can make sure you have contributed enough to your own KiwiSaver by the end of June to get the full government contribution of $521.43.

Book Review: A Richer You - How to Make the Most of Your Money

I’ll cut to the chase for those looking for a five-second read: I loved it. Mary has taken the best letters from her newspaper column and worked them into a book. In each letter, the writer asks a short question about an issue they are having that involves personal finances. Mary then gives a concise and well-rounded reply. This makes it a book you can pick up and put down, just taking in a bit at a time.

Was I right or wrong? Checking ‘what if’ share investing scenarios.

This is a blog post about all the investing “What if’s”. Have you ever wondered what would have happened if you bought shares in a company when you first heard about it, but you didn’t do it? And you find yourself years later saying “oh, I NEARLY bought that stock, but I didn’t…” Now you are wondering what even happened to the company share price and what WOULD have happened to your own net worth IF you had actually purchased some?

Begin at the Beginning: Step-by-step Path to Financial Independence

Whatever it is that you are embarking on that’s always the best place to start in my opinion. The beginning. Then just follow the path, in my case, the path to financial independence and eventually not being tied to a job to earn my income. It’s a long journey but it’s one worth starting. I’m often writing emails that cover the same points over and over again, so I thought that today I’d put that information into a blog post for all of the people wondering where to start and how to string all the bits of information you have learned about money into a cohesive order.