WealthDesign

They grow up so fast!  I visited a few clients recently who have been with me for a decade or so.  Some, when I first met them, had kids that were school age.  Now we are giving the kids their first policies as they head off to their first jobs, university, or overseas.   Several clients started with me as young fellas a similar age to me, single, renting, and working.  Now we’re all married house owners with kids.  Some have moved to their second or third houses, and at our age, the mortgages seem to be getting bigger, rather than smaller.  And it got me to thinking.  Some businesses are highly transactional, such as real estate or car sales.  At WealthDesign we are a relationship business – we actually care about being a helpful and valuable part of our clients’ lives.  

Change is one constant in all of our lives.  There is a valuable feature hidden in your policy which is all about helping at times of change – the ‘special events increase’.  Having a baby, buying a house, getting married and several other changes count as a ‘special event’ which means you can increase your life insurance with no medical questions.  For some this is a convenient and efficient way of changing their policy, but for others this is a great way of getting more cover without telling the insurer about that operation you had recently, or your current height/weight, or the little pills you’re now taking every day!   Some terms and conditions apply, but it’s worth looking into.

Insurance is not a set-and-forget product – it needs to change as your needs change.  And they will keep changing until you die.   If we haven’t seen each other for a while, or you’ve had a change in your life circumstances, please call us.  We’d love to catch up –  we’re here to help.

Regan Thomas
WealthDesign – a life well planned

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But it’s not a list we’re boasting about!  Along with our Australian mates across the ditch, we have the highest melanoma rate, of any population in the world! 

So here we are in Melanoma March – and Melanoma New Zealand is focusing on getting kiwis to be proactive in looking out for the early stages of this deadly skin cancer.

Melanoma New Zealand has teamed up with our Olympic and America’s Cup sailors to raise awareness for melanoma, which is a real risk for New Zealanders (that ozone layer isn’t helping matters).

Recently, the media has honed in on melanoma treatments, and specifically, why the drug Keytruda is not funded by PHARMAC.  The argument goes, if Keytruda is more effective, why are we not funding it?  There is uncertainty about the size and duration of any benefit, along with what PHARMAC is describing as the drug’s ‘extremely high cost.’  So it seems obvious that it won’t be funded anytime soon, despite the 54,000 signatures that have been collected on various petitions.

So how can the general public get access to this drug?  Medical insurance, of course!  Medical insurers nowadays have policies that include access to non-PHARMAC funded medicines.  This means that you’re going to get access to Keytruda and the countless other treatments that are proven to be effective, yet aren’t funded due to the high treatment costs.

Medical insurance is vital and with medical insurers paying out over $1,000,000,000 last year, you know it pays.

Our health is so important, and if you have medical insurance, you get access to tools that can complement your health journey. 

Give us a call at WealthDesign to discover how medical insurance will give you peace of mind, when it comes to your health.

And if you feel like donating to Melanoma New Zealand, text MELANOMA to 5464 – it’s a great cause! 

Melanoma New Zealand

Wilson O’Fee
WealthDesign – a life well lived

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I remember calling my father the “old man” when I was 18 – now I’m older than he was, back then! But I never thought getting older would be so much fun. I have got to travel, I have the privilege of working in a field that I love and I have a family I adore. It’s just at 18, old is anything over 30!  

I heard this cool story the other day, about one American man who made his fortune later in life, proving that life doesn’t end when you’re 50.  I liked this bit!

His name is Stewart Horejsi and he turned a modest $10,600 investment into an $8,016,867 fortune. Horejsi piggybacked on the success of a man who rewrote the rules of investing.  You may have heard of him. His name is Warren Buffett — the billionaire share market investor.

Like Horejsi, Buffett amassed his wealth later in life too. In fact, as Buffett blew out the candles on his 50th birthday cake, he had just 1% of his current fortune. Think about it – at an age when most give up hope, Buffett was just getting started on the remaining 99% of his fortune!

Which means it’s never too late for you to build your wealth, too. See, Buffett got rich by picking the right type of shares and holding on to them for years.

But I know what you may be thinking. Shares are risky, who do I ask for advice, what should I buy instead?

We all hear about the disasters – the ASX is a bloodbath right now and picking the wrong shares could harm your wealth. Which is why I think you’ll want to lean forward in your chair and listen in now.  The best way I know to create wealth is with dividend shares. These are companies that make a profit year in year out and pay a large percentage of that profit out to investors.

If it is good enough for 92.5% of Buffett’s portfolio to be invested in dividend shares, then it should be a strategy for us all. These shares are one of the keys to how he systematically amassed his riches.

One of the obstacles is knowing which shares to buy. At WealthDesign, we pay for independent research on the Australasian share market. We are happy to show you our strategy around selecting local shares, providing you with the research and advice on your options. We will give you this research, as we believe investors are smart enough to understand the marketplace.  They just need to be shown how.

John Barber
WealthDesign – a life well planned

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Isn’t travelling a right of passage for us Kiwis? Unfortunately, for the next generation, things aren’t as simple as buying a plane ticket and loading a pack with jeans and a few tee shirts.

Here’s what you need to do:

• Make sure you have quality travel insurance for the whole time you are away.  Asia might be a cheap place for a holiday, but you wouldn’t want to be hospitalised in a third world country.  Not all travel insurance policies are equal, so get good advice.
• Check you KiwiSaver payments. If you are away and stop paying into KiwiSaver, you might find yourself back to square one with the ‘first home subsidy’ rules.
• If you have a student loan, know the rules.  If you are only out of the country for 183 days and have lived in New Zealand for the previous 183, your interest on your student loan is written off.  If you are outside these rules, you are going to be paying interest and the government expects you to make the repayments.
• Australia has always been the alternative work place of choice.  Unfortunately, Kiwis are clearly discriminated against in Australia.  If you plan to work over there, make sure you get your insurance sorted before you go.  Cover such as trauma, total and permanent disability and income protection cover taken out in New Zealand, will cover you while you work in Australia.
• Lastly, make sure you have all the right visas etc.  Flying 10 hours to spend 20 hours in a holding cell and then sent back home, isn’t fun.  This happened to one of our clients – yes, it does happen!

Travel is great – it is important to get out of New Zealand to realise how small and insignificant New Zealand is on the global stage. It also makes you appreciate this great country we are privileged to live in. 

We know what possibilities could arise, because we’ve seen them. Give us a call and before you know it, you’ll be packed, prepared and ready for the adventure of a lifetime!

John Barber
WealthDesign – a life well planned

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Yesterday I arrived at the service station all excited to pay just 71 cents per litre of diesel, because I’d scored myself a 10 cent per litre discount. But I was severely disappointed – I couldn’t get the minimum $40 into the car tank to get the discount, no matter how I tried! It got me thinking – in 2012, crude oil was $115 US a barrel. Today, for the same barrel it’s $26.21 US.

Cheap oil is a double-edged sword. It has a strong disinflationary impact on everything we buy. Lower transport costs should reduce the cost of just about everything we buy. And what people do is stop spending today, and wait for things to get cheaper, as the reduced transport costs start to flow through. This is great for the individual, but not so good for the economy.

Cheap oil makes it easier for our dairy competitors to produce a cheaper product, as the cost of grain goes down – so not great for our exports or economy.

You may have noticed, cheap oil doesn’t help the world stock exchanges either. Basic economics of supply and demand states that if price falls and demand stays constant, then supply will fall. When that happens, prices will start to increase again. So don’t rush out and buy a V8 just yet, as my pick is that fuel will not be at these prices in 12 months’ time.

In the meantime, enjoy the extra $20 – $40 a week these lower fuel prices are saving you. Here is a crazy thought – rather than spend the extra $40 a week, put it in a separate bank account and in 12 months’ time, you will have saved $2,080!

We love to talk about tips and smart tricks around money. Give us a call – let’s talk about how to improve your balance sheet.

John Barber
WealthDesign – a life well planned

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