All in Smart
Just six months after I looked at the Total World Funds available to New Zealand investors, things have changed again. Back in April, I wrote about the options available through Smart and InvestNow. At the time, Kernel didn’t offer a Total World Fund, and Sharesies didn’t have one of its own. First, Kernel joined the club, and now Sharesies has launched its Global Shares Fund. And judging by my inbox, plenty of you noticed! So, how does the Sharesies Global Shares Fund compare with the others?
Over the years, I’ve noticed a steady stream of residential rental property investors finding their way to The Happy Saver. They generally arrive after years, often decades, of believing that property was the way to build wealth. Not a way. THE WAY. But something has changed, and often, it’s them. Eventually, they reach the point where they think: There has to be another way to invest my money. The Googling begins, and they discover there is another way that doesn't involve investment properties. But selling the property turns out to be the easy bit. What do you do with the money? Working that out requires a complete re-education. This blog is for all the people I meet who are done with property, but very unsure about what to do next.
I’m pretty good at financial admin. Most of the time, I really look forward to it. I genuinely get excited about the first of the month because that is when I check the value of each bank account, our ETF, and our KiwiSaver, and use that information to update our net worth spreadsheet. Tracking my net worth, however, doesn’t tell me how our investments are actually performing. It’s all well and good investing in something, but if it’s not making any money, what’s the point? Which is why I’ve always used an online share portfolio tracker, a Kiwi company called Sharesight, to do all the maths I’ve got absolutely no interest in doing myself. It tracks our ETF investments and tells me whether they are actually making us any money, or not.
By all means, use a financial advisor if you want to. But don’t assume that you have to, or that you will make more money by doing so. You are perfectly capable of managing your own money, including investing. My point today is not that financial advisors are bad (although some certainly are); it’s that many of you don’t need one. We have been led to believe that we can’t manage our own money. We constantly hear the words “Seek financial advice.” But when doing so pushes you towards an entire financial industry that has developed around our fear of investing money, and is extremely profitable for those who work within it, I question the advice they give.
I've been feeling a little frustrated lately. I'm sitting in my living room, laptop on my lap, gazing out at the snow-capped Old Man Range. Things aren’t going badly, quite the opposite. Our investments have passed $800,000, our emergency fund is full, and Jonny is about to finish his graphic design job for good. We’re CoastFI and tantalisingly close to financial independence, but not quite there yet. After years of saving, investing and optimising, there’s not much left to do except trust the plan and wait. And I’ve got to be honest: waiting just that wee bit longer is frustratingly hard work.
I know that by now the fuss over the mid June 2026 SpaceX IPO has died down, but that is exactly why I waited a few weeks to write about it. Successful investing is mostly about ignoring the noise, but sometimes that is easier said than done. Now that it's well out of the headlines, and so that you can recognise a storm in a teacup next time one appears, I want to dig into what happens to your ETF or Index Fund once the fuss dies down. You actually become a part owner of a company that has chosen to list on a stock exchange.
I know your time is important, and over the years I’ve taken up a fair bit of it, ten years in fact! Yes, The Happy Saver is 10 years old. This blog post is packed with gratitude, giveaways, and a celebration of your wins, because you haven’t just read my blog; many of you have changed your lives. I want to say a heartfelt thank you to you for being part of The Happy Saver, and to the Kiwi companies who continue to support the work I do. For ten years, I’ve been writing blog posts documenting our financial progress and answering the questions I regularly receive from you. The original goal of The Happy Saver was simple: help people. Ten years later, that goal has not changed. What has changed is our own net worth, and the net worth of thousands of people who have quietly and steadily become better and better at managing their pūtea.
Ten years ago, on the 6th of June 2016, I published my very first blog post. It was about KiwiSaver. In that first month, I also wrote about Gold, Credit Cards and Kids and Money. And it's fair to say my thoughts have changed somewhat. I’ve sold our gold, cancelled our credit card, and spent the last ten years ensuring our ‘kid’, who is now a young adult, knows all about how money works. And what of KiwiSaver? Well, paying attention to that has really paid off. Ten years ago, I had absolutely no idea where that first blog post would lead. And I had no clue that a decade later I would be as fascinated by our personal finances and investing as I am today. So today, I wanted to go back to where it all started and talk about the evolution of our KiwiSaver investment.
Jonny has been thinking a lot about money, work, health, and what really matters lately. In this story, he shares his honest take on what becoming debt-free has made possible for our family, from paying off the mortgage to stepping back from full-time work and creating more freedom, flexibility, and breathing room in life. He also talks about why couples don’t both need to love spreadsheets or know every investing detail, but they do need to communicate, trust each other, and work towards the same goals together.
