Isbister Partners New Zealand

At what age do you start caring about KiwiSaver?

KiwiSaver Isbister Partner

Notice, I’m not asking when KiwiSaver investors “should” start caring. Investors “should” start caring from the day they start investing. If you apply a sound investment approach from the start, you’ll get a much better outcome in the end. Unfortunately, most investors barely remember what scheme their KiwiSaver is in, let alone how it’s allocated. […]

Into Retirement and Beyond!

Retirement Blog

Into Retirement and Beyond! When Buzz Light Year shouted “Into Infinity and Beyond” we often think about how KiwiSaver is becoming much more than an investment vehicle for saving for retirement.  In Australia, the main investment vehicle for Australians as they save for retirement is their Superannuation Scheme. But once they retire, they keep their […]

Secrets of a happy retirement

Some people who imagined they’d leave all their worries behind once they quit working are finding retirement isn’t quite as blissful as they dreamed it would be. In the USA, 2018 data from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) suggests the average retirement satisfaction of Americans is falling, regardless of whether they are wealthy or […]

Is Property the Darling Investment it once was?

There is a long held notion that if you leverage property (borrow other people’s money) it’s a winning investment.  How does leverage work? Here’s a simple example: Purchase price of property $500,000 You borrow $400,000 at current rates of approx. 7% Your deposit $100,000 Growth over 1 year of 8.6% (long term average return on […]

Losing the home

If you asked most people what they would do to keep their home if they lost their job, they would tell you anything. They would get in boarders, rent it out, get a second or third job. “You name it, I’ll do it”, we hear. Banks know this and that’s why they are happier to […]

Job worries increase – By Independent Economist Tony Alexander 

In the middle of last year an upturn in the housing market got underway and we saw a rise in my reading of FOMO gleaned from the monthly survey of real estate agents I undertake with NZHL. Average house prices began rising after a year and a half of going down following the late-2021 credit […]

First Home Buyer Seminars 2024

In April we will be running in-person First Home Buyer seminars in Whakatane and Wellington.  Key topics to be discussed include options for purchasing with a 5% deposit, how to use your Kiwisaver to buy a house, and what the lenders are looking for.  We will have a range of experts attending, providing information and advice.  […]

The unpredictability of predictions

How do we know what to expect from the future?  You can look at history and predict an outcome from there.  You can draw on lots of different perspectives, gain opinions from different types of people, to get a wide range of possibilities.  Will this lead you to an accurate prediction of the future?  What […]

What is shared ownership?

People are quick to forget.  In 2021 interest rates were at record lows and house prices were surging.  Interest rates are higher now, not as high as they have been, but, certainly higher.  We’ve seen property prices drop as a result.  Commentators are now saying interest rates may have peaked and may be heading down […]

Positive signals for 2024

This will be our last newsletter for 2023 and we’d like to sign off with some positive news to lead into 2024.  We will be taking a couple of weeks off, from December 22nd, back on January 8th 2024. There have been some positive signals for investors and borrowers recently.  Let’s start with one that […]