29 August 2009
Increasingly, I am running into people who are taking pay cuts in one form or another in the interest of their struggling employers. I am also aware of a number of companies that have trimmed staff incomes, often by 5% - 10%.
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22 Aug 2009: Sorry - this is my third column in a row about real estate commissions. It’s just that readers keep responding. Lately it’s been agents or former agents, letting us in on their secrets.
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25 Jul 2009: Now – with real estate agents hungry for listings - might be a good time for home sellers to negotiate a new way of paying agents.... more
11 Jul 2009: The response to a question in a recent survey bothered me a little. Asked what they would do with a $10,000 cash windfall, 54.3 per cent of the respondents said they would pay off debt or save the money – down from 58.3 per cent three months earlier.... more
5 Jul 2009: Memo to the National Government: Time to learn some investment basics. Here’s an example: You have to invest money to make money. Another is: The price paid for assets dictates the return you get from it in perpetuity. And a third: Borrowing to invest is okay if your returns are higher than your costs. ... more
27 Jun 2009: It’s question time. How would you have answered the following in a recent survey: “Which is generally considered to make you the most money over the next 15 to 20 years: a savings account, range of shares, range of fixed interest investments, or a cheque account?”... more
13 Jun 2009: Mid-June is top up time for many people in KiwiSaver. If you don’t take action in the next week or two, you could miss out on up to a thousand dollars or so from the government.... more
30 May 2009: One aspect of the recent Morningstar report on investors’ experience of managed funds - in which New Zealand came bottom out of 16 countries – got little coverage in the news media. Ironically, it’s about media coverage.... more
