Consider longer-term investments: Alistair Bean and Associates

How long are you going to live and how many people do you know who are already in their 80s or 90s? Will you financially cope?

These are some of the questions people ask themselves and then their thoughts turn to investments. When thinking about investing, many people may only consider a one or two-year term deposit or a balanced fund.

“The questions you should be asking yourself are ‘When am I planning on spending all of my money?’ and ‘When am I planning on spending bits of my money?’” says Financial Adviser, Alistair Bean.

“If the answer to the first question is that I am never planning on spending all of my money, then this portion should be in longer-term investments. To the second question, allocate your short and medium-term funds to your day-to-day budget and emergency needs, then that three to five year project that you have, with the remainder being specifically allocated to the longer-term and, insist on this to your Adviser!”

Here are some investment tips from Alistair:

LONGER-TERM INVESTMENT
Many of you now already have longer-term investments with your KiwiSaver and a lot of you now have six figure balances in your KiwiSaver as average salary and wage earners, if you are 40+ years old. Not even you can believe this has already happened as you read your last statement.
However, because we don’t want to outlive our money, as we are living longer, your greatest risk now, is not having your funds allocated in the right area by perhaps having too much in short and medium-term and/or too conservatively-balanced fund investments.

MANY FORMS OF INVESTMENT
Your Financial Adviser researches many different forms of investment every day and can recommend longer-term investments to you. Many of these investments may only be accessed by using a Financial Adviser and are not available to individuals, although wholesale and sophisticated investors may be able to access these funds directly.
Such investments specifically include KiwiSaver, where you can pick your own investments, for example individual shares and not just funds which, by themselves, are now very old school. With KiwiSaver, it is imperative that you choose one that gives you this choice.

FINANCIAL ADVISERS
Using a Financial Adviser means that you can take control of your investment and retirement savings. They will assist you in selecting longer-term investments like technology, medical and electric vehicle companies. For instance Rocket Lab, BYD, Graphene, Apple, Microsoft, TruScreen, as well as internationally managed funds, that you can now include individually in your investment portfolios.
If you’re unsure, then speak with a Financial Adviser so that your current investments don’t wallow away in sleepy conservative balanced funds. Challenge your adviser to lift their game to match your current true risk attitude and not just fill out a questionnaire.

Contact Alistair Bean and Associates – Financial Advisers via the website www.abafs.co.nz. Disclosure document available upon request.