It’s easy to feel unsure about where to start when it comes to investing for your future. As David Booth from Dimensional reminds us, the most important thing is simply to begin — with one small, realistic step. Setting clear long-term goals and committing to achievable short-term actions, like saving a little more each year, can make a big difference over time. The power of compounding rewards consistency, not perfection. By reviewing your plan regularly and adapting as life changes, you’ll stay on track toward the comfortable, confident retirement you envision.

Investing doesn’t need to be complicated. Research shows that only a small number of active funds consistently beat the market over the long term, and past performance is rarely a guide to the future. The real key is sticking with a simple, diversified approach — like holding the whole market — and staying invested over time.

It’s a reminder that patience and discipline often matter more than chasing the “next big thing.”

It’s easy to feel stuck when everything in the market looks overpriced. Morningstar suggests there are still opportunities if you know where to look. International shares and smaller companies may not be in the spotlight, but they could offer better value compared to the broader market.

In a recent piece, David Booth (Dimensional Fund Advisors) shares how the principles of life and investing overlap. Embracing uncertainty, planning without predicting, staying flexible, and letting compounding do its work are lessons that help us both live better and invest better.

Laetitia Peterson sold her investment company, Liontamer, to a global banking giant - only to watch her buyer teeter on bankruptcy just months later. From navigating a sale at the peak of the market to reclaiming her business during the Global Financial Crisis, Laetitia has faced entrepreneurial highs, daunting lows, and every challenge in between.

In this candid conversation, we explore the unexpected twists in exits, the resilience required to pivot amidst chaos, and why the best strategies aren’t always about predicting the future, but being prepared for uncertainty. If you're building towards an exit, or simply wondering what comes next, this episode offers real-world wisdom on managing the unpredictable journey of selling your business.

Investing isn’t just about what happens to us, it’s about how we respond.

One of the most powerful concepts we have come across recently is by David Jones, at Dimensional. He introduces a deceptively simple yet profoundly effective formula:

E + R = O Event + Response = Outcome

We can’t control market events — interest rate shocks, inflation surprises or political turmoil — but we can control how we respond. And that can make all the difference.

Nick Crawford didn’t build a career in wealth management AND a philosophy around what money really means after the cheque clears. From advising lottery winners to helping founders post-exit, he’s seen firsthand how sudden wealth often triggers more anxiety than freedom.

In this episode, we dive into the emotional aftermath of selling your business, the psychology of “how much is enough,” and why some of the biggest financial mistakes are driven by ego, not strategy. Whether you’re approaching an exit or navigating what comes next, this is an honest, nuanced look at wealth, identity, and the planning that truly brings peace of mind.

10 years ago, on 15 April 2015 to be precise, I published “Legal Tender, Enduring Wealth Management for Busy Legal Professionals” on Amazon with a digital version on Kindle. I wanted to give it my best shot as I had never authored a book before and engaged a team of professionals to bring the project to life, including a finance student and marketing professor from AUT Business School, creative writer, editor, proof-reader and illustrator. Amazon allowed me to bypass the process of getting picked up by a publishing house who would be focused on the commercial gain from the project. I wanted to give away my book to as many lawyers as possible, to help them make good decisions with their money.

“Volatility is heightened right now. We have volatility in markets, government policy, trade and supply chains, which translates into emotional volatility. Let’s look at some of the ways this manifests through a host of behavioral biases that impact us all in some way:

Recency bias is when you give more weight or importance to recent events.

Stocks are up. The correction is over! Stocks are down. This downturn will never end!

There is a tendency to declare victory — either bullish or bearish — when the stock market is rising and falling rapidly. The volatility plays head games with you.”

When markets feel as shaky as they do now in the US, it is normal to ask: Is this time different?

After all, the S&P 500 Index is down some 4% already this year and there is considerable economic uncertainty. But anxious investors today should consider where the market was five years ago, and how well those who tuned out the noise performed.

Then, the COVID-19 pandemic had spread rapidly, and the US stock market dropped 34% in just 23 days—faster than ever before.1 The VIX index, a measure of investor expectations of volatility often called Wall Street’s “fear gauge,” hit a record high.

The US market has had a disappointing start to 2025 amid a slew of new tariffs being imposed on some of the nation’s largest trading partners. For global investors, these losses have been somewhat offset by positive returns in many non-US markets. A few of these markets that have started 2025 strongly may be surprising to investors.

As seasoned investors know, share prices can move up and down a lot. It’s what investment professionals refer to as ‘volatility’. Sometimes price volatility may be relatively low, but over the last 3-4 weeks volatility has spiked and global shares, especially those in the US, have fallen rather sharply.

After a period of strong investment returns, global markets have experienced increased volatility in recent weeks, leading to declines in many investment portfolios and KiwiSaver balances. We understand this can be unsettling - even experienced investors can find it challenging to manage emotions when markets fluctuate.

Recent geopolitical tensions, concerns over tariffs, and inflation uncertainty have contributed to market pessimism. While these challenges create short-term noise, history has shown that reacting to market downturns often leads to poor investment decisions.

Every year, many investment and consulting firms release new CMAs, or capital market assumptions. CMAs can be useful for setting risk and return expectations and for long- term financial planning. However, as the old saying goes, it’s difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.1 Even well-constructed CMAs are not a crystal ball and, when used inappropriately, can lead to suboptimal outcomes for investors.

The first asset allocation quilt I created for this site covered the ten-year period from 2005-2014.

Those returns look nothing like the last 10 years which is the whole point of this exercise.

One of my favorite market datasets just got its annual update.

Aswath Damodaran at NYU publishes a yearly update of returns for stocks (S&P 500), bonds (10 year Treasuries), cash (3-month T-bills), real estate, gold and inflation going back to 1928. Plus this year he added small caps to the mix.

Against a backdrop of geopolitical tensions, economic challenges, and electoral uncertainty, 2024 proved the resilience of public financial markets and the power of human ingenuity once again. Markets continued to do what they do best: efficiently process information and set fair prices, rewarding long-term investors with positive returns.

For investors, 2024 was a year of surprises, defying many of the predictions that economists and strategists made at this time last year. In particular, consider the remarkable gains in the S&P 500 Index, which was on track to close up more than 25% for 2024, well ahead of Wall Street analysts’ forecasts, in one of its strongest annual performances of the last quarter-century.

What made 2024 so extraordinary for the U.S. economy and markets? And can these exceptional circumstances persist in the new year? Here are five surprising developments that Morgan Stanley’s Global Investment Committee believes warrant closer examination heading into 2025.

When it comes to investing, a big obstacle many people face is the fear of catastrophe. If you invest in a stock, there’s always the possibility that the value may drop to zero. In fact, we used to have a wall in the office lunchroom that was covered with stock certificates from liquidated companies.

Ever heard of the ‘Santa rally’? And no, it’s not a Father Christmas-themed motorsport… although that would be brilliant! It’s a performance trend that investors have seen over the decades, where the stock market tends to increase in value around the end of the year. In this article, we explore this festive phenomenon and look at what it could mean for your investments.