Cooking the Books with Frances Cook The New Zealand Herald

Each week BusinessDesk and the NZ Herald’s Cooking the Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it’s a banking expert on how safe savings are in New Zealand and Australia. Hosted by Frances Cook.

A bank collapse is the stuff of nightmares, with the potential to wipe out hard-earned savings, or a business’s ability to pay staff.This nightmare has become reality in the US, with a run on Silicon Valley Bank, or SVB, that led to the bank collapsing. It’s a big deal because SVB is, or was, the 16th largest bank in the USA. It’s the second biggest to fail since Washington Mutual’s collapse during the 2008 Global Financial Crisis.For context, it’s a bigger bank than ANZ here in New Zealand, which is our biggest bank. SVB had assets of US$209b, while ANZ NZ has assets of US$120b (NZ$195.6b).It’s been followed by a couple of other worrying developments. Credit Suisse was Switzerland’s second largest bank – but it’s being bought out in an emergency rescue deal by the country’s first biggest bank, UBS. UBS is snapping up their rival for a bargain 3 billion Swiss francs, which is about 60% less than Credit Suisse was supposedly worth before it hit panic buttons. Meanwhile, back to the US, and Signature Bank has been shut down and is likely to have its deposits and loans bought out by Flagstar Bank. Not great.So could it happen here, and should we all New Zealanders be worried?

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A highlight clip from the January 2020 episode "The reality of one NZers journey to early retirement", with Nick Carr, from Your Money Blueprint. 

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Each week BusinessDesk and the NZ Herald’s Cooking the Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it’s how index investing changed the game, and what’s next. Hosted by Frances Cook.

Now don’t tell me you forgot it was our anniversary. It’s a big one too: 30 years, the pearl anniversary.

What’s it the anniversary of? Well, I’m glad you asked.

January 29 marked 30 years of the world’s longest-surviving exchange-traded fund, Standard & Poor’s Depository Receipt, mostly known by the acronym SPDR, or as the “spider”.

It’s now one of the world’s largest funds.

A little closer to home, March 3 this year marked 20 years since the Standard & Poors NZX50 was launched.

That’s the china anniversary, for those paying attention.

Jokes aside, index investing has been huge for letting the little guy into the market, allowing them to invest in a wide range of companies with less effort. The rewards, without as much risk.

But some things have changed over the past few decades.

For the latest podcast, I talked to Tim Edwards, S&P’s global head of index investment strategy.

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A highlight clip from the October 2020 episode "How to pay off debt faster", with Kate Reddington from Sorted.

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Each week BusinessDesk and the NZ Herald’s Cooking the Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it’s the couple who used shares and property investing to create the financial freedom to go travelling with their kids. Hosted by Frances Cook.

Living entirely off investments might seem like a dream for rich people, but what about the idea of changing your money so that you have some investments supporting you, and then you just work a little bit?That’s exactly what today’s guest did, after they decided life was short, and they wanted to travel and have lots of time for their kids.She and her husband both work part-time now, thanks to a healthy combination of property investing, shares investing, and starting their own business.But where they started from was minimum wage jobs.For the latest podcast I talked to Emma Healey.If you have a question about this podcast, or a question you'd like answered in the next one, come and talk to me about it. I'm on Facebook here, Instagram here, and Twitter here.
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A highlight clip from the October 2019 episode "Should you protect your KiwiSaver by going conservative?", with Paul Gregory, then head of investments for Pie Funds and JUNO KiwiSaver Scheme.

If you have a question about this podcast, or a question you'd like answered in the next one, come and talk to me about it.

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