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 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.

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.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.

I'm on Facebook here, Instagram here, and Twitter here.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Each week BusinessDesk and the NZ Herald’s Cooking the Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it’s how to figure out your insurance priorities, and how insurance will change in the future. Hosted by Frances Cook.

Insurance is meant to protect you against life’s worst moments, the things that can make life hard for not just you, but also your loved ones.

But it’s also a little tricky, because the various policies can be expensive, and you have to personalise your strategy.

After all, the things that pose a risk to your quality of life won’t be the same as for someone else.

There’s also the bigger picture to consider here.

After major floods and severe weather around New Zealand, the impacts have been devastating.

As we move past the immediate response, it’s fair to ask, will this change how we live and manage risk through insurance?

To talk about what you need to know, both now and in the future, on the latest Cooking the Books podcast I talked to Insurance Council Chief Executive Tim Grafton.

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.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A highlight clip from the September 2019 episode "the most successful ways to travel on a budget".

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.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Each week BusinessDesk and the NZ Herald’s Cooking the Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it’s how to approach the sharemarket while the economy is down. Hosted by Frances Cook.

There’s an old saying that everyone is a genius in a bull market.When the share market is going up, up, up, it’s easy to get sucked into the hype, and assume that you’re the one making brilliant investing decisions. When actually you’re just in a positive part of the cycle.However, bull markets, where the money is easy, eventually end.Now things are looking a little curlier. Businesses aren’t having a good time, so shares and stocks are down.Recession is looming on the horizon, there’s a cost of living crisis, and some investors are thinking, maybe this isn’t for me after all.So what do you do at times like this?For the latest podcast, I talked to Victoria Harris from The Curve.If you have a question about this podcast, or a question you’d like answered in the next one, talk to me about it. I’m on Facebook here, Instagram here, and Twitter here.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.