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Another advisor bites the dust; Science Guy savings tips; Toxic financial attitudes; Flat fee for roaming; Seismic shifts in insurance
By Amanda Morrall
1) Another one bites the dust
A demoralising day no doubt for the financial advisory sector after the conviction of yet another bad apple. The New Zealand Herald reports here on the lavish lifestyle led by North Shore based advisor Evan Cherry who syphoned some NZ$4.7 million from his 175 clients to fund a celebrity-style lifestyle that included three Porsches. Would the morally in tact financial advisors please stand up?
Here's a link to my interview with Pathfinder Asset Management John Berry who discusses a six-point check list that could help investors screen for irregular (i.e. bad) behaviour by advisors and fund managers. Vehicle count and garage size wasn't one of them but maybe it should be?
2) Science guy savings
"Science Guy" Bill Nye talks to Wall Street Journal news editor Wendy Bound about energy efficiencies on the home front and how to save money. Nye's own residential home retrofit included denim insulation (instead of pink bats) which is not only recyclable but far less toxic and less likely to go up in flames. Who knew? We'll have to get resident energy saver PDK to chime in here with his own energy saving strategies.
3) Toxic financial attitudes
Speaking of toxic, Luke Landes of a blog called consumerismcommentary.com looks at some toxic financial attitudes that are bound to impede your progress on the path to financial liberation. Repeat after me: Thou shall not envy the friend/wife/husband/etc. who came into wealth through inheritance or dumb luck.
Related Topics
4) Flat free for roaming
It's about time! Telecom announced a new policy whereby its mobile users won't be robbed blind over roaming charges. Provided users aren't exceeding their normal data usage, they'll be charged a flat fee of $6 a day for mobile use in Australia and for other international destinations $10 a day. Telecom chief executive Simon Moutter told the NZ Herald that when he stepped into the job he was determined to find a solution to insanely high roaming charges because he too has "shared the pain" personally.
"A flat fee provides certainty and puts an end to consumers' nasty bill shocks on your return home," he said.
5) Seismic shifts
Big changes afoot in the insurance industry. The latest is a move toward sum-insured replacement policies as opposed to compensation based on square metre calculations. Here's my interview with AA Insurance head of distribution and customer relations Suzanne Wolton talking about the change.
To read other Take Fives by Amanda Morrall click here. You can also follow Amanda on Twitter @amandamorrall or at www.amandamorrall.com
29 Comments
"Taxing fizzy drinks and
"Taxing fizzy drinks and fatty foods and subsidising fruit and vegetables could have significant health benefits for New Zealanders, a local study has shown." herald
Have to wait for the socialists to slither back into power before the above happens...they love deciding how peasants may live.
#1 hardly a disincentive when
#1 hardly a disincentive when the minimum non-parole period is only 3 1/2 years, and for that he got to burn through $4.7 million. Also somewhat confusing is that the investors get nothing back - so does he just pop out of the low security prison-farm in 2016 (just enough time to get a degree while incarcerated) and go back to the homes he paid off and the three porsches???
Almost enough to make you want to start a fund and defraud it yourself!
This is dead right. The govt
This is dead right. The govt needs to be putting the jail time up for these type of crimes. 20 years min. At the moment you can start up a company, bleed it dry, hide the money somewhere, then when it's all done and dusted, jail time included, It's off to a nice little retirement with all the hidden millions. All in under five years.
What a sound retirement plan.
What a sound retirement plan. Well worth consideration.
It's just as well he was not
It's just as well he was not taking a double dose of a fertility drug,he may have walked.
nope, you lost me there NG
nope, you lost me there NG *makes sign of hand whooshing over head*. Further clarification required...
I refer to the case of former
I refer to the case of former SFO chief prosecutor Anita Killeen who was discharged without conviction on tuesday.
One of the reasons was that she was taking a double dose of a fertility drug which may have had an adverse affect on her behaviour.
Aha, thanks for that NG. Note
Aha, thanks for that NG. Note to self: take some harmless drug and then make out that it was the cause of my offending.
There are many such schemes
There are many such schemes already.
Pick an initial one..
ASB
ANZ
BNZ
There was another National one, but that folded when the Nation helped em out of a sticky patch, when they had a Computer glitch, moving too much money overseas under their own steam.
Apparently these are classed as legal in some countries.
I think it is called money laundering....Another big one was called HSBC....initially.
Fine now.
Do not get caught out....even fractionally.
Could lose yer shirt.
Buy a house in Awkland instead....or a quarter acre.....no money down...whatsoever.
Land Banking I think the term is. Some of these initial ones might help out.
30 years is average. Used to be 7 on average. ...then skim a little off the top...if lucky.
Then on to the next....big thing.
Ho Hum.
The hilight for me about the
The hilight for me about the HSBC money-laundering enquiry was the mexicans who came in every day to the mexican branch with a box full of cash - the box was ever so slightly smaller than the dimensions of the hole in the glass at the tellers window, so they could just squeeze through the most cash every day they went in!
Nothing suspicious about that at all... LOL
#3 read an interesting
#3 read an interesting article recently after the 500 million US lottery about the effects of sudden wealth. One of the interesting statistics is that the people who live near the suddenly wealthy household are much more likely to upgrade their car or do some major renovation to the house than those who live further away.
The green-eyed monster?
#3 also, I have to say that I
#3 also, I have to say that I disagree with your consumercommentary guy on the luck thing. While it certainly is true that by trying and not giving up you can create your own luck, at some point you are either lucky or not.
I read an interesting article recently about the OS2/Windows 'war' back in the early 90's. While it's true Bill Gates was a tenacious competitor to IBM, the fate of the winner was actually decided by a (very lucky for Bill) bad decision by one IBM executive.
And of course everyones friend Mark Zuckenberg only created a website so his college buddies could rate the women on campus - lucky for him everyone thought it was great and myspace dropped the ball and before he knew it he'd inadvertently created the next step in social media.
etc. Very often the difference between the super-successful and the also-rans is blind luck and/or serendipidy.
There is this view: O,
There is this view:
O, once in each man's life, at least,
Good luck knocks at his door;
And wit to seize the flitting guest
Need never hunger more.
But while the loitering idler waits
Good luck beside his fire,
The bold heart storms at fortune's gates,
And conquers its desire.
Lewis Bates.
He does add a nice rhyme to the idea ..
well I can't find anything
well I can't find anything about Lewis Bates - he doesn't even have a wiki entry, ergo it's safe to assume that he didn't go on to fame and fortune.
So we can take anything he says (rhyming or not) with a pinch of salt...
American poet who died in
American poet who died in 1932, somewhat before the wiki :)
#5 backup retirement plan:
#5 backup retirement plan: buy a dunger on a good section, *calculate* house value at around $3 mill, *accidentally* burn it down, then rebuild 3 million mansion and flog off for massive profit. Repeat until retirement fund is looking good or insurance company start asking pointed questions.
These financial blogs are so handy!
This guy creamed orf 766
This guy creamed orf 766 thousand in a single week. He was hoping for a million plus.
The press hounded him, however the police escorted him from pillar to post.
Even brought his lady friend along for the ride.
Not one complaint was received from the General Public, but the taxpayers maybe peeved...if they only knew, why there was a fiscal deficit.
Many people aided in this single deception. Normally fiscally prudent MP's swooned.
Apparently same guy has been doing it for decades. His accomplice is a latecomer.
Should be thrown in the Tower...I say.
Screwed again and...... Royally.
http://www.3news.co.nz/Royal-tour-cost-New-Zealanders-766000/tabid/423/articleID/280132/Default.aspx
yeah but the Windsors are
yeah but the Windsors are still technically the rulers of England, and England paid for the NZ branch of the British Empire, so (also technically) it's just like Oracle NZ paying for Larry Elison to visit or Microsoft paying for Steve Balmer to visit - a subsidiary branch of England is paying for one of the CEOs to pop over and check out how you are running things.
You are still part of the commonwealth and the Queen is (technically again) still your head. So all your base are belong to them.
Got to love insurance
Got to love insurance companies and their ability to constantly change the goal posts in policy. Got to admire their ability to profit via FEAR manipulation and their ability to constantly find the next sucker!
They are the ultimate parasite!
But Stan my good
But Stan my good man......
The HUN descendants actually infiltrated the British aristocracy.
Follow the munny. Follow the Family Tree.
They are not actually rulers, but if ya give em an inch they will take a mile.
As usual....it is all Greek to me....who his daddy was.
Has been playing second fiddle for years....now his son is.
This Royalty business is as bad as this New Zealand Government Business..a .lurk.
Somethings a foot, give em both an inch and they all rip yer hand ord.
All over paid, over here, hand out stretched.
Me...I do not answer to anyone.... Royalties nor Commoner PM and their cronies..........
Not an honourable one amongst em.
As they prove almost.......................daily.
But I do know who is paying through the nose for em.....and that stinks.
Charity begins at home.....Not in the Royalties...box.
Well to be fair, the UK Royal
Well to be fair, the UK Royal Family brings more money into the country in tourism etc than they cost. And of course they are major landowners of some very expensive real estate that pays for a fair whack of it as well.
If one weighs up the benefits of NZ being in the commonwealth, you'd probably find the odd $mil here and there isn't such a bad deal. Also you have to bear in mind that the money went on accomodation and travel etc i.e. straight back to NZers who then have to pay GST & tax on it, so in real terms it probably cost the taxpayer bugger-all.
BTW It's a shame there isn't more German blood in the lineage - they are certainly better at running/building/designing things than pretty well anyone else, especially the English. I'm still confused about how they lost WW2 - they had uniforms designed by Hugo Boss FGS!
Talking of
Talking of Royalties....
Santa is now...our favourite mega bucks Royalty sacked stuffer. The other was not big enuff.
More royalties must be needed to fill his sack and pay for the dear...(Deer).....overheads.
I hear the Lawyers are having a Very Merry Christmas.....even if the TAXPAYERS are not.
(I sleigh me...ho, ho, ho).
Apparently.... he is coming down the chimney too...this new Santa Claws......(Renamed)
(Must be a bloody big chimney, says I...ho,ho,ho)
Maybe he will go up in smoke....and blow away...soon.......(some hope).
How the mighty have fallen.
How the spin can erase...the true spirit of Father Christmas and replace it with....probably the biggest fantasy of em all.
HO HO...bleedin HO.
Can you believe the latest on
Can you believe the latest on the David Ross saga. The Securities Commission was warned up to three years ago about him, and did nothing. Well I suppose it would have been no good telling their Boss Plane Jane Diplock about it, as she would have been out of the country on a trip somewhere.
When is the Commission going to be held to account for their incompetence.
As a sidebar, I was shot in the face with a BB gun by a passing motorist last night. This was a first for me, I am used to being abused by passing motorists, always young males. I have since found out that this is quite common in NZ. Lets face it the Kiwi male doesn't grow up until they hit 30. Still waiting for the cops to get back to me about it.
You know what? NZ seems to
You know what? NZ seems to feature highly on the non-corruption index, but there seems to be an awful lot of fraud going on. I can only assume the NZ government also scores highly on the non-compentence index as well...
BB gun shooting is annoying. Next time chase them and ram them off the road - you can tell the court you were taking a fertility drug (see above).
What annoys me the most about
What annoys me the most about it, is that the cops don't seem to give a stuff. If it had been one of them, I'll bet they would have moved heaven and earth to catch them and it would have been all over the news.
In my experience of dealing
In my experience of dealing with the NZ justice system you waste a lot of your own time at court, the other person doesn't turn up, and even if you get a judgement you still have to try and track them down because the court is useless at trying to serve them.
And they wonder why people take the law into their own hands.
Sadly, what you say is just
Sadly, what you say is just another thing that is wrong with this place. Back to the guys that shot at me. I have found out where they live. God their dumb, if your going to take pot shots at people, don't live in the next suburb. Now the waiting starts.
Maybe you should pop around
Maybe you should pop around with a few "associates" and have a wee "chat" :-)
Well I'm going to have to do
Well I'm going to have to do something, as It's now expected of me. I wish I had just kept quite about it now.