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Healthy Home Loan

May 27, 2015 A few simple checks could save you thousands It always amazes me how the quality of loan structure and interest rates on a Home Loan can deteriorate over time. Your Home loan is like anything, it needs a little bit of love and attention occasionally for it to thrive. Earlier this week I was doing a review for a client who had 4 separate loans. One for a rental property they were just purchasing and the oth...

Time to think (fix) long term

We are seeing some amazing fixed interest rates at the moment and I believe now is the time to fix long term. Below I explain the reasons why and give you some methods to help with your own decision making. There are two ways to make decisions about which interest rate is best for you: Option One -Try to predict what the market is doing and where interest rates will go in the future. This is fraught with danger given the variability in world money markets over the last 10 years. When making...

Adding Children to Health Insurance

Its a great idea to add your children to your health insurance as early as possible. Most companies will allow children to be added to your policy in the first three months since their birth just by letting them know the child's date of birth and name. No forms to fill in and most importantly no exclusions. Recently a couple added their baby to their health insurance but because they waited 8 months from the birth they had to fill in a form. Not a big deal but because there were a couple of sm...

Time for a review of your cover

During the summer break a lot of people would have had time to set a few goals for 2015. They may well have also looked at some of the bills they are paying and decided its time to address them. The best thing to do with your insurance premiums is to ask us for a review of your cover so we can make sure you're still covered for the right amounts and you're not overpaying. Its free for us to make sure your cover is still correct and we will do anything possible to help with the premiums going f...

Property Buying Tips

1.Don’t overanalyse the market. If you go online and read the reports every day, you will get confused by all the conflicting information. Knowledge is power but too much can make your head spin and you need to do what is right for you.  2.Drive around the area you are looking at buying in, ensure you check it out at different times of the day, is it a high traffic street at peak/school times? What about night time?   3.Ask about the neighbours – often neighbours will visit open ho...

Breast Cancer Month

October is Breast Cancer month in NZ so we have put together a few statistics around women's health. Did you know? Cancer: Today, 7 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer   This year, 650 will most likely die   Yet 30% of eligible women don't have regular mammograms   And 60% of young women don't know the signs beyond a lump (Source:  www.nzbcf.org.nz)   Women's Heart Disease: Worldwide, 3.4 million...

Property News! Land Types

When buying a property there are references to different types of land ownership.  There are four main types of land ownership in New Zealand: fee simple, cross lease, leasehold and unit title.  Each form is outlined briefly below.   Fee Simple (also known as freehold) A fee simple title is the highest form of land ownership in New Zealand after the Crown and is also the most common.  As the registered proprietor you own the underlying land and any dwellings on the lan...

Election News! How will each party impact housing affordability

With the election less than a week away I thought it would be a good idea to cover off some of the housing policies of the different political parties so that you could see what affect each might have on Interest Rates and also how affordable homes may be with different incentives. Below is a brief summary.  Further detail on policies are available on the websites of the particular parties.  Overall there seems to be a move toward building more houses and helping make purchasing easier...

Interest rates going through interesting period

It has now been a month since Reserve Bank Goverenor, Graeme Wheeler, increased the Official Cash Rate by a further .25% (now 1% higher than it was 12 months ago) but we haven't seen any major shifts in interest rates since then. Naturally all of the major lenders increased their Floating/Variable rates by the same as the increase in the OCR, which has now become standard practice.  However fixed rates haven't moved and we're starting to see some good discounts on the shorter term rates....

Money Printing Machine

If you did happen to have a machine in your home that printed out cash money every week would you look after it? Would you insure it? Of course you would, after all that machine would be able to pay all your bills and give you a great lifestyle. Everyone has this money printing machine! Its you. Each week you make money for your family to pay your bills and to enjoy life with. You are worth insuring. Insure your body against injury and illness, insure your income if you are unable to work a...

What to do when your fixed rate is about to come off your home loan.

In this video, I discuss re-fixing your home loan. When you take out a new loan you might fix that loan for 2 or 3 years and then it comes to the end of its fixed term... what do you do then? Generally, you’ll get a letter in the mail from the bank and they will suggest to fix it for another 2 to 3 years or whatever they’re recommending people to do at that time, or they might just say 'do nothing and you’ll automatically move on to the floating rate.” But there are two r...

Why can Income Protection be so expensive?

I am often asked why income protection is so expensive. There can be a lot of reasons, take these points into consideration: Age Sex Smoking status Job description (manual or office based) There are a number of other points taken into account by the insurance companies but one of the biggest reasons the premiums for income protection can be high is because it can provide a monthly percentage of your income until you are 65 or 70 years old. For example:A 40 year old who is insured for $50,000 per...

Life cover premiums that stay the same each year

Wouldn't it be nice to have the same premium each year on your life cover! Yes it would, especially when the premiums go up each year based on your age, and when you get in your 60's its a massive jump each year. If you plan on keeping your life cover for as long as possible then call us to talk about making your premiums level. You can do this in a few ways and each one may work depending on your situation. You can save thousands of dollars by getting in on this option early and have piece of m...

Interest Rate Update

Nothing ever stands still when it comes to interest rates and the last couple of weeks have been no different with minor tweaks from most banks. With the Official Cash Rate increasing last month the banks were tipped to increase fixed interest rates again but these have remained steady and we have even seen decreases in some places.  The reason for this is that the trading banks have already increased their fixed rates considerably since the end of 2013, because of predicted rises in the ...

Insure your home for its real value

When insuring your home, it is now more important than ever to get independent advice.  House insurance has changed and your home may now no longer be insured for its “Full Replacement”.  Your house now needs to be insured for a “Sum Insured”; a value that should represent the replacement cost of the house. It makes sense to obtain as much sound advice as possible to make the best decisions in protecting your most valuable asset. You will need to determine an appropriate “s...

When does your life cover expire?

Most people don't think about lasting longer than their life cover will, but for a lot of people out there that's exactly what will happen. A large number of people I talk to that took out life cover over 10 years ago have never checked to see when it expires and they get a shock when I tell them it's at age 65. Most life insurers run their life cover through to age 100 but there are a lot of older policies out there that don't do that and will stop when you get to age 65, which might be getting...

For every home lost by fire.....

There are FOUR lost through death and 48 homes foreclosed as a result of disability or not being able to work. (source: CommInsure Commonwealth bank of Australia claims experience 2010) We highly recommend insuring your home against fire at NZ Advice Group, but we don't want you to forget that it could be even more important to insure your income in case you are unable to work, and your life in case you pass away so your family still has a home to live in....

Insurance Claims

When something happens and we need to make a claim on our cover it can be a very difficult time. It could be a life claim for someone very close to us or a trauma claim when our loved one is now in hospital, but whatever the reason for the claim, its nice to know that you can call Reagan directly to discuss it and get his help to fill in the claim forms for processing. Its always nicer to deal with someone you know and was there with you when you filled in the original application forms rather t...

Reducing Short Term Debt

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Farmers changing roles on June 1st

This time of year a lot of farmers are sorting out their new farm or new farm roles for the changes on June 1st. Some farmers are now going to be self employed for the first time as 50/50 sharemilkers and are buying their new herd or are taking on a contract as a lower order milker. With these changes being made there is usually a need for a review of their life insurance for those taking on more debt but also income protection if they are unable to work due to sickness or accident. Farmers ha...