Investing for the long term - a wise choice right now?

Hi all,

I have $10k to invest for my son (looking at 10 years) and was thinking about what options would be best right now. I am not trading expert so was thinking maybe putting the money into a fund, or alternatively to buy into AIA as I a pretty good level of knowledge on the organisation.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Have you thought of spreading it into the platforms in NZ , Simplicity I think its called, where you can drip feed it into an ETF type structure. 10 year time frame is quite short for a young person and if a GFC type shock hit how would you react with it dropping drastically and have to wait for recovery or take a loss??

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Originally Posted by mani99

Hi all,

I have $10k to invest for my son (looking at 10 years) and was thinking about what options would be best right now. I am not trading expert so was thinking maybe putting the money into a fund, or alternatively to buy into AIA as I a pretty good level of knowledge on the organisation.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

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If you have a "good level of knowledge" about AIA, buy them.Always best to invest in what you know.

First advice is always to go for index funds if you don't have the time, knowledge or experience for investing, since they tend to perform well over long periods of time, but don't invest it all at once, do it over time in order to get good average pricing, so that you aren't left buying at a high price and watching it fall and waiting for it to recover for a long time before getting to break-even.

If you have some knowledge or are willing to do more research then I'd say picking some individual companies along with a portion allocated to index funds would be ideal, so you get the best of both worlds. Choose companies that have a durable competitive advantage and since you have a 10 year time frame I'd say have a preference to companies with more than average growth.

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Originally Posted by G on

Have you thought of spreading it into the platforms in NZ , Simplicity I think its called, where you can drip feed it into an ETF type structure. 10 year time frame is quite short for a young person and if a GFC type shock hit how would you react with it dropping drastically and have to wait for recovery or take a loss??

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I think you mean Smartshares, not Simplicity. You can also look at the Sharesies and InvestNow platforms which offer access to ETFs with very low minimum investments.

Investing for the long term is ALWAYS a wise choice ... only the investors that are in it for the short term get burnt when things go bad.

If you are worried about a "crash" then invest in a solid company with solid dividends (e.g. AIA?) .

Simplicity now offers Investment Funds alongside its KiwiSaver Funds.

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Originally Posted by Tronald Dump

I think you mean Smartshares, not Simplicity. You can also look at the Sharesies and InvestNow platforms which offer access to ETFs with very low minimum investments.

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Thanks for the advice, very useful.

Although I mentioned a 10 year time frame, it will probably be more like 15 years. I think I will take a look at the funds etc before making a decision, but I'm edging towards AIA and maybe even POT.

I would suggest like some others have done, to drip feed the money into an ETF like the USF through either Smartshares or Sharesies. Both low fees and easy to do with small regular amounts.

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Originally Posted by mani99

Thanks for the advice, very useful.

Although I mentioned a 10 year time frame, it will probably be more like 15 years. I think I will take a look at the funds etc before making a decision, but I'm edging towards AIA and maybe even POT.

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Both are gateways to NZ.
Good choices.