Quote Originally Posted by BeeBop View Post
my situation is a bit different as I operate internationally and am not NZ tax resident with three main asset classes.

1. So where did the money go? Boring...I paid down another mortgage as I have done with NZD over the past many years. It does reduce my leverage benefit but means that when I find a ‘unique’ undervalued property situation, I can use the equity e.g. I bought in Dunedin in 2014 when NO ONE wanted to buy housing (yes the house has gone up 150% since then and has low debt thanks to Milford).

2. Scalping: yes NZ funds to seem to scalp but I look at the AFTER tax and scalp returns balanced with the risk. Milford was good for this...and when I purchased, it did seem undervalued and was prior to the OCR drop.

3. DIV ETF....I would buy directly from the NZX (still have higher fees even in the vanguard system) but the diversification is easy.

4. You can get in on the international action by purchasing Investment Trusts listed on the NZX e.g Bankers, City of London, Henderson Far East (it should have a good yield as I own some on the LSE due to yield and may well be quite depressed at the moment due to Corona).

But I am a non-resident and have property, cold hard cash in a 0% bank account, and shares in three markets. I also note that it is difficult to purchase large parcels of smaller/mid-cap stocks in NZ as you can move the price too easily.

If I wasn’t doing what I was doing at the moment, I would purchase a blue-chip property in central Auckland to hold as a gold bar (with very low debt)...I would rent it out (as long as the rent covered the basic outgoings)...but $1m won’t be enough to do this (closer to $2m would be better) and the income would be low.

My thoughts only....and I always, always, always hold cash in relevant to life-style currencies and I have rental income...if it all hits the fan, you don’t need to sell the assets to cover costs in the next year or so....
Non-residency is a key issue in my future estate planning.

Having checked local NZ brokers, it seems the fees are excessive compared to discount brokers in the US that have gone to a 0% fee base commission. I looked at www.directbroking.co.nz and they charge 0.2% for NZ equities and 0.3% for Aus and for 'telephone' rates it's a whopping 0.8% each way. So to buy you pay the commission.. and to sell you pay that same commission, either way the broker is laughing all the way.

Liquidity is a problem on NZX listed shares and agree... any person with a significant position will affect the share price too much... no wonder NZ brokers love the 'hyperactives'.

I've learned about Peer 2 Peer lending. Have spoken to a person at Squirrel and their market is to lend on "Personal Loans" which scares me. I mean it's really scary that they're paying lenders 6% and lending out at whopping rates like x2 times, in addition it's all unsecured.