Hi, I haven't posted much but I have read the MMM blog plenty.
I am just getting started on getting our money to work harder for us, but I'm not in the US so I
have to cobble things together a bit. I have read on here about the virtues of passive funds,
and I found that my husband can get a Vanguard fund on his superannuation at work so that
part is fine. For those of you that love Vanguard, no he can't increase his payments into this
fund and I cannot access Vanguard outside of it.
For home, I found I can buy into an index fund that covers the biggest 50 shares on our
local sharemarket. The fund charges 0.75% each year to manage it, there is a one-off
$30 fee to start up, and each time they convert any dividends into more shares for you there is
a 0.75% charge on the amount handled, which happens twice a year. These are ETFs, is that bad?
I was interesting in the "Top ten" index fund but later thought perhaps it wasn't a broad enough
base. Ideally I would get a fund that covers the whole local NZ sharemarket, but at least
the 50 one I have found covers 53% of the sharemarket.
I can also buy into the top Australian shares if I choose, what do you think? It's just
that NZ is actually doing a bit better than Australia at the moment.
PS We don't say "stocks" here, they are called "shares" but it's the same difference.
Thanks for reading :)
PPS We are in our early 50s, so have about 15 years to official retirement.