The Good Investor – Advice from Baptist Savings

The difference between playing chess and playing draughts is the difference between thinking four moves ahead, or playing what’s in front of you. Unfortunately, most of us tend to play draughts with our finances.

By this I mean that, when it comes to effectively managing our personal finances, most of us tend to default towards playing the next best move.

The best advice I can give anyone is to look ahead, and plan long term. This is important because planning ahead will give you more choices.

Read more: Don’t let lack of strategy checkmate you

How come we could have an international debt crisis, again?

We can’t help but feel nervous about the threat of a full bore recession as world economies – the United States, Italy, Greece, Ireland and Spain – lurch from one debt crisis to another.

The reason is that life appears to be good when we can have what we want today and pay for it tomorrow. What most people (and national governments chasing the popular vote) have ignored is that when you borrow more than you can repay, there’s going to come a day of reckoning, eventually!

Read more: Avoid slipping into debt traps

Warning: this article might not give you the answer to the above question!

It is amazing how many times I get asked, “Should I fix now or stay on the variable rate?”

While it is an important question for sound financial management, I wonder if it is somewhat shallow. Does doing better than our neighbour take precedence over loving our neighbour? Even in beautiful New Zealand, whether to fix or stay on the variable rate couldn’t be further from some people’s minds. “Where is my next meal coming from?” or “Where will I sleep tonight?” dominate the thoughts of many right at our door-step but unseen to most of us.

Read more: ‘So should I fix, or should I float?’

Could money be the most powerful evangelism tool in the world today?

Let’s face it, our lives are consumed by money – downturns, tax, cost of living, consumerism, inflation, mortgage rates, debt. No wonder 11 out of 39 parables in the New Testament talk about money.

In church we talk about evangelism a lot, but rarely about money. Yet money has never been more important in modern society and I believe we are missing the opportunity to use money and financial advice as an evangelism tool – it is a powerful way to reach out to middle class New Zealand.

Read more: Baptist Savings reaches out with free financial seminars