Latest / The Curve / The investing guide I wish I had in my 20s
Transcript
- 0:00Hi, I'm Sophie.
- 0:01I'm one of the founders of The Curve.
- 0:02And I went from being in 50K of debt, not understanding investing, knowing how to budget, save.
- 0:10I was a total financial disaster.
- 0:12Now I have two investment properties, over 100K in the stock market, and I'm in no debt.
- 0:18But I did not always used to be this good with money and investing.
- 0:21And it all started from the very beginning of this podcast.
- 0:24We're currently on a podcast break.
- 0:26So we're having two weeks off new episodes.
- 0:29And we wanted to do some throwbacks to the vintage OG episodes that were released originally five years ago when I knew nothing about investing.
- 0:38If you don't need to go back to these throwback episodes, enjoy two weeks without us in your ears.
- 0:43But if you know anyone who's felt left out of the conversation when it comes to money, investing, or just really don't know where to start, please send them this podcast.
- 0:52We will be back for regular programming at the start of October.
- 0:57Welcome to the OG Curve episodes.
- 1:00So we recorded these, no joke, six years ago.
- 1:05This was at a time when I was financially 100% illiterate.
- 1:12And I'm actually, I'm just not exaggerating when I say that.
- 1:15Anyone who's listened from the beginning of the curve will know I didn't understand inflation.
- 1:20I had no investments.
- 1:22I had no retirement funds.
- 1:24I had no idea how to budget, save, invest.
- 1:30And money was just this really terrifying part of my life that caused a lot of low-level anxiety.
- 1:37I listened to the questions that I ask, and I almost want to go and hug little Sophie.
- 1:43But as much as I would like to sweep these episodes under the rug, because for me, it's almost like, wow, I can't believe I knew so little, but
- 1:53That is the whole point of the curve.
- 1:55That's why we started this podcast.
- 1:56It's why the whole business exists, is that there's so many people like me who never got any financial education when it comes to how to budget, save, invest, and grow your wealth so that one day you're not hopefully working in exchange for your time.
- 2:12The idea of investing is that you build up a portfolio that hopefully is big enough that you can just, if you don't want to work, you can be work optional.
- 2:20So these are our OG vintage first episodes that we ever put out.
- 2:26We have decided not to do the intro to The Curve because that was quite literally the first one we ever put out.
- 2:32Vic and I were like, oh my God, we're not pretenders.
- 2:34How are we doing this?
- 2:35But this is the second episode we ever released.
- 2:39It is the fundamental basics when it comes to finance and investing.
- 2:45So we discuss everything from what a return actually means.
- 2:51You'll hear us a lot in the podcast saying, you know, what was the return or what's the annual return or the returns are not very good.
- 3:00Returns is one of those words that's sort of thrown around by a lot of finance speak and.
- 3:04And understanding really what that means is super, super important.
- 3:08So we talk about what does a return mean for the different types of asset classes.
- 3:14So what is the return you're getting on an investment?
- 3:17What is the money that you are earning, depending on what you've invested in?
- 3:21This might be a really nice refresher.
- 3:23If you've listened to the podcast for a while, going back to these beginning episodes might actually be a really great thing to just, yeah, go back to the drawing board.
- 3:35And maybe not, maybe these episodes actually aren't for you, but if you know about investing or you feel quite confident in these basics, I would highly encourage you to send these episodes as they come out to any of your friends or family or people you know.
- 3:51Because they can start again.
- 3:52They can start from these beginning episodes and work their way up so that the Curve Weekly makes sense to them.
- 3:58Because we're very aware there's a lot of you who have listened from the beginning, which we're just so grateful for.
- 4:03But it's meant that there's probably a lot of people who don't know where or how to enter the conversation.
- 4:07So in this episode, we're going to cover volatility, which I remember when we first started the podcast, Vic would use that word a lot.
- 4:15And I'm going to talk about volatility.
- 4:16And it felt like a complicated, confusing word that she was using.
- 4:20And I just, I don't know, for some reason I found it hard for this concept to land.
- 4:24But yeah, we talk in this episode about volatility and how that is almost the definition of risk that a lot of finance people use.
- 4:32Yeah.
- 4:33It's essentially understanding that different types of investments have different levels of volatility.
- 4:40So volatility just meaning how much do they go up and down and up and down?
- 4:44Because if you look at a graph of the stock market, you'll see that if you just even look at the S&P 500, for example, which if you don't know what that means, don't stress, it's the top 500 companies in America.
- 4:57So
- 4:57If you were to look at a graph of those 500 companies, you would see, say you looked at like a 12-month period, it going up and down and up and down.
- 5:06And there's all these little squiggles.
- 5:07It kind of looks like a...
- 5:09You know, if you're like on a lie detector and it goes up and down, depending if someone's lying, it kind of looks like that.
- 5:14So different assets go up and down in varying degrees.
- 5:19Some of them are way more volatile than others.
- 5:22And that's really what we talk about in this episode.
- 5:24Understanding the different levels of volatility and how you look at that.
- 5:30And then decide what's right for you.
- 5:32Because for some people they're really comfortable investing in volatile, risky, and I don't know if you're watching this or just listening, but I'm doing like in quotation marks, volatile or risky investments.
- 5:46For me, I'm very comfortable with very volatile investments because I understand the idea that high volatility or high risk can also mean high reward.
- 5:57But if this is a new concept to you, that might not have landed just yet.
- 6:02And so this episode will hopefully help that make sense.
- 6:06And just a premise, I haven't given away the entire concept of this episode.
- 6:10I think that when I reflect on these early episodes and what helped me really learn,
- 6:16You know, if you think about almost non-fiction books, and if you were to read a 15-minute blurb on, say, Atomic Habits, let's say you were reading a blurb, and it just said, Habits Stack, do X, Y, Z, you would probably think, I don't need to read this whole book, I get the concept.
- 6:32But you read the book because the more that you hear the same things repeated, the more that the concepts land.
- 6:37And I really found that to be true when it came to investing.
- 6:40So...
- 6:42Highly recommend listening to this.
- 6:44Even if you understand volatility, it might be really helpful to just go back to the drawing board because there's a lot of people panicking at the moment that we're about to have a big stock market crash and that there's a big AI bubble coming.
- 6:57Might be a really good idea to just revisit and reset the idea of risk, why you're investing, why you're investing in particular asset classes, and ultimately why risk isn't scary.
- 7:12honestly any age but if you've got at least five years to put money away and invest that is time that's time to see volatility go up and down and sideways and you don't need to worry about it so have a listen hopefully this is a really good reset or introduction to what risk means when it comes to investing it's really cute to re-listen to some of these episodes and just be reminded of how
- 7:37fun and silly investing can be and how easy it is to learn this stuff.
- 7:42So if you're new here, welcome.
- 7:43I hope you really enjoy these beginning episodes.
- 7:46If you're not new here, we will be back in a couple of weeks.
- 7:49Enjoy this vintage throwback.
- 7:51Hope you have a great week.
- 7:53Here's the episode.
- 7:59Now, we've got quite a lot of content to cover today, don't we, Vic?
- 8:02We do.
- 8:02I've actually bought my notepad because I'm prepared to take notes because otherwise I forget important information.
- 8:08Good idea.
- 8:09Well, the great thing about this podcast is that you can rewind.
- 8:11This is true.
- 8:13Technology.
- 8:13Wow.
- 8:15Today, we're going to talk a bit about risk and return, compound interest, and why Albert Einstein says that compound interest is the sixth wonder of the world.
- 8:23Can I just say on that, I'm pretty sure there are six wonders of the world.
- 8:27I know.
- 8:29Great quote, though.
- 8:30We're going to talk about different asset classes and a bit about diversification and why it's so important.
- 8:36Firstly, are we starting with risk and return?
- 8:38Yeah.
- 8:39Can I take a stab in the dark here?
- 8:40Go for it.
- 8:41Is it basically...
- 8:43The bigger, you know, and people are like higher risk, higher reward.
- 8:46Exactly.
- 8:47Yeah.
- 8:47Taking a step back.
- 8:48So investing is all about you're trying to maximize your return and minimize your risk.
- 8:54So you're right.
- 8:55Yeah.
- 8:55You're trying to you're trying to maximize what you can earn from your investment and minimize what you can lose.
- 9:01similar to most things in life.
- 9:02A doctor, for example, or a surgeon is compensated more for the level of risk that he's taking because he's operating on you.
- 9:10So his job's high risk.
- 9:12So he's compensated or his return, which is his salary, is higher.
- 9:17Reflecting that.
- 9:17It's like anesthetists, right?
- 9:19Like because their job is like the most dangerous, right?
- 9:22Yeah.
- 9:22And obviously skill comes into it and all that.
- 9:24But like this is a shop assistant who's selling you clothing.
- 9:28Very little risk involved in that unless you're a shopaholic.
- 9:32Nothing wrong with being a shop assistant.
- 9:33But it's essentially like what you're saying is you're paid for the fact that you're really sticking your neck out.
- 9:38Yeah.
- 9:39Yeah, and the same is with investing.
- 9:41So if you're taking a lot of risk investing in something that's really risky, you should really be compensated for that level of risk.
- 9:49And when I talk about compensated, I'm talking about the return of that investment.
- 9:53So what you get back is going to be higher if it's a riskier investment.
- 9:57And well thought out investment, essentially.
- 9:59Yeah.
- 9:59And the return is just the kind of the change in the price of the asset, effectively.
- 10:04So, for example, if you're investing in property and you buy the property for, God, it's like, if you're in Auckland, it's like a million dollars.
- 10:11Five million for a one.
- 10:14And then you sell it in 12 months' time, that asset, that property has increased by 10%.
- 10:22Then that's your return.
- 10:27the difference that you make is kind of your return.
- 10:29And there's also other parts that make up the return as well.
- 10:32You can get rental income if you invest in property, which we'll get into a bit into later.
- 10:36Can I ask a question on that?
- 10:38So is it then loss if you, for example, if an asset depreciates or it's a stock or it's a house that then depreciates in value, is that technically called a loss?
- 10:48Yes.
- 10:48So your return can be positive or negative.
- 10:51If the price increases from when you first bought it, then your return will be positive.
- 10:56If it decreases, your return will be negative.
- 10:58So you really want to look at when you're looking at return, if someone comes up to you, they're like, oh my God, I just made 100% in two days on my stock that I bought.
- 11:08You're like, cool.
- 11:09Yeah, but what is the risk involved in that?
- 11:11Like that's pure luck, in my opinion.
- 11:13That's not skill.
- 11:14You should really be kind of taking a long-term view when you're looking with
- 11:17When you're looking in terms of risk and return.
- 11:19Okay, so how would I know if something is risky or not risky?
- 11:24Great question, Soph.
- 11:26So the risk is effectively just the volatility of the asset.
- 11:30And when I talk about asset, that can confuse some people.
- 11:32What is an asset?
- 11:33Assets are just either property, shares, cash or bonds.
- 11:38There's lots of different types of assets, but those are the main four.
- 11:41So the risk is just the volatility of the asset.
- 11:44But...
- 11:45The movement.
- 11:45And when I say volatility, I mean the movement.
- 11:47So it's the movement up and down.
- 11:49And it's the uncertainty kind of of how that asset will move in the future.
- 11:54So, for example, with Bitcoin, obviously, I mean, I know nothing about Bitcoin, but that to me sounds like a really risky versus something like a supermarket that you're investing in.
- 12:05Exactly.
- 12:05And you can see that in the price of Bitcoin.
- 12:07The price of that shoots up and it shoots down and then, you know, it's kind of all over the show.
- 12:12And right now it's super, super high.
- 12:15And so those movements is what's called volatility.
- 12:18And so that means that that's a really risky asset class or an investment.
- 12:22Because that's recently gone up by, am I right, thinking 3,000% or something crazy?
- 12:28So in my opinion, I don't think that's sustainable.
- 12:30Something going up that much is a really risky asset and I would much prefer to invest in something that generates kind of 10% return per annum.
- 12:39Steady growth.
- 12:40Yeah, and that's just my risk appetite.
- 12:41Some people would love to invest in Bitcoin and a thrill and they don't mind kind of potentially losing all their money because that's what you've got to consider when you're investing in anything really is that you can lose...
- 12:52100% of your investment.
- 12:54That's terrifying.
- 12:55I know that we're talking about best case scenario here, but that is the reality, right?
- 12:58You could invest in something that's so high risk and you lose all your money.
- 13:03And you only hear stories.
- 13:04You only hear good stories.
- 13:05Nobody goes around tooting their own trumpet about all the money that they've lost.
- 13:10And so you kind of get this warped perception that investing in property or investing in shares is really good and you can only make money.
- 13:16It's like, well, no, you can very easily lose money as well.
- 13:20But I guess coming back to that, like Bitcoin going up 3000%, like on the flip side of that, what's a low risk investment then?
- 13:27I was going to say, because all my money has sat in a long term deposit in the bank forever.
- 13:32Yeah.
- 13:32And I'm guessing that's the worst or like the lowest return you could get on anything, right?
- 13:37Yeah, well, totally, especially where interest rates are at the moment.
- 13:40Like term deposits, they're generating 1% at the moment, which is super low, especially for someone your age who can take a bit more risk because you've got such a longer time horizon.
- 13:51And no kids and no responsibility.
- 13:53Yeah, you've got no dependents.
- 13:54Exactly.
- 13:54I guess with term deposits, they're low risk because they're held for a fixed period.
- 14:00They're held by a reputable kind of financial institution or a bank.
- 14:05And they're usually kind of backed by the government as well, some of them.
- 14:08So it means it's unexciting and boring, but it's a safe bet.
- 14:11But you're not going to lose all your money like you could in a stock.
- 14:14Exactly.
- 14:15But the return reflects that.
- 14:16That's why you're only getting kind of 1% return-ish, is because the likelihood of you losing your money is far lower than investing in shares.
- 14:26So if we're kind of comparing the two, term deposits got a 1% return, but very, very low risk of you losing your money.
- 14:33Shares, you could be getting, gosh, anything, let's say 20% return, but that 20% could also be negative 10%.
- 14:41So you're taking that extra risk.
- 14:42Netting out over time, your overall return for investing in shares, say if you picked a 10-year period, would be overall higher.
- 14:51Significantly higher.
- 14:52Yes.
- 14:52Yeah.
- 14:53Just out of interest, has the banks ever just like had a total meltdown and people have lost their money in a term deposit?
- 14:58Like, can you actually lose in that or is it impossible?
- 15:01It kind of happened in the GFC.
- 15:03Like, there was a lot of banks that got kind of... Hey, no abbreviations in this podcast.
- 15:07Global financial crisis.
- 15:08Yeah.
- 15:10That was what happened in the global financial crisis was many people had money with the banks and then the banks did all this kind of crazy lending of your savings effectively, particularly in the US, the United States.
- 15:25I appreciate it.
- 15:27And that led to them, you know, getting into financial trouble and therefore having to get bailed out by the government.
- 15:35You know, if you're getting a return, there's still an element of risk, but much, much, much lower.
- 15:40Especially when you're getting 1%, which is pretty measly.
- 15:44And then also if you look within the asset class of shares, if you looked within that class, there's companies that are way more risky than others.
- 15:51A supermarket, for example, people are going to continue to shop at a supermarket.
- 15:55Everyone needs toilet paper, especially in COVID.
- 15:57Exactly.
- 15:57It's a staple.
- 15:58It's a necessity.
- 15:59Versus the likes of kind of like a biotech company where the uncertainty of a drug becoming successful, you know, we have no insight into that.
- 16:09Yeah.
- 16:10And, you know, even the company itself might not.
- 16:12So investing in like a biotech company, for example, the uncertainty around that is high, but the payoff could be significant.
- 16:22The return you get if that drug is successful could be significant.
- 16:26Imagine if you invested in the company that came up with the COVID vaccine.
- 16:31Yeah.
- 16:31Yeah.
- 16:32Versus a supermarket where you're probably just going to, you know, your returns are going to chug along and you're probably going to get maybe 5% return depending on which supermarket.
- 16:41But there's this uncertainty.
- 16:42So therefore, your return is lower because your risk is lower.
- 16:45So it completely depends on what you invest in.
- 16:47But yeah, usually high return means high risk.
- 16:51I feel like I've come up with a really good example in case people are still not sure what you're talking about.
- 16:56If you go to the horse racing, which I hope not that many people do anymore, but say you bet on horses and you're betting on like Misty Star, who's won 10 years in a row, or you bet on, I don't know, Floppy Joe, who's never won a race in his life.
- 17:10If Floppy Joe wins, Floppy Joe, what a name.
- 17:13But say he wins, and there's probably very few people who would have betted on him, right?
- 17:17So then if he actually wins, there's way more pool of money to share, and therefore it's going to be a higher reward, right?
- 17:23Rather than just going for the safe option.
- 17:25Your payoff or the odds of Floppy Joe winning...
- 17:29I should have thought of something better.
- 17:32Yeah, it's not on people's radar.
- 17:34They're not thinking about it.
- 17:35Therefore, when he does win, the return's way greater rather than everyone kind of piling into Misty Star.
- 17:40Something easy.
- 17:42Misty Star.
- 17:42I'm glad you remember their names.
- 17:43Yeah, I know.
- 17:44Right on.
- 17:45Talk to me about the whole risk appetite scenario.
- 17:49So how would I even know how much risk I'm comfortable taking?
- 17:52Well, it's totally dependent on your personal situation.
- 17:57But if we're making generalizations here, I would say if you're younger and you've got a longer investing time horizon or if you've got...
- 18:05less dependents, so no kids, you've got no mortgage, you know, you've got a bit more financial flexibility, then you can take a bit more risk.
- 18:13You know, maybe put a bit of money in that biotech company and a bit into the supermarket as well.
- 18:18Or, you know, just kind of... And a sister, I mean sloppy joe.
- 18:20And to put some more money...
- 18:22It's gambling.
- 18:23But hey, we're not condoning gambling.
- 18:24No, no, no.
- 18:25But no, especially not horse racing.
- 18:28You can take a bit more risk because you've got a longer time horizon, which means you can weather the ups and downs.
- 18:34Say Granny, she has a 12-month time horizon and she...
- 18:37Oh, my God, poor granny.
- 18:38That makes me sad.
- 18:39She needs the money in 12 months.
- 18:41She doesn't want to take a huge bet because come 12 months time, her investment that she made in the stock market or in a company could be down 20%.
- 18:49She's just lost 20% of her savings.
- 18:51Whereas someone like us who are a bit younger than granny, we may not need that money in 12 months.
- 18:57So therefore, say we need it in 10 years, then that investment over 10 years will be a lot higher than it is now.
- 19:03But it might have had years of ups and downs.
- 19:05So what I'm saying is the average return over that 10-year period would be a lot higher than, say, a term deposit.
- 19:11But because granny doesn't have that time available to her, she needs to put her money in the term deposit.
- 19:16So she would have a lower risk appetite.
- 19:18Exactly.
- 19:18If someone like me with zero kids, no responsibility, I really could say, look, I don't need that $20,000 or $500 or whatever it is.
- 19:27I'm happy to part with that for X amount of time.
- 19:29And then you can, as you say, like weather the storms to see it go up and down, up and down until it's at a point where you're like, amazing, I've made some money here.
- 19:35It might be up 20, down 10, then up 10, then down 5 and then up 40.
- 19:40You know, but overall, this is why we talk about averages because lots can happen in a year and you need to take a long term view when you're investing in a year.
- 19:48Okay.
- 19:49Yeah, that makes sense to me.
- 19:50So it's essentially looking at your financial and your personal situation and figuring out how much money you're going to need in the next, say, five, ten years or whatever you're comfortable with.
- 19:59And when I talk about short term, I mean short term for me would be like sub two years.
- 20:04Sorry, what does sub mean?
- 20:05Sorry.
- 20:06Short term for me would be like below two years, like anything between now and two years time.
- 20:10OK.
- 20:12I would say kind of medium term would be like five years and long term, anything above 10.
- 20:17I mean, yeah, you need to kind of take a five year plus view, in my opinion, when you're considering an investment.
- 20:23And also don't.
- 20:24Invest outside your means.
- 20:27So don't, when you get your paycheck, don't invest the whole thing if that's all you've got to live on.
- 20:31Because with any investment, there's risk.
- 20:33You can lose 100%.
- 20:35So you don't want to be like living on the bones of your ass because you've lost, you've put all your money into the market and you've lost it all.
- 20:44Also, don't go borrow money to invest in the stock market.
- 20:46Yeah.
- 20:47That must be 101 investing, right?
- 20:49Yeah.
- 20:50I mean, the hard-out experts do it, but they know what they're doing, and they've got risks and controls in place.
- 20:56But if you're an everyday investor, don't go remortgage your house to invest in the share market, because like I keep saying, you can easily lose 100%, and then you're left with more debt, and you're in a worse position.
- 21:08Yeah.
- 21:09Yeah, I would say invest a little bit here and there and maybe each paycheck you invest more and more until you kind of build the confidence and learn along the way.
- 21:17So something you mentioned, which I think probably ties into the compound interest thing, is basically the longer that something's in there, the more you're earning, right?
- 21:27So is that essentially compound interest?
- 21:30Good segue.
- 21:31Is it?
- 21:32Oh, my God.
- 21:33This is so well planned.
- 21:35So, yeah, compound interest.
- 21:37So I don't want to lose you all before.
- 21:38Because it sounds complicated, I must say.
- 21:40It sounds, yeah.
- 21:41And it can be a bit of a dreary topic, so we'll try and make it interesting.
- 21:45But compound interest, it's the fundamentals of investing and the fundamentals of finance.
- 21:50So if I was to ask you, Soph, would you prefer $1 today or $1 in 12 months?
- 21:55What would you say and why?
- 21:56Probably $1 today because I'd want to buy a $1 lolly mix.
- 22:01No, but also like, why would I choose to wait for a dollar if I can just have it now?
- 22:05Exactly.
- 22:06Spoken like a true millennial.
- 22:07Give it to me now.
- 22:10No, but that's the right answer.
- 22:11Like if I could give you a dollar now, you can go away, you can invest that.
- 22:15So then a dollar a year from now is actually worth more.
- 22:19So say you take that dollar.
- 22:21You invest it, you get a 10% return.
- 22:23Then at the end of the year, your dollar is now worth $1.10.
- 22:27So you can go buy $1.10 worth of lollies.
- 22:29An extra snake, look at me.
- 22:31Yeah, exactly.
- 22:31So we're at the end of next year, you've got $1.10.
- 22:34Now you're earning 10% on that $1.10 rather than the dollar.
- 22:40So that's kind of compound interest is interest on interest on interest.
- 22:44So you're starting off a higher base.
- 22:47when you come into the next year of investing.
- 22:50So the percentage essentially of what you'll earn your own year is constantly growing as well, assuming you've made a good investment.
- 22:55The percentage is the same, just for example's sake, but the absolute dollar amount of that percentage, if that makes sense,
- 23:04Well, 10% of $1.10 is going to be more than 10% of $1.
- 23:09Exactly.
- 23:10Yeah.
- 23:10So it's $1.21.
- 23:11So right now we've got $1.
- 23:13End of the year we'll have $1.10.
- 23:15End of the next year we'll have $1.21.
- 23:17And so you can see how your savings just kind of grow exponentially because every year you're starting with a higher base.
- 23:25Whereas if you just keep taking that money out every year and starting with a dollar, that's not compound interest.
- 23:31You're starting from scratch.
- 23:32That's what we call simple interest.
- 23:33It's just interest on the same amount, the same beginning amount every year.
- 23:37And that's simple interest.
- 23:38That's simple interest.
- 23:39So compound interest is just interest on interest on interest.
- 23:42That's why everyone says invest for the long term because the longer you leave it in there –
- 23:47the more rapidly your savings or your investment will grow.
- 23:51Am I right in thinking, though, rapidly is probably not the way to think about it?
- 23:54Because to me, compound interest sounds, it sounds, it's like the long term gain, right?
- 23:58It's what you were talking about before.
- 23:59It's like, OK, I'm happy to get rid of five grand for now.
- 24:03I won't touch that for 10 years.
- 24:05So the compound interest over that time will grow, right?
- 24:09It's just knowing that compound interest is the long term.
- 24:11Yes.
- 24:12Yeah.
- 24:12And you need to gain.
- 24:14You need to leave it and allow it time to compound is kind of the understanding.
- 24:18Like if we use an example, so say you had $10,000 and you invested that at 10% per year for 10 years.
- 24:27So 10, 10, 10.
- 24:28What is 10% of that?
- 24:30$1,000?
- 24:30$1,000.
- 24:31At the end of that 10-year period, you'd have $27,000.
- 24:35If we just go back to the simple interest example, so just your basic kind of interest, you would have earned 10% on that $10,000, which is $11,000.
- 24:46So you're earning an extra $16,000 in compound interest versus simple interest.
- 24:53If that makes sense.
- 24:54It's crazy.
- 24:55It's just like, it's just, if you looked it on a graph, it would be like a hockey stick.
- 24:58It would look like that's what your investment would look like.
- 25:02I guess the big caveat is finding investment.
- 25:04Sorry, hockey stick.
- 25:05Do you mean the bottom of it?
- 25:06How it flips out?
- 25:07No, no, sorry, the top.
- 25:08Okay.
- 25:10Gotta be very specific.
- 25:11I just mean that it's maybe, yeah.
- 25:13It's like the side of a volcano.
- 25:15Okay.
- 25:15It's all quite steep.
- 25:16Yes, very steep.
- 25:17Okay.
- 25:18But the caveat is it depends on you getting that 10% return per annum.
- 25:23And that's an average.
- 25:24So it can also work in the reverse.
- 25:26Yeah.
- 25:27Yeah.
- 25:27Well, obviously, we're thinking about good examples here.
- 25:29Yeah.
- 25:29We're going to start positive.
- 25:32Yeah.
- 25:32But it works both ways with everything you're explaining, right?
- 25:35Exactly.
- 25:35But compound interest, if there's one thing you can take away is you need to keep it in there for the long term.
- 25:41The longer you leave it in, the better.
- 25:43I just want to touch on that 10% return with you, for example.
- 25:47Your money's in a term deposit.
- 25:48It's generating 1%.
- 25:50The compound interest on a 1% investment.
- 25:53is going to be so much lower than a 10% return.
- 25:56That's why you hear people harping on about like, make sure your KiwiSaver is generating a good return or you're with a good fund manager because savings compounding at 1%
- 26:06Versus savings compounding at 10%, in 10 years' time, it's going to be such a significant difference.
- 26:14So if you can make one small adjustment and get even a 1% or 2% better return than you're getting, over the long term, it's going to be phenomenal in terms of your savings, in terms of your retirement, in terms of your wealth creation.
- 26:27So it's really important to make sure, you know, just to make sure that you're getting the greatest return you want for your risk appetite.
- 26:35Okay.
- 26:35If that makes sense.
- 26:36Yeah.
- 26:37Yeah.
- 26:38Risk return.
- 26:38It's definitely a massive topic, I think.
- 26:40Yeah.
- 26:40It's one that we could talk about forever.
- 26:42Totally.
- 26:42So, yeah, with compound interest, really important.
- 26:45It's about the length of time and the return that you're getting.
- 26:48Those two things are so important and can make a huge, huge, huge difference.
- 26:51Yeah.
- 26:52This is good.
- 26:52Yeah.
- 26:53It's kind of like, you know, the snail analogy when everyone's like, rather than coming quick off the blocks.
- 26:57It's like the tortoise in the hair.
- 26:58That's what I, it's not a snail or a tortoise.
- 27:00You're so right.
- 27:01The tortoise in the hair.
- 27:02Yeah.
- 27:03You want to be with the tortoise, but not a really slow tortoise.
- 27:06Maybe like a kind of a medium fast tortoise.
- 27:10Okay.
- 27:10Love that.
- 27:11Next time, Vic, can we go into asset classes?
- 27:13It's something that I know I hear you talk about a bit and I don't fully understand.
- 27:17So I'd love to kind of break that down fully.
- 27:20Yeah, I think that's a really good idea.
- 27:21There's kind of four main asset classes.
- 27:24And yeah, I think it's really important to dig into each of those and why there's four and why they're so special.
- 27:30Pros, cons, et cetera.
- 27:31All that kind of stuff.
- 27:32Awesome.
- 27:32Okay, great.
- 27:34Thank you so much for listening to Raising the Curve.
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