Risk and return – crazy business idea
Pulse!
Sometimes what appear to be rather crazy ideas do pay off.
Jill Doyle came up with eyewear for dogs under the name ‘Doggles’. Her company now makes around NZ$7
million profit annually from them!
swainwoodhamgroup
‘The Venting Place’ is a store in Tokyo where you can vent your rage. Customers pay to walk into a room filled
with cups, plates, and glasses and can smash them to pieces! The store has been an instant success, with the
business earning millions of dollars.
Harley-Davidson was on the verge of bankruptcy in 1981, when two investors, Vaughn Beals and Willie
Davidson took a huge risk and bought it. They returned the bikes to their original retro-styling and made the
company the legend it is today.
Before Google became one of the largest companies in the world, it was almost sold for NZ$1 million to Excite
CEO George Bell in 1999. Google’s creators, Brin and Page nearly gave up their dream search engine as it
was taking up too much of their time and distracting them from their university studies. But they persisted and
Google is currently valued at NZ$700 Billion.
All the very best
for Christmas
from the team at
Swain Woodham
and have a prosperous
New Year!
The information in this newsletter is of a general nature, does not take into account your financial situation or goals, and is not
a personalised adviser service under the Financial Advisers Act 2008. You should seek advice from a financial adviser which
takes into account your individual circumstances before you acquire or dispose of a financial product.
SwainWoodham Group
65 Durham Street, Sydenham, Christchurch 8023
P O Box 25-206, Christchurch 8144
Phone (03) 366 4220 Fax (03) 365 0048
Email: [email protected]
Newsletter Christmas 2016
I think we can be justifiably proud of our team!
Many financial advisers work alone,
but not us. We are a tightknit team of
professionals who are extremely proud
of what we do for our clients.
And it’s not just us that says so! There
is an international organisation for
professional financial advisers called
MDRT. Based in the United States,
this organisation recognises the
achievements of its members in a
number of ways.
Our adviser Corey Williams made the
top grade, being ‘Top of the Table’,
with Nigel Hickey, Brian Burgess also
qualifying for MDRT status. To add to this,
Brian has been invited to be the South
Island chairperson for MDRT.
Of course we could only have made
these levels of achievement with the
trust and loyalty of our clients. So the
real thank you goes to all of you!
”Celebrating Success”. Left to right…..Lynette, Brian, Nigel, Lizzie and Corey
and Grace and Eva.
swainwoodhamgroup
The team behind the team
The information in this newsletter is of a general nature, does not take into account your financial situation or goals, and is not
a personalised adviser service under the Financial Advisers Act 2008. You should seek advice from a financial adviser which
takes into account your individual circumstances before you acquire or dispose of a financial product.
SwainWoodham Group
65 Durham Street, Sydenham, Christchurch 8023
P O Box 25-206, Christchurch 8144
Phone (03) 366 4220 Fax (03) 365 0048
Email: [email protected]
swainwoodhamgroup
As a client of SwainWoodham Group, you see your
adviser, and may think that that is all there is to our
firm. We have a dedicated team behind the team.
Running the office is Sharyn Colville, who has
been with the group for over 12 years. Lynette and
Emily complete the office team, although we have
Emma filling in for Emily right now, due to Emily
having recently welcomed a new son into her life.
When your adviser calls to see you that call is only
one component of the myriad of things that have
to be done on your behalf. Policies have to be
lodged, underwriting on the part of the insurance
company takes place and a significant amount
of paperwork is undertaken. An insurance policy is
a legal contract, so the work behind the scenes is
not unlike that in a legal office. And the paperwork
doesn’t stop when a claim is made of course.
We are a great team and very much enjoy
looking after our clients.
Why can our financial lives be so stressful at times?
If you asked 20 people, you would get 20
answers. However there are five key reasons
that money matters can be very stressful.
First, we tend to ignore financial issues. Kiwis have
a very solid ‘she’ll be right’ attitude to money. We
not good at saving rather than going into debt,
we don’t track our money well and not many of
us have any sort of emergency fund. Stress comes
from not knowing where you sit financially and not
having a back-up fund or plan.
The second is procrastinating on financial
decisions. We tend to put off important financial
decisions due to a lack of confidence that we are
making the right decision. More stress.
Number three is the well-known saying,‘if you do
Why ACC can’t help you
what you have always done, you will get what you
have always got. We fall into patterns of behaviour.
It can be scary going outside known practices.
Not wanting to change causes stress, just as much
as change itself does.
ACC only covers accidents, but many can’t
work due to a debilitating illnesses. A teacher
suffered from a severe eye condition that
caused enough blindness to stop him working.
Treatment has meant that he will regain his
sight enough to work again, but the time off
work was not covered by ACC.
The fourth is investment related. We roll with trends
and market volatility. Property is hot right now,
so we buy at the top of the market. A particular
equity (share) drops 10%, so we sell. Stress comes
from reacting to the market this way.
Now imagine that this was you. Could you
survive financially for six months? Few could
with typical family financial commitments. This
is why we have a range of ‘living insurances’
available, which are the ones that pay out
in times of significant health issues. They are
designed to either replace your income or pay
a lump sum.
The fifth is the easiest way to relieve stress around
money: ask for help. Trying to do it yourself when
you are under stress simply doesn’t work. We can
come in here. We certainly don’t promise to have
all the answers, but we are a sympathetic ear. Its
free to ask.
ACC gets a lot of news coverage for not
paying out on a range of health and accident
related issues, but what is never reported on
are the alternatives. Ask us if you do not have
these in place. They are more affordable than
most realise.
Gerrymandering to a win!
Imagine if a politician redrew the electoral boundaries to make sure that in the next election their
party won every seat. This is election rigging of course, and is completely legal in most US states!
In 1812 Governor Elbridge Gerry of
Massachusetts created an electoral district
that looked a bit like a salamander. He drew
the boundaries to surround his known voters,
hence the term ‘Gerry-mandering’.
You will also hear the term right here in New
Zealand each time we redraw electoral
boundaries, although we have a much fairer
way of going about it and it does not have
political interference that US has.
Gerrymandering was one of the reasons
Trump brought up the issue of election
rigging during his campaign against Clinton,
as his party, the Republicans, have used it to
great effect themselves in elections past.