Your money: Seeing the sites helps manage your money

There are a large number of New Zealand sites which provide information to help you manage your finances. Instead of highlighting one or two it is helpful to break them into categories.

General news sites

The major newspaper sites, such as the one offered by the Herald and the INL group provide news on listed companies.

The Herald site is more comprehensive as it provides surfers with all the news stories out of its business section whereas Stuff provides a more limited amount of information.

Other mainstream media sources which provide similar information include TVNZ. Online brokers are also a good starting point for company announcements and the latest prices.

There are also a number of specific sites which provide a range of news and discussion about shares, such as Sharechat.

Besides these sites specialising in news, there are "portal" sites which pull together news from a variety of sources. One of the biggest is Xtra.

Superannuation and Retirement

Two good sites that deal with superannuation and retirement issues come from the Office of the Retirement Commissioner and SuperTalk.

The Retirement Commissioner's site includes a lot of useful material about retirement income policies, and has one of the best and most comprehensive retirement savings calculators around.

Be warned though - working your way through the calculator takes time, and you need to be armed with a reasonable degree of personal information.

SuperTalk was set up before last year's election as a place where people can learn, discuss and debate superannuation issues.

It includes articles, resource material, copies of speeches and press releases, plus a discussion forum.

Mortgages

Mortgages are the biggest financial commitment most New Zealanders have, yet research from AMP Banking recently showed that we spend little time managing our borrowings properly.

AMP Banking suggests that if borrowers regularly review their mortgages and take advantage of the new products and offers which regularly come on the market then there is the potential to save thousands of dollars.

For original and objective news on what's happening in the mortgage market and ways to save money on your loan go to Good Returns, which offers news and a comprehensive rates table, updated daily.

Many mortgage providers have good sites of their own which provide information, as well as mortgage calculators.

Two which are worth visiting are Cairns Lockie and AMP Banking.

If you are looking for a mortgage then you may want to visit a mortgage broker such as MortgageNet which offers a range of services including a promise to respond to any questions lodged through its site within 60 minutes.

Another site, ELoan provides borrowers with a set of tools which allows them to evaluate different mortgages against a range of criteria.

Managed funds

The main provider of managed fund news in New Zealand is Good Returns, mentioned above. The site provides daily news stories on what managers are up to, prices, new products and interviews with the actual managers.

The site also allows users to go to individual fund managers' sites, to find further information and download investment statements.

While some fund managers still don't have websites, those who do provide a wide range to choose from.

Some of the better ones are: BT Funds Management, AMP, Tower Managed Funds and the recently launched site from Colonial First State.

Investing online

Buying shares online is easy as there are so many brokerage options. (Getting proper research is a little harder. The best way is to become a customer of a sharebroker which actually does the research.)

There are also a range of options for buying managed funds online, usually at discounted prices, from what are called discount brokers.

Most of these sites are run by financial planners. The major exception is Fundsource which was established by research house IPAC.

All the sites offer broadly similar service, and none provide comprehensive advice on funds or portfolio building.

That means the investor has to work out how to put together an appropriate portfolio.

The main sites are Fund Source, MoneyOnline, DIY Money, NZ Investment Journal and Zero Brokerage.

Links:

Herald Online

Stuff

NZoom

ShareChat

Xtra

www.retirement.org.nz

SuperTalk

GoodReturns

Cairns Lockie

AMP Banking

MortageNet

ELoan

BT Funds

AMP

Tower Managed Funds

Colonial First State

Fund Source

MoneyOnline

DIY Money

NZ Investment Journal

Zero Brokerage