Newer crowdfunding sites are giving investors the chance to earn something other than t-shirts and trial products - money.

To date, technology has failed miserably to reduce the costs of finance to end consumers.

The Treasury still expects the govt to reach its targeted surplus in 2015, even as the current tax-take continues to fall short.

Mortgage loan restrictions are making the "bank of Mum and Dad" so popular that one bank is running seminars on the best way for people to structure the deals.

NZ could have had a superannuation pot of gold worth $278b by next year had it kept a compulsory savings scheme set up in 1974, a financial industry body claims.

Taxpayers are flocking to websites that promise a tax refund — even if some take up to a quarter of a payout as commission.

Expert analysis and industry rules can help people to avoid tripping up, although no investment is failsafe, writes Mary Holm.

A spokesman for the jailed South Korean developer says "personal" issues should not hinder or harm any of the business interests left behind here.

New Zealand is on a list of the top 10 most searched for countries by Chinese house-hunters, figures compiled from China's largest property search engine reveal.

According to a list I compiled earlier, 11 KiwiSaver providers volunteered for default duty but only nine were approved by the government last week.

Q: We are a couple in our early 30s who own a rental house and live in a rental too. We have been paying as much as possible off our mortgage and now find ourselves in a position where we are making a profit (taxable) on the rental property.

Auckland landlords are making more capital gains off their rental properties than those elsewhere, a trend predicted to speed up in the next few years.

It seems that views as to what constitutes the best investment strategy are becoming more polarized.

I pay into a standard KiwiSaver scheme (3 per cent me, 2 per cent employer), the ASB KiwiSaver provider.

Choice Hotels, which operates in 40 New Zealand locations, is looking for seven to eight new properties worth $40 million to $50 million this year.

Should you fix your mortgage? This is an important question and if I knew the answer I would tell you, writes Damien Grant.

We're some of the world's most prolific users of loyalty cards - but many don't pay off.

While it's not ideal to be making any mortgage payments after you retire, the payments might well be less than rent, writes Mary Holm.

We're increasingly becoming a nation of renters with less than half of us now owning our own place, Census data shows.

Gold, natural gas and the Kiwi - US dollar: key markets to watch, says Nick McDonald.

The latest Reserve Bank managed fund statistics reinforce two important features of our investment markets.