If you ask anyone in the financial services industry about Auckland, they tend to sigh, look at their shoes for a little bit, (especially if they LIVE in Auckland, it's trendy to self-deprecate about that now), then pop up, eyes glinting, punch you on the shoulder and say, "But that's where all the money is!"
And indeed, people say to me all the time - why don't you go, Caroline, and work in Auckland/Melbourne/Toronto, for that is where all the money is.
They seem astounded that I should want to sit here, in the provinces, with my crystal-clean air, empty roads, calming cycling vistas, stuffed to the eyes with the best food and wine in the world, because I may, (or may not) earn less money.
Odd. It is quite the stiletto to the ribs when I push back at them. Then things really get moving when I talk about value.
Value is the most subjective thing we know. Your brain is constantly searching for a good deal.
All the way from underpriced shares to your next potential hot life companion, to whether you can exchange a teeny mortgaged villa in Ponsonby for a debt-free mansion with five acres in Havelock North.
Is it good value? Of course, if we could just hitch money up to value at a pre-agreed ratio and call it done - how cool would that be?
It would end in a lot of heavy, bogus financial socialism, to be fair, but it would certainly liven things up.
Value is too cool to get mate-poached, though, and stuck in a marriage, and the evidence is everywhere.
All share transactions have two parties with differing value points.
Large institutional offshore buyers of a certain software stock, for example, which was news of the week for some reason, do not run around afterwards crying into their gin and tonics that they paid too much.
An individual in Orakei borrowing more than he earns to buy rapidly depreciating European cars must find it highly pleasing on a certain level at the local village show and tell. Or maybe we can put that one down to hormones.
Nevertheless, value will always be in the eye of the observer.
In investing, lots will always be better, cash shall rule the school and avarice can be cloaked up to look like Grandma in Little Red Riding Hood over and over, but we all know the score.
In life, and maybe I'm just boring, I'll now take peace and quiet over a slice of greenback pie.
I am, or it is, as they say, worth it.
* Caroline Ritchie is a former AFA, sharebroker and portfolio manager. She runs Investment Stuff, a sharemarket-based investment-coaching service. Visit her at www.investmentstuff.co.nz
This column is not personalised financial advice.
