Should I pay off the mortgage faster, or use that extra cash to invest? If this isn't the most common investor question, then it's definitely in the top five. The textbook, Excel spreadsheet, and your purist accountant friend are all likely to suggest paying down the mortgage. There's good reason for that, but when might it make sense to ignore the rules and do some investing on the side anyway?

Here's a fresh take on a popular episode from way back in June. We took a look at the 2025 UBS Global Family Office Report, which captured the views of 317 family office clients with an average net worth of US$2.7 billion! Attitudes to risk, governance practices, running costs, staffing and succession planning were all covered, but it’s where they put their money that interested us the most!

The last full trading week of 2025 is shaping up as an incredibly busy one right across the world. In the US, delayed jobs and inflation reports will take centre stage, despite both likely being subject to data quality issues due to the shutdown. Central banks will also be in focus, with monetary policy decisions coming from the European Central Bank, Bank of England and Bank of Japan. The calendar is just as full here in New Zealand, with the HYEFU on Tuesday and Thursday's September quarter GDP report the likely highlights. We'll also get the final dairy auction of the year, the latest REINZ housing market report, and a fresh ANZ Business Outlook.

This year will soon draw to a close, and despite plenty of ups and down along the way it's proved to be a lucrative one for investors. Let's discuss some of the highlights and key events, before turning our attention to how 2026 will unfold. How should investors be thinking about the year ahead, and what might financial markets bring?

The focus this week will be on central bank decisions, with the main event to be the Federal Reserve on Thursday morning (NZ time). Closer to home, the labour force report for November is due across the Tasman, while the September quarter manufacturing survey will be of interest here in New Zealand.

Predicting investment returns isn’t easy. Nobody can do this with accuracy, regardless of their experience, intellect or resources. However, when the collective crystal ball gazing from some of the world’s leading investment firms is collated, it’s worth a look. US-based Horizon Actuarial has done just that with its annual survey of capital market assumptions. Here's what they found.

Wholesale interest rates increased to more than three-month highs in the wake of the final RBNZ decision of 2025. The NZ dollar also rose strongly against most trading partners, as markets speculate the central bank is done cutting the OCR. Should we worry about that, or is it a good thing the RBNZ might be done?

After a very strong period that has seen global sharemarket hit new highs, volatility has returned. This will be causing a lot of consternation among investors, particularly those who have entered the fray in recent months. However, for new investors rough markets are your friend and these are periods we should to look forward to, rather than fear.

A big week looms here in New Zealand, with the main event set to be the Official Cash Rate (OCR) decision and Monetary Policy Statement (MPS) from the Reserve Bank on Wednesday afternoon. Markets see a cut of 0.25% as a certainty, while pricing implies about a 50/50 chance of an additional cut beyond that, making the MPS forecasts important.

Last month the NZX 50 index hit a fresh record high, finally surpassing the previous peak from January 2021. It was a long time coming. Other markets recovered from their post-COVID hangover much more quickly, but we’ve taken almost five years. At first glance, this would all suggest that our market has regained all its lost ground, surpassed the previous market peak and pushed on to bigger and better things. However, that’s not quite so.