Useful Resources
|
- What is the liquidity of the investment?
How easy is it to get your money back when you want to sell
or cash in your investment?
- Understand the entry, ongoing and exit
fees of an investment. Compare them to similar investments.
Fees can have a large impact on your long-term returns.
- What is the size of the investment? The
size of managed funds, for example, can vary greatly.
- Are you comfortable with the organisations
you're investing in and through?
- If you have any suspicions that the investment
scheme may be an investment scam, check out the latest bad offerings
at the Financial Markets Authority
and The
Ministry of Consumer Affairs' Scam Alerts.
- Before handing your money over to any adviser,
ensure you've been told, and are comfortable with, their money-handling
procedures. If possible, make cheques payable to the investment,
for example, a fund manager, rather than the adviser.
- Understand the tax implications of your
investment instrument. Just as tax benefits and liabilities
differ for each investment opportunity, so will tax status.
And, just like fees, taxation can have a major impact on your
long-term returns.
- Read all the available documentation
on the investment. While the investment statement must be given
to you, you may have to request other documentation.
- If you don't completely understand what
the investment is about, or you're uncomfortable with it for
any reason, avoid it completely; there are hundreds of alternative
investment options.
|
|
