Q. The following is the sort of thing that makes me glad most of our money is in property. Luckily, I lost all my money at the time in the '87 crash, so I learned a lot about share investors.
Mum and Dad, who took the plunge in January 2000 and bought shares in the WiNZ Fund (which invests in an index of international shares), were looking at a negative real return of about 55
Saturday, May 15th 2004, 9:56PM
by The Landlord
per cent by the end of last month. In other words, inflation has been about 10 per cent and the shares' value is down by 45 per cent.
That's not a great start, and it gets more depressing when you realise that if international shares return 7 per cent a year from here on - an optimistic assumption - the investment will take a further 14 years to catch up to inflation at 2 per cent a year.
What I'd like to know, Mary, is do they get out now or wait a further 14 years and hope to cut even? They have no more money to invest, just a nice house by the beach.
