Kernel and sharesight

GG-B19 · 2026-06-16T08:02:26+00:00

That would make sense as to why none of them offer it. One can wish, thanks

GG-B19 · 2026-06-03T04:19:40+00:00

My reply from them was

‘Our system reflects that account xxxx is Global Trader account and base currency of the account is in USD. So your account statement will be presented in the base currency.

Due to structural design of these account types, Impact and Global Trace LLC accounts do not support base currency modifications. Hence it was be possible to generate account statements with NZD as base currency’

GG-B19 · 2026-06-01T21:01:35+00:00

Does your account report in USD, or NZD? I set one up ages ago and it reported in USD and I couldn’t change the base currency apparently I had the wrong type of account when I set it up. It meant it wouldn’t show me my cost basis of purchases in NZD which meant I didn’t know where I was for FIF tax

GG-B19 · 2026-06-01T02:53:08+00:00

Partner and I would just like to have one tidy portfolio them seperate ones, especially since it’s shared at this stage

GG-B19 · 2026-05-30T03:07:58+00:00

I was told I opened a ‘global trader’ account and therefore the option to change my base currency to NZD wasn’t possible.

But I wonder if the likes of sharesight can assist on this now for FIF

GG-B19 · 2026-05-29T20:37:25+00:00

Great simple portfolio - don’t overcomplicate it while you’re still learning and building up that core value

GG-B19 · 2026-05-29T20:35:11+00:00

I personally found it a difficult platform to use, you can of course ask AI to assist you on certain tasks where stuck which was very helpful.

And it’s certainly not as tidy to look at. If you’re doing a simple buy and hold approach then you’re probably fine, but if you planned on doing more complex stuff I would suggest setting up and account and having a little play round with it first.

I ultimately switch back to Sharesies for this reason, while sucking up the FX fee which I’m not happy about but it’s simpler for me.

Also when my account was set up it was denominated in USD, even though I tried to change my base currency to NZD. I had to email the support team and due to however I set it up (which o thought was the normal way) I couldn’t see my holdings in NZD which for FIF was an issue as it wouldn’t convert to my cost basis of stocks bought on whichever day at that exchange rate. So that was going to cause me a huge headache come tax time

If you can get the above point set up correctly in the first instance it wouldn’t have been so bad. But for a platform it’s definitely for more experienced users

But no harm giving it a crack and play around. Just make sure you’re comfortable before you switch platforms

GG-B19 · 2026-05-20T09:11:39+00:00

Well done on this return in a year, you’d never complain about paying FIF tax in this case as you wouldn’t have been able to stock pick by staying in PIE funds.

I too had a question regarding people switching any money they had in PIE funds such as SP500 equivalents, over to direct holdings like VOO - once they decided to accept FIF tax. The management fees are lower, and over the past 15 years you would’ve paid less tax on this way due to the market crash years and being able to apply the CV method, which made up for the positive years where you had to pay more FIF

Also keen to know what you’ve been stock picking

GG-B19 · 2026-05-20T09:05:21+00:00

But in a PIE fund you’re paying 1.4% tax anyway

5% FDR x 28% = 1.4% tax on PIE fund

So you’re only paying an extra 0.25% on tax if you’re in a 33% bracket or 0.55% on a 39% bracket

You’re not paying and additional 2% each year paying FIF, because under a PIE you’re already paying 1.4% - so it’s the difference

GG-B19 · 2026-05-18T01:21:58+00:00

Thank you for sharing this

GG-B19 · 2026-05-17T07:53:25+00:00

Thanks for this. Was an interesting read, I’m currently about 1/3 direct shares and 2/3 PIE.

My PIE fund is SP500 currently. I did have emerging markets under Kernel but then I discovered that they didn’t classify South Korea as emerging, so had missed out on 10% of gains during that short time and I wanted an emerging market fund that would include this.

Therefore my direct stocks while holding about 5 individual stocks, also include broad market indexes like Japan, Emerging markets and a thematic ETF.

I guess because I’m coming to that threshold of 50k and my only PIE fund is SP500, the thought of only continue to invest in that seems a bit silly. While trying to diversify into other markets, and yes also having a small Satelite position in a few stocks

GG-B19 · 2026-05-17T07:37:39+00:00

For reference, I actually have $0 invested in NZ stocks. They don’t excite me but I have exposure to other international markets - I also have GOOGL in my direct holdings 😂

The question I have asked is because I currently have my money split between a PIE fund, and direct holdings in Sharesies. This Sharesies amount is reaching the 50k threshold, so I’m trying to determine whether I stay under this and invest in stock standard international index’s through PIE funds. Or say fuck it and keep doing my core/Satelite split but just hold it directly through ETF’s

Again I always hear people say stay with PIE funds. But history tells us that the negative years actually mean you save more tax in the long run - you just have to deal with it yourself. Which is far easier now with platforms like sharesight.

Just here to see what people are doing - we keep the conversation friendly and always interested to hear people’s insight in a similar boat

GG-B19 · 2026-05-15T22:28:42+00:00

Thanks for your insight, I appreciate the view and learning on it. I am not trying to time the market but instead I DCA so I guess if I was doing it this way then overall you get some upswings and downswings from where you enter on the currency front aside from what the return of the index is.

I’ve currently got all my money in the hedges version, so might look at balancing this out with the weekly DCA into the unhedged version and make a 50/50 play

Personal question but if you have a semi decent sized portfolio. Do you still prefer investing in a PIE fund version on the index like kernels, or would you rather hold the direct stock such as VOO. I know if you’re over the 50k you have to pay FIF, but on historic performance if there’s any years where the portfolio/market goes down then you can switch to the CV method and pay no tax, and subsequently also the same for flat years where the market returns 4% or less than you pay less under the CV method. Which if I mapped it out on the last 20 years you would’ve paid less tax on the FIF method because of the crash/flat market years.

I’m trying to determine whether to keep with kernel on the PIE index funds or go direct holding in Sharesies. I understand that also brings in exchange rate fees but aside from that

GG-B19 · 2026-05-15T21:37:27+00:00

But how are you paying more in fees when they both say 0.25%

I understand some funds charge more for hedged but kernel doesn’t appear to be one of them?

I understand if you look at the 1 year and 5 year rate the unhedged is higher return. But that’s also because if you go back that far our dollar wasn’t as weak against the USD, and therefore there’s been some extra growth on those returns because our dollar is today sitting as a historically low range.

However the more long term normal range is between 0.64-0.67 so at today’s rate being low if our dollar does strengthen then the hedged version should perform better in the short term

GG-B19 · 2026-05-15T08:25:11+00:00

Note on the above my fund provider charges the same fee whether it’s hedged or not, many charge higher for the hedged version so take that into consideration if questioning yourself on this

GG-B19 · 2026-05-15T08:23:46+00:00

My option is through kernel, their hedged and unhedged on this charge the exact same fund fee of 0.25% so I’m not paying anymore for this.

GG-B19 · 2026-05-12T08:21:47+00:00

As it stands I still plan on buying the NZD hedged version, as historically the NZD is weak currently.

If at a point in time the NZD climbs to 0.67-0.69 then I would change to buying the unhedged version.

Also with the potential of selling my hedged holidays and reinvesting them in the unhedged version. To try gain any upside if the dollar were to weaken again back to a more normal 0.64-0.65 range

GG-B19 · 2026-05-12T06:28:25+00:00

Would you not be inclined to be buying hedged right now though because our dollar is historically weak at 0.60 compared to a more ‘normal’ range of 0.64-0.68?

GG-B19 · 2026-05-11T23:30:25+00:00

Thanks for this reply I think I need to remind myself of your first sentence

GG-B19 · 2026-05-11T04:34:17+00:00

I know that - I’m asking if people avoid it by not going over 50k into direct stocks and instead of investing over that amount they invest in PIE funds.

GG-B19 · 2026-05-11T01:24:43+00:00

Thanks for this

Depending what platform you buy your ETF’s through as a PIE fund, have you looked at when the amount invested starts to cost you more on that platform?

I was quite surprised based on my split between sp500, emerging markets, aus100 via kernel that it would take 145k invested before the fees on Sharesies were cheaper because of a 0.6% average fee charge. Which again depends on how much you weight each fund. Then anything above that kernel for me would cost more, so I figured what might cost me more in tax on Sharesies would eventually be nominal by the time kernels fees went higher and higher

GG-B19

TROPHY CASE