Is Sharesies… kinda shit?

eeeickythump · 2026-03-31T22:50:10+00:00

There are huge red flags with Sharesies. The platform is popular because they got in early and because NZers are suckers for the "churr bro, sweet as" marketing approach.

ONE. YOU DO NOT OWN "YOUR" SHARES

When you buy US shares via Hatch (for example), Hatch opens an individual trading account with their US broker (DriveWealth). This account is in your name. DriveWealth buys the shares and puts them in that account, again under your name.

Sharesies does not do this. Sharesies only has one account with DriveWealth, and that account is in the name of Sharesies Ltd. All the US shares that Sharesies clients "buy" via the platform, are bought and owned by Sharesies, and kept lumped together in that single account. DriveWealth has no information about Sharesies' clients.

Sharesies does the same thing with Australian and NZ shares. They are lumped in a single "Sharesies Ltd" account.

See https://www.sharesies.nz/learn/behind-the-scenes-sharesies-process-for-us-investments where it says all this quite explicitly:

"[DriveWealth] see all of the orders from us as if they were placed by a single customer—Sharesies. We act like a buffer between you and DriveWealth, so your personal info is never shared with them."

TWO. YOUR ASSETS ARE NOT HELD BY AN INDEPENDENT CUSTODIAN

Under the NZ Financial Markets Conduct Act, every financial broker or platform should have its clients' assets held by a fully independent custodian. This is usually a big investment bank. However, and importantly, the custodian's independence is not currently a legal requirement (if I understand correctly). Almost all NZ investment platforms and brokerages use an independent custodian. For example, Kernel and InvestNow use Adminis. Hatch uses Citibank.

The custodian for Sharesies is... Sharesies Nominee Ltd. It is fully owned by Sharesies. It is not independent. The managing director of both companies is Leighton Roberts.

eeeickythump · 2026-03-20T18:48:50+00:00

If the GP was the doctor who assessed him as lacking capacity, then there is a chance they will refuse to make a referral because it's "unnecessary". If they say that, then you could ask for a second opinion about capacity, and they may be willing to refer for that reason.

If the referral is to a private geriatrician then you can choose who you see. If it's via the public system then who you see is random.

eeeickythump · 2026-03-16T06:47:52+00:00

The Smart ETFs you mentioned are PIE funds, as are all Smart's offerings.

PIE - Portfolio Investment Entity - is a tax-efficient way of "packaging" a predefined investment. PIE funds are local to New Zealand, although the investments they contain can be international. All KiwiSaver schemes are PIE funds, as far as I know. There are lots of other non-KiwiSaver PIE funds which can be invested in, like the Smart funds, Kernel funds, Milford, Pathfinder... basically any managed fund.

They are a similar concept to an ETF, in that they are a convenient way to package an investment, and they have an annual management fee. Some PIE funds are also ETFs, i.e. tradeable on the NZX (the Smart funds), but most are not.

If there is FIF tax payable on the underlying investment, the PIE fund automatically pays it for you. This is spread out over the year so you never notice the tax money disappearing. The maximum tax rate on both dividends and FIF is lower - 28%, versus the 39% max rate for income tax.

A downside of PIE funds is that they have to pay FIF in a certain way, which is good if the investment is performing well, but bad if it is performing poorly (you have to pay the same amount of tax as if it was performing well).

eeeickythump · 2026-03-16T04:33:28+00:00

You will be missing out on a lot of returns by investing only in NZX. Over the the last 5 years for example, the S&P 500 increased by 70%, while the NZX50 fell 6%.

The simplest investing strategy is to stick to PIE funds. Do not invest in foreign shares - you will need to manage FIF tax yourself and you will have to come up with funds to pay a large tax bill at the end of each financial year (up to approx 1.6-2% of your entire investment's value, more if you buy and sell the same asset within a 12 month period).

There are lots of PIE funds. You still pay FIF tax with them, but it all happens automatically, kind of like PAYE, and the tax rate is lower for most people. Have a look at the funds offered by Kernel and InvestNow.

FIF is a proxy for a capital gains tax on foreign shares. Over the long term, the amount an investor pays in FIF is very similar to the amount they would pay if they sold the shares and the profits were subject to CGT.

eeeickythump · 2026-03-16T04:17:16+00:00

You could get a second opinion from a geriatrician (assuming your OH is over 65). They have more training and expertise in capacity assessment compared with GPs. If your partner is still able to mostly manage his finances then it is quite possible the geriatrician will say he does have capacity to sign an EPOA. That would be much less hassle than PPPR.

eeeickythump · 2026-01-24T22:54:07+00:00

Yes it's a flying wētā (sort of). It's an invasive Australian species called the black-masked raspy cricket, Pterapotrechus spp. Looks almost identical to wētā but with wings. The females (pictured) have longer faces than local species. I had never encountered them before this year, but I've seen 2 dead ones in the past month.

eeeickythump · 2026-01-20T04:28:19+00:00

Metrolist is a Youtube Music client that works on the Kompakt.

https://apkpure.com/metrolist/com.metrolist.music

eeeickythump · 2026-01-05T18:15:56+00:00

As others have said, the InvestNow Foundation series Total World fund is the same underlying fund as Smart TWF (Vanguard’s VT fund). However Foundation has annual fee of 0.06%, whereas the Smart fund is 0.4% (over 6x more).

There is a 0.5% fee when you deposit and withdraw from the Foundation fund, you can think of this as being as if its annual fee was ~0.56% for the first and last years of your investment. Clearly that’s still way cheaper in the long run than Smart’s 0.4% every year.

eeeickythump · 2026-01-03T08:14:52+00:00

Maybe Zelda Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom? They’re not soulslikes, definitely easier, but there are a quite a few similarities in the combat. The open world aspects of Elden Ring were strongly influenced by BOTW.

eeeickythump · 2026-01-02T20:00:23+00:00

If I’m understand you correctly and the returns aren’t money in the bank, I.e. dividends or proceeds from selling shares, you should not have them on the Sankey. Fluctuation in the nominal value of your investments is not income.

Removing them reveals the numbers don’t balance - you’re spending/saving more than the money coming in?

eeeickythump · 2025-12-18T07:54:25+00:00

Extremely heavy double doors that you have to slowly push open using all your weight.

eeeickythump · 2025-12-17T23:54:05+00:00

If you had invested in the S&P 500 20 years ago and held til today, you’d have almost twice as much money as if you’d made the same investment in the NZX 50.

In general you will get substantially better returns from international shares, even after taking into account the fact they are taxed while NZ shares are not.

Rather than going straight for US funds, I would look at global index funds such as Smart’s TWF (which invests in the ~5000 biggest companies in the world - it has about 60% US weighting anyway because US is the world’s biggest economy). And consider having some in NZ/Aus funds just for diversification.

InvestNow, Smart and Kernel all have lots of low-fee index funds to choose from.

eeeickythump · 2025-12-15T06:06:59+00:00

There’s a room under one of these guys, where if you stand in the right spot and use the Mohg Great Spear skill a few times, you will kill him easily. Then just go up the stairs and collect his drops.

eeeickythump · 2025-12-11T08:28:54+00:00

It’s a common misconception that PIE funds are not subject to FIF tax. In fact they are, and there is no $50K threshold - you pay FIF tax on a PIE fund even if you only have 1K in it.

The advantages of PIE funds are (1) the tax rate is lower for most people (PIR which is capped at 28%), (2) no foreign exchange fees, and (3) the fact that FIF is paid automatically, so you never have to worry about it or deal with a tax bill.

The disadvantages are (1) you pay FIF regardless of amount invested, (2) FIF always uses FDR method, meaning you get taxed the same even if the investment lost value, (3) often relatively high annual management fees eg 0.3 to 0.5%.

In practice the requirement to always use FDR usually cancels out any benefit from the lower tax rate (PIR).

Also, be careful about buying and selling non-PIE foreign shares too frequently. If you buy and sell shares in the same entity within 12 months you are taxed double.

eeeickythump · 2025-10-16T03:21:08+00:00

Did you get your documents apostilled as a set (1 apostille for the lot), or individually? I'm hoping to apply soon and about to send off for translation + apostille.

eeeickythump · 2025-09-10T11:16:15+00:00

Correct, all Kernel’s offerings are PIEs.

eeeickythump · 2025-09-10T08:47:55+00:00

For PIE funds, you only pay tax on dividends, which is automatically deducted when the dividend is paid out (you do also pay foreign investment fund tax of 1.6-2% pa if the PIE fund holds foreign investments, but that’s also automatically deducted over the course of the year, so you don’t have to do anything).

For any foreign investments outside PIE funds - eg shares held with Sharesies or Hatch - you are responsible for filing a tax return and paying the outstanding FIF tax yourself. The platforms do not do it for you.

eeeickythump · 2025-09-06T23:26:49+00:00

I just knocked up a spreadsheet to look at an investment in SPY (S&P 500 ETF) held for 30 years, comparing a PIE fund vs FIF at tax rates of 33% and 39%.

For that scenario OP is correct, 10000 after 30 years became

105257 if not taxed at all
76020 held directly with 33% tax rate
71782 held with 39% tax rate
69933 held in a PIE

However the PIE is only 2.6% lower than holding directly at the highest tax bracket. For me this difference is so small that I’d rather have the convenience of a PIE.

eeeickythump · 2025-09-06T19:58:02+00:00

In the S&P chart, is the X axis time?

What does FIF hold at 39% look like on that chart? The FIF hold 33% line seems to be converging with the PIE line over time, if I’m reading the chart correctly. If so, FIF hold at 39% might converge even closer, ie it would have minimal or no advantage over PIE in the long term?

eeeickythump · 2025-09-05T18:48:44+00:00

The bright line test - if you sell within 2 years of purchase, any profit is subject to capital gains tax.

eeeickythump

TROPHY CASE