Make the future YOU want... for your retirement
Introducing Robert and Jude - Managed Portfolio Service Clients and Recent Retirees
Robert and Jude are a retired couple looking to enjoy life by supplementing their income in retirement.
The Greens had worked hard all their life, managing to secure their Wellington home mortgage free. Then, in 2001 Bob was diagnosed with diabetes and hypertension and told that he was a high-risk candidate for cardiac arrest. A stressful ten-year management job in a busy manufacturing plant and limited time for exercise had taken its toll.
The Challenge
Robert opted to take an early retirement and make some permanent lifestyle changes. The housing market was buoyant in Wellington at the time and the Greens received a good price for their family home. The plan was to downsize the house, move to Blenheim, bank the surplus money and live off the income.
They soon discovered though that the $318,000 they had to bank, wasn’t going to earn them the interest needed to sustain their retirement.
To enjoy the kind of lifestyle they wanted, plus fly back to the North Island every so often to visit family and friends, the Greens thought they would have had to use their capital, which is not something they wanted to do. They went in search of a low-risk investment strategy that would generate more interest than the bank.
The Solution
A friend referred the Greens to ABN AMRO Craigs. They met with an investment advisor there and worked through a discovery process, sharing their goals. Given their starting fund was the sum of their life’s savings, they were cautious in their approach.
Their investment advisor proposed three scenarios to choose from and advised in favour of a strategy that saw them invest approximately a third of their portfolio in fixed interest and the remainder in high-yielding New Zealand securities.
Now some five years on, the value of the Green’s portfolio has significantly increased in value. They have been successful in achieving an above average annualised return, generating the income they need to live their dreams, while maintaining the value of their capital.
“Over the course of our five-year partnership, we’ve been able to adjust the portfolio prudently to take advantage of new opportunities and spread the risk. Whilst we may not always be able to achieve such good results because of movements in the market, it’s fair to say that as the level of trust has grown in our partnership, so have the returns,” says their investment advisor.