Quantum Wealth Summary
- What you need to know: Are you putting all your eggs in just one basket? Be warned: New Zealand is a tiny economy vulnerable to shocks, both internal and external.
- Why it matters: Smart and agile investors can already see that the supercycle in Kiwi property is ending. So their main strategy is diversification. At a minimum, they are diversifying their assets across 7 industries in 3 continents.
- Here’s the state of play: We take an urgent look at 3 emerging ideas that may offer a strong bet for wealth protection and growth.
I love New Zealand.
The people. The lifestyle. The landscape.
I absolutely adore all of it.
I see this country through an immigrant’s eyes — and I think this place is as close to paradise as you can find on God’s green earth.
Source: Matador Network
My family’s reasons for choosing New Zealand as our home are more personal than most. You see, I grew up in what is effectively a right-wing ethnostate in Malaysia:
- I feared the secret police making me disappear if I said the wrong thing.
- I feared that racial riots might erupt at any time, leading to genocide.
- I feared apartheid being enforced, banning me from certain schools or jobs simply because I didn’t belong to the correct religion.
This is why I count my blessings for being able to live in New Zealand. I recognise that this is a privilege. I’m grateful for it.
Even on New Zealand’s gloomiest day, I find that the worst Kiwi politician is still better than the best Malaysian politician. And I stand by that, wholeheartedly.
Source: Hotels
But — yes, there is a but — I have observed that recent events in New Zealand have caused a great deal of anguish for our nation.
At best, the left-wing government has failed to listen to the people’s needs. At worst, they have damaged trust. Sown division. Pulled the fabric of our society to breaking point.
Now, here are some actual comments that I’ve heard from Kiwis:
- ‘I’ve never seen New Zealand so split.’
- ‘This is not the New Zealand I remember.’
- ‘New Zealand is turning into Zimbabwe.’
- ‘We’re becoming a Third World country.’
- ‘I’m thinking of leaving.’
The emotional turmoil is real. And all this makes me incredibly sad.
What has gone wrong here? How did our collective mood get so toxic? And what’s the solution?
Well, to understand that, we will have to look back on the history of Western civilisation:
- During the 17th century, John Locke was one of the greatest thinkers of the Enlightenment. He talked about the importance of the social contract — where citizens agree to surrender some of their freedoms to the government in return for social order and protection.
- Another English philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, talked about ‘the natural condition of mankind’ as being cruel. Humanity was caught up in an eternal state of ‘war of all against all’. This made life ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short’. Such a status quo is clearly undesirable if you want your civilisation to prosper and grow.
So…we need a social contract. For security. For stability. For progress. Yes, this is the basic building block of our shared existence:
- But as good as the social contract is, it’s only valid if the government is acting in the best interests of the people.
- If the government becomes misguided, people are justified in rebelling against the government and unseating it.
- Then they may choose another government in the hope that it can better represent their dignity.
- This, in essence, is the issue that New Zealand is facing now. We must question whether the present social contract in the country has been broken — and whether we need a fresh one. This is why a reckoning will arrive at the polls soon enough.
Interestingly, my colleague Simon Angelo and I are seeing a different kind of reckoning happening. This involves the Eligible and Wholesale Investors that we work with. Their money — the smart money — is on the move. Here’s why:
- They understand that New Zealand’s economy is overly dependent on two things: agriculture and tourism. Both are highly vulnerable to external shocks.
- They understand that the New Zealand stock market is tiny. It only has 184 listed companies. And it lacks big-scale access to infrastructure, technology, and commodities.
- They understand that the supercycle in housing is ending. And with much of the country’s debt stuck in property, this could be an insolvent dead end for the foreseeable future.
- Most of all, they understand that while New Zealand has enjoyed a stable political climate for most of its history, the past is no guarantee of the future. It shouldn’t be taken for granted.
So, our investors are mature. Clear-minded. Streetwise. What is their long-term plan? What is their grand strategy? Well, it goes like this:
- Our clients are patriotic Kiwis who love New Zealand. As tempted as they may be by the possibility of life elsewhere, they have no serious intentions of leaving the country.
- They are politically aware. They are politically active. They are continuing to stay and fight for a better nation.
- They do not enjoy wild swings in political ideology. What they want most is a centrist government with common-sense policies.
- They highly mobile and highly agile with their liquid assets. They have achieved this by tapping into the global wealth network. They are determined not to put all their eggs in one basket. At a minimum, they are invested across seven different industries across three different continents.
- They understand that there’s no free lunch in life — but there is one free lunch in investing. It’s called diversification. And by tapping into diversification, they have made the world their oyster. And financial freedom and security is within their grasp.
They aim to protect their wealth. Grow their wealth. Earn passive income. Our clients are vigilant about ticking all these boxes. Here’s how they benefit:
- Through our Vistafolio Managed Accounts Service, we run what might be the only night-trading desk in New Zealand, helping clients access the global markets with speed and precision.
- We are not a managed fund. We are not Walmart. We are Savile Row.
- We don’t believe in one-size-fits-all. Instead, our service is tailored. Custom. Bespoke. We only buy into the critical emerging ideas that we see right now…
John is the Chief Investment Officer at Wealth Morning. His responsibilities include trading, client service, and compliance. He is an experienced investor and portfolio manager, trading both on his own account and assisting with high net-worth clients. In addition to contributing financial and geopolitical articles to this site, John is a bestselling author in his own right. His international thrillers have appeared on the USA Today and Amazon bestseller lists.