August tax payment time
If you pay tax provisionally, good news! The 28th of August is just around the corner and this is a payment date for many people and businesses that pay tax provisionally. If you have provisional tax to pay, keep an eye out as we will be sending tax reminder notices out over the next couple of weeks.
Economic Outlook
The latest ANZ Economic Outlook survey results have been released. These usually dull affairs have garnered more attention of late and are largely a tale of woe. It is a survey of businesspeople based on their expectations over the next 3 to 12 months. Perhaps all the respondents have been listening to the same talk-back radio station, because the results were – predictably – not great.
One particular low-light was the construction sector where both consents for housing and construction ‘intentions’ are trending downward, meaning that a slowdown for the construction sector looks to be on the cards. According to Infometrics, the construction industry is the 4th biggest contributor to NZ’s gross domestic product, so a slowdown could have wide ranging effects.
Another key point of the publication was inflation is high, and expectations are that it will stay that way.
But of course, none of this, or anything else in this report should come as a surprise, and it’s been well covered (perhaps too much so) from all sectors of the media.
What isn’t talked about enough, at least in our opinion; the economy is cyclical. Sometimes, it will be going faster than others. And clearly the speed that it has been moving at for the last 12 or 18 months is unsustainable. The December 2021 quarter saw growth of 3% in that quarter alone. So even if the economy moves into negative territory now, we have been rocketing ahead in recent months – letting a bit of heat out probably won’t be the end of the world.
Absolutely, inflation, tougher economic conditions (and if it was to happen, recession) take a real human toll. But at an individual level, we can’t do much to control the economy’s trajectory. However, what we can do is prepare ourselves to be as financially resilient as possible.
As Mark Twain once said, “worrying is like paying a debt you don’t owe”. Sure, it looks like we are in for a bumpy economic time. But rather than dwelling on the attention-grabbing headlines, we encourage you to use this as an opportunity to make sure your financial house is in order.
If you want some help to improve your financial resilience, get in contact.