financial advice

We met a financial adviser the other day to discuss 2 things:

1. Advice on investing J's mom's extra money on short-term investments
2. Advice on the value of keeping the house when we move overseas

And the advice were:

1. Doesn't make sense to invest USD in NZ cos of exchange rate. Most likely lose 20% of it if invested in short-term. Even if we invest it on term (CD in US) in USD here it would still get US term rates. No way to cheat the system, he said.
2. Need to ask someone who knows US tax system cos we'd need to declare worldwide income in filing US taxes. We could declare it as a loss, if it is, but like he said we'd need someone who knows taxation in America.

Obviously, #1 is off the list and J has to tell his mom soon. The 2nd is still up in the air but we're doing all we can while we're still here to ensure that we can sell it above its market value.

He also advised us on planning a budget in USD on 1 income, which we did a bit of. If J earned at least 47k (converted from his NZ salary), we'd be okay but that's if we pay $1500/month on rent. Now if I earned too, at least 60k annually, we'd really do well even if full time daycare is involved.

The meeting didn't last more than 20 minutes especially after seeing that we have a budget all cut out for us already. Good thing it was a free initial consultation.