Property Investment
2 min read
Author: Andrew Nicol
Founder, 20+ Years' Experience Investing In Property, Author & Host
Close your eyes for a second.
Actually, don’t. You’re reading.
But picture this instead. It’s your perfect day in retirement.
For me, I’m 57. It’s a Thursday, and I’m at a long lunch with old friends.
There’s a good bottle of wine on the table. My friend Eamon said something dark and we’re all having a good laugh.
Work doesn’t cross my mind, because I’m only doing three days a week.
And by the time I’m 65, I’m looking after the grandkids, sneaking them lollies before sending them back to their parents.
Your picture will be different. It could be a bach in the Coromandel, or guzzling croissants under the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
But here’s the issue.
Nobody buys a rental because they love rentals. Nobody buys shares because they love shares.
You do it because you want a better life later on. The long lunch at 57, and the croissant at 65.
But get 10 people around for your next barbecue, and less than half of them have a plan for making their retirement dreams happen.
That’s according to the InvestNow Retirement Readiness Index, Feb 2025.
And I don’t think it’s their fault.
Because the finance industry has made it so hard for you to figure it out yourself.
About 48% of property investors want to retire before 65, according to the Opes Partners What Investors Want Report (June 2026).
But if you go on the government’s own retirement calculator, it can’t even conceive that you’d want to retire before 65.
Look what happens. If you try to say you want to retire before 65… it snaps you right back to their version of reality.
There’s no way to say you’ll work three days a week for a while.
And if you own an investment property, there’s nowhere to put it. The calculator has no idea you own it, let alone whether you’d keep it.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s a good calculator.
But it doesn’t let you run the numbers or ask things like:
And that’s the real reason half of Kiwis have no retirement plan. It’s not because we don’t want one.
It’s because the tools were never built for us.
That’s why I’ve spent the past year, and about $100,000, building a new tool to help make sure every New Zealander can have a retirement plan.
A proper one, built around the day you pictured. I’m launching it next week.
So keep an eye on your inbox, because I’m going to show you how you can create that plan to get the freedom and choices you want in the future.
P.S. For now, do one thing. Think about your perfect day. The age, the place, the people. That’s where the plan starts.
Founder, 20+ Years' Experience Investing In Property, Author & Host
Andrew Nicol, Managing Director at Opes Partners, is a seasoned financial adviser and property investment expert with 20+ years of experience. With 40 investment properties, he hosts the Property Academy Podcast, co-authored 'Wealth Plan' with Ed Mcknight, and has helped 1,894 Kiwis achieve financial security through property investment.
This article is for your general information. It’s not financial advice. See here for details about our Financial Advice Provider Disclosure. So Opes isn’t telling you what to do with your own money.
We’ve made every effort to make sure the information is accurate. But we occasionally get the odd fact wrong. Make sure you do your own research or talk to a financial adviser before making any investment decisions.
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