7 hours Ago By Jane Phare
Finance guru and author Martin Hawes has written a “warts and all” book on how to plan for a comfortable retirement. He talks to Jane Phare about the struggle to leave behind his career, the mistakes he made during his retirement wind-down and how ill health hit him just after he cancelled his medical insurance. Martin Hawes is looking out from his house at the waves on Christchurch’s picturesque Sumner Beach and thinking about his career.
At 72 he’s not retired but he knows that one day, who knows when, it will come to an end. “Come to an end” are words that are hard for him to say. And then, surprisingly, he uses the word “failure”, astonishing coming from someone well known in New Zealand as a financial author, speaker, columnist, TV and radio commentator, and with 35 years’ experience as a financial adviser to thousands of Kiwis.
“They say all political careers end in failure,” he says. “I think all careers end in failure.” He’ll think that about his own career when the time comes, he suspects.
By that he means, yes, he’s been successful in various areas but that he could have done more. He’s always contributed to the not-for-profit sector but he could have done more..
