Cooking the Books podcast: Will political spats ruin your investments?

Each week the NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB's Cooking The Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it's whether grandstanding politicians could hurt your back pocket. Hosted by Frances Cook.

I love a good rollercoaster. Hands in the air, yelling and screaming as you go up the highs and down the lows, defying gravity.

It's not quite so fun when it's your investments on that rollercoaster ride.

I'm a big fan of investing when you can, and taking care of your own future. Shares are an accessible way for many of us to do that, or at least, a lot easier than trying to get into the property market at the moment.

But boy, it looks like we need to buckle up for a ride.

Good old US President Trump has declared a trade war with China, slapping a bunch of tariffs on the United States' trade partner.

Fair to say that rattled the markets, with the Dow Jones industrial average plunging 700 points in the immediate aftermath.

And let's not get too comfy laughing at the Americans from back here in New Zealand. The war of words between Shane Jones and Air New Zealand last week could have turned into something more, and upset our own market.

To be honest though, the recent volatility isn't all that unexpected.

We've had a bull market for nine years now, meaning soaring values and happy investors.

But nine years is a very long time for that to continue, and some might say things are even getting a little overpriced.

I talked to Herald personal finance editor Tamsyn Parker about how people could prepare for a rocky ride.

We discussed how this could even hit people who haven't directly bought shares, how to prepare for a volatile market, as well as the argument that a little bit of bad news would actually be good news.

For the interview, listen to the podcast.

If you have a question about this podcast, or an idea for the next one, come and talk to me about it. I'm on Facebook here, Instagram here and Twitter here.

Don't forget to subscribe on the Apple podcasts app or I Heart radio, to make sure you never miss an episode.