Smart CEO Lisa Turnbull on the myth that’s costing people money.

Smart (previously Smartshares) launched New Zealand’s first ETF in 1996. Three decades later, CEO Lisa Turnbull says the barriers to investing have never been lower.

Many New Zealanders think investing is something they’ll do later, once they’re better off.

But Smart’s chief executive Lisa Turnbull says that mindset is costing people years of potential growth.

“The mistake they make is not getting started,” she says.

“They think it’s too hard or they don’t think they’ve got enough money, but one of the most reliable paths to building wealth can be remarkably simple.

“When you step back and look at what actually works over 10, 20, 30 years, it’s the basics. Start early, diversify broadly, keep your fees low, and stay invested. That’s it.”

Smart manages around $17 billion on behalf of investors and is owned by NZX, the operator of New Zealand’s stock exchange.

Asked how much someone needs to start, her answer is surprisingly small.

“Five dollars. You don’t need a lot of money to invest and see how the market works,” Turnbull says.

In fact, she’s had someone show her a Smart ETF investment, held through an investment platform, worth just $1.49.

Turnbull believes KiwiSaver has helped transform investing from a niche activity into something far more mainstream.

“Everyone’s an investor,” she says.

Technology has made investing more accessible. Opening an investment account now takes minutes rather than days, and platforms such as Sharesies and InvestNow have made it easier for people to start small and learn as they go.

At the same time, exchange traded funds, or ETFs, have become increasingly popular.

An ETF is essentially a basket of investments. Rather than buying shares in a single company, investors buy into a fund that owns shares in many companies, providing a simple, low-cost way to diversify from their very first dollar.

“The simplest way to think about it is you’re buying one fund, that represents a whole lot of investments,” Turnbull says.

The concept is often described as buying the haystack rather than searching for the needle. It’s a perspective shaped by three decades of watching markets cycle through booms, corrections, and everything in between. And it explains why Smart has stayed committed to index investing since day one.

Smart’s ETFs are available directly from Smart, through platforms such as Sharesies and InvestNow, or via a broker. While those platforms provide a way to buy investments, Smart creates and manages the ETFs themselves.

The ETFs are traded in New Zealand dollars, making it easier for local investors to access international markets without having to worry about foreign currency exchange.

“Sharesies or InvestNow are the platforms. Smart is the underlying ETF product that you buy,” Turnbull explains.

The ETF range now extends from New Zealand and international shares to property, gold and specialist themes such as robotics and automation. Smart is also continuing to expand its range, with new ETFs expected to launch over the coming months.

Many investors prefer broad funds to trying to pick individual winners. Smart’s most popular ETF tracks the performance of 500 of the largest US companies, while other popular options invest across global sharemarkets or Australia and New Zealand’s top listed companies.

For those who prefer to invest closer to home, funds such as the Smart NZ Top 50 ETF provide exposure to 50 of New Zealand’s largest listed companies while supporting local capital markets.

Thirty years ago, Smart launched the country’s first ETF at a time when financial markets were far less familiar to most Kiwis. New Zealand was the fourth country in the world to introduce ETFs, following the US, Canada and Japan.

Today, Smart remains one of New Zealand’s longest-standing investment fund providers, with a track record spanning multiple market cycles. Smart also applies the same index-investing philosophy to its SuperLife KiwiSaver Scheme, giving members access to diversified, low-cost portfolios built on the same principles that have underpinned its management of ETFs for the last 30 years.

Since then, investors have lived through recessions, market crashes, global financial crises and periods of significant volatility.

Years of market ups and downs have reinforced one lesson above all others: successful investing is often less about making perfect decisions and more about consistency.

“It’s time in the market. Don’t try and time the market,” says Turnbull.

The earlier someone starts, the longer they have for returns to generate further returns, a phenomenon known as compounding. Even relatively small amounts invested consistently can grow significantly over time.

When Smart launched its first ETF 30 years ago, it contained New Zealand’s largest listed companies – including Carter Holt Harvey and Fletcher Challenge. Today, the fund looks quite different, holding names such as Fisher and Paykel Healthcare, a2 Milk and Infratil.

Markets evolve. Companies rise and fall. New industries emerge. Predicting which companies will dominate in the future is hard, but when you track the market with an ETF you gain exposure by simply owning the fund.

While property remains an important goal for many New Zealanders, Turnbull doesn’t believe investing has to wait until after home ownership.

“It’s not one or the other,” she says. “My view would be you do a bit of both.”

It’s a message that seems to be landing. Many young New Zealanders feel that property is no longer the sure bet it once was, or that home ownership might be out of reach.

They are increasingly turning to the sharemarket - a marked shift from the days when investing felt like the preserve of experts or the wealthy.

For Turnbull, that’s the real story behind 30 years’ of Smart. Not the size of the funds, but the growing number of New Zealanders who see investing as something they can be a part of.

Smartshares Limited (Smart) is the issuer and manager of the Smart Exchange Traded Funds.

Information on the ETFs (including the product disclosure statements, investing basics and the range of funds available to New Zealand investors) is available at smartinvest.co.nz