What should first-time investors steer clear of? In this episode of Bridge talks Business, Milford Wealth Management Adviser Jess Travers goes back to investing basics to highlight five common pitfalls that can undermine long-term success: waiting for the “perfect” moment, following hype, overlooking diversification, reacting emotionally and chasing quick returns. She also explains how investors can take a more disciplined approach.

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Bridge talks Business: 7 July 2026
Episode Transcript

Ryan Bridge
Kia ora and welcome to Episode 83 of Bridge talks Business with Milford. This week, we’re going back to basics and looking at what not to do when it comes to investing your hard earned money, especially if you’re at it for the first time. We’ll speak to a Milford expert with the top five most common pitfalls and what you can do to avoid them. First, speaking of top five, here’s your business bits.

    1. US jobs numbers week underwhelmed below expectations with negative revisions to the prior two months as well. But the three month moving average stands at $111K. That is more than the assumed level of breakeven-level of employment in the US, so not a catastrophe.
    2. Japan announced changes to its budget process last week. This cements the Prime Minister Takaichi’s growth agenda, bond markets a bit worried about the potential for higher borrowing as a result of that.
    3. Inflation expectations in the UK heading in the right direction – down. This coupled with a lower oil price shifted market expectations for rate hikes this year, much lower now.
    4. The US share market saw more volatility last week with some notable rotations beneath the surface going on. The headline market was up strongly, but leadership shifted away from AI back towards healthcare and industrials – remains to be seen whether this rotation persists or if this was just a temporary positioning washout.
    5. The main focus domestically this week, of course, the RBNZ where the market is pricing a 72% chance of a hike – comes despite a big decline in oil prices, which would make the RBNZ’s inflation forecast pretty much redundant. However, the prevailing view is that based on the prior commentary, rates are currently too far below their perception of neutral. We’ll be watching comments after the announcement closely.

So those were your top five business bits for this week. Now let’s get stuck into our feature interview, which is an interview with Milford’s Jess Travers, Wealth Management Adviser. Today we’re tackling not what to do, but what not to do when it comes to investing. We’ve got a top five – another top five – coming your way. Just a reminder, this segment is informational only and should not be considered financial advice. Jess, welcome back.


Jess Travers
Thanks so much.

Ryan Bridge
Now, today we’re – I love this because you could be positive about things and you could say here are the top five tips. Here are the top five things not to do.

Jess Travers
Yes, we like this one.

Ryan Bridge
We like this one. Alright. So let’s start with – because people are always asking me – like is now a good time to invest? You know, either the market’s low so I should jump in or the market’s on the way up so I should ride the wave. Is it a smart question to ask?

Jess Travers
It’s a very smart question to ask. So in terms of the top five mistakes we see, one of the most common ones for new investors is waiting for that perfect time to invest or the right time to invest. They’re waiting for a dip in the markets or for things to feel cheaper and they’re waiting for the bargain that may never come. So we really want investors, if you’re ready to start investing, invest. Don’t wait for that dip because it’s inherently hard to know when the next one’s coming along and you may miss out on getting your money working really hard for you in the meantime. Another common mistake we see with that is timing the market as well. If you’re new to investing, you might react to news flow. You might sell when things go down initially or wait for things to feel a bit more positive before investing back in again. And again we know that that can lead to some really detrimental outcomes. So we want investors to start if they’re ready. Don’t wait for a dip. It’s really hard to know when that’s coming. Even professional investors don’t time the top and the bottom of markets consistently well. If you’re ready to start, start, especially if you’ve got a long term time frame or you’re going into a well-diversified investment like a managed fund or an ETF, it may not be as risky as you think.

Ryan Bridge
It’s hard though, isn’t it? Because you see, particularly if you see certain stocks going up or particular sectors going up, you think, oh, I want to… But should you really, and I guess this is maybe another pitfall, is jumping in without having some kind of strategy or overall plan about how you’re going to do it?

Jess Travers
Yep, that’s a really good one. That leads into the second common mistake that we often see new investors making – is starting without a clear plan. So what that means is often we see investors just going into an investment because it’s being recommended to them by a friend or family member. They may just think, oh, I’ll give it a try for a little while and see how it goes. Or they’re basing their decision on hype or a stock or an investment that’s had a lot of press and media attention. That’s inherently risky because it may mean that you haven’t done your own due diligence on the stock. It may not suit your own situation. It might be too risky for you or maybe not risky enough. It may not suit your time frame, your risk profile. If you haven’t done your own due diligence, you may not know whether you can sell it if you need to, what the fees and charges might be for investing in it. What are the tax implications? So we want everyone to have a plan, understand why you’re investing. What are you investing for? Is it for your retirement? Are you growing an investment fund or sorry, an emergency fund, which is really important? Do you need an income and choose investments that are well suited to what you’re investing for, your situation and your goals?

Ryan Bridge
The other one that we’ve spoken about before is diversification, is throwing all your eggs and to the point earlier about, you know, there might be an AI stock that’s going up or a sector that’s going up and you kind of go, well, let’s ride the wave. But you need to have eggs in lots of baskets, right?

Jess Travers
You do. You know, that leads to common mistake number three is a lack of diversification. And yes, there’s been some wonderful shiny stocks that have had some incredible returns this year. And it’s really easy to jump on that bandwagon and think, hey, they’re going to keep going. You know, we know that behavioural finance tells us that we have a propensity to think if something’s going up, it’s going to keep going up, but there’s a lot of risk with that. So diversification is another common mistake we see – or a lack of it. So having too much in one particular company or stock or an asset class, even just having all your money in an asset like a house can be problematic. The risk with that is if you have too much in one investment and it doesn’t do well, it can cause big losses. It can hurt your overall returns long term. So we really recommend diversifying to avoid that. Having investment spread across different industries, different sectors, different asset classes, and managed funds and ETFs are a really simple and easy way to get really good diversification.

Ryan Bridge
What about emotional investing? Because we’re humans, we’re emotional beings. We’re either happy or we’re sad or we’re greedy.

Jess Travers
Yes, absolutely. Yeah, that’s a big one. So common mistake number four is letting emotions drive your decision making. So when it comes to investing, fear and greed are really powerful forces when it comes to investing. So again, touching on that, you know, seeing an asset or a share do really, really well and jumping on the bandwagon because of FOMO, that can lead to some disappointing returns. Or reacting to negative news flow and what you’re reading in the press and media, means you might sell when share markets are down, locking in some losses. Emotion-based decisions can really be detrimental to your long-term returns. So what we recommend is having a plan, sticking with your investments through market ups and downs, and doing your own due diligence. If you’re rushing into a stock because it’s done really well, you may be missing the point – have you looked what the outlook is from here? Is it still a good investment? Are you getting value for money? So understanding that if you’re buying, hold long term, understand the value and risks of chasing that shiny stock or that fear of missing out. And we really want investors to stick with their plan, buy an investment, hold it long term, ride through the ups and downs and let your time frame and compounding returns do the work for you.

Ryan Bridge
Funny – I sort of look at fear and greed as almost opposites. You know, is there a personality type or are different personality types more prone to be more greedy?

Jess Travers
Yeah, that’s an interesting one. Very good question. I think nervous investors are probably investors who haven’t had a lot of experience, right? If you’ve been through different market cycles and you’ve been through a few share market corrections or a bear market, you’ve probably got a bit of experience behind you to know that, OK, it went down, but it does come up again. You know, share markets do go up a lot more than they go down, but when they go down, they can go down pretty sharply. So human nature, we get scared, we get nervous and we really have to fight off that desire to alter our long-term investment strategies based on short-term news. So, it was Warren Buffett who actually said we should be doing the opposite. Be greedy when others are fearful. Buy into others reacting to selling the investments on short-term news and be fearful when others are greedy. You know, when people are chasing high prices higher and higher, maybe that’s a time to be a little bit nervous.

Ryan Bridge
A little sceptical, maybe. Alright. Finally, our number five. This is can I make a quick buck?

Jess Travers
Yeah, this is a really good one. And we want investors to be wary of this mistake. Don’t expect quick returns from your investments. So what we see is new investors starting off and they end up checking their portfolios and investments daily. And that’s okay – we understand that that’s human nature and we want to keep tabs and see how things are going. But unrealistic expectations can lead to disappointment. And they might mean that you end up selling or changing your course based on that early disappointment. Checking your balance daily or checking your share prices daily, that’s more akin to trading – keeping tabs on them that frequently. What we want investors to have is patience. Understand that you need a long-term time frame. Staying invested through different market cycles is really key. And knowing that if you have a long-term time frame, you do not need to worry about what’s happening in the short term because it could be negative. That’s all part of investing. So understanding that you need a long-term time frame, ideally five plus years and sticking with it. Don’t get disappointed if it doesn’t do well straight away. It will do well for you over the longer term. You just need some patience.

Ryan Bridge
It’s funny you talk about just generally the emotion of investing, and if you’ve got a lot of skin in the game, right? So it’s hard not to be. But for a professional investor or a specialist and expert, is it almost like training yourself to not be emotional about it? You know, and be much more analytical about data information as opposed to, as you say, hype, speculation, that sort of thing.

Jess Travers
That’s where engaging with professional investors, like fund managers, removes the desire to have that emotion attached to your own investments. So active managers or stock pickers, you know, they are basing their investment decisions on research. They have a valuation attached to investments a lot of the time. So when it reaches a level where they think they’ve done well out of it, they’re really good at selling into that strength and taking profit. Whereas retail investors or, you know, even I’m guilty of it myself, if a company or a share does really well for you, you think, oh, it’s going to keep going up a little bit more. I’ll own it for a little bit more. And guess what happens? It can come back down again. So professional investors like fund managers, they’re really diligent at selling stocks when they’ve done well, taking profit, locking that in and then moving on to the next one and looking for value in other investments again.

Ryan Bridge
Yeah, fascinating. Jess, lovely to have you back on the podcast.

Jess Travers
Thank you very much. Nice to see you.

Ryan Bridge
That was Jess Travers Wealth Management Adviser at Milford with the five things that you could possibly avoid if you are new to Investing. Don’t forget you could like follow and subscribe this podcast wherever you like to listen. We enjoy you doing so until next week Don’t forget to invest in yourselves.

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