The Happy Saver Podcast - Personal Finance in New Zealand

When Rachel told me that she had very recently moved from a super consumer to thinking instead that saving was the new shopping, I knew the story of this single, city-dwelling, dependent-free, self-employed 54-year-old was one worth sharing. Covid was to be the tipping point for Rachel. Realising that when her income stream dried up, she was in trouble financially. Today I’m going to tell you how she managed to stop living pay cheque to pay cheque and managed to catch a break instead.

This week I’m sharing the financial life of Ngaio and Ben, a Coromandel couple in their early 30s. They struck a chord with me because I love seeing examples of life enjoyed a little bit differently to most, in their case, choosing to build and live in a tiny home, work part-time, take mini-retirements and do a lot of adventures, which often include a bike. They are rare due to the fact that they have more invested in the share market than they do in housing, which lets them lead a more balanced life. They are an adventurous couple who will give you food for thought.

This week I caught up with a couple in their mid 20’s, Richard and Jane. Their express aim in putting themselves out there is to comfort the other twenty-somethings that their financial situation is in their own hands and they, to a large degree, get to write their own story. In 2019, they purchased a home when they were just 22 years of age and are now setting about paying it off. Buying a home so young is unusual, but having the goal from the beginning to pay it off as fast as possible is even more unusual. My first question to them was, “how did you get so smart?”

This week I’m sharing the story of Ayana, a woman who sure does have a zest for life. However, life keeps throwing her curve balls, and she has to keep adjusting course. Ayana has worked since she was a teenager and left school with money in the bank. She had a brief stint in the Navy and then completed a degree at university. She no sooner started an internship in LA before it was cut short by Covid! She picked up work at a radio station, then as a carer. And, to top it off, she spent last summer working in Antarctica! Did I mention she is just 25 years old? She takes life by the horns, and because she is thinking clearly about money, she can embrace each new change instead of being crippled by it. I loved this conversation; I think you will too.

Today I’m excited to share the story of Pipi, a 20-year-old wahine from Auckland. Pipi got her first part-time job at the age of just 13, and now that she is a second-year nursing student, she continues to work part-time while studying and full-time when she can to keep the income rolling in. The extra special thing about Pipi is that she is fiercely determined to complete her three-year nursing degree debt-free. Today’s podcast episode walks through how she is doing it. I think this episode will be particularly useful to NCEA students and anyone who knows one!

I’ve met countless people who have received an inheritance, yet today they are in a really poor financial situation. It’s what you DO with an inheritance that counts. Will chose to pay off debt and invest. And while his investment strategy back in 2013 was similar to throwing a dart at a dart board, at least he tried. His biggest financial triumph, he said, has been the fact that he took an interest in working out how to grow wealth, he took the time to educate himself, and then he actually took action. Now married and living in their own home in Auckland, with an Auckland-sized mortgage, this 31-year-old couple is still well on their way to financial freedom.

Being only 19, and one of the younger people I’ve interviewed didn’t mean that today's guest Nathan had less to share. In November of 2022, he will graduate from Polytech with a Diploma in Quantity Surveying, with two years of industry experience, no debt and a job lined up. Added to that, he is also helping to pay for his girlfriend’s tertiary studies as well. He has some big plans for the years ahead and I think his story is worth sharing with high school students wondering “where to from here” as they gear up to leave school.

Today’s guest, 33-year-old Freya from Auckland, emailed me because she wanted me to interview more younger women who had their money sorted and also handled their families' finances. From the little she divulged in her email, I could tell that she was on track to being financially sorted, so I encouraged her to speak with me instead! In the space of just seven years, she and her husband have moved to New Zealand from India and starting from scratch, they have got themselves into good careers, purchased a home and had a child. All in the midst of a global pandemic, stupid house prices and being all alone in a new country, I found her so inspiring to speak with. I think you will too.

Neil has come a long way in life since his move from London to New Zealand in 2005. His one-year adventure has turned into 17 and counting, and year on year, he has continued to learn a little more about how money works. Today he finds himself in his late 40s, a father of one, with investments both in the UK and New Zealand, which he is steadily adding to from his take-home pay and rental income. But it’s not all roses, and the break up of a relationship is also teaching him how to financially prepare for a settlement and let go of what's not important in life, to create space for the things that are.

I managed to cross paths with 35-year-old Dani because both of us are runners and seeing the trails she was enjoying always inspired me to lace up my own shoes and head out the door for a run. It’s probably no surprise that when I found out she was also navigating her own path to FIRE, or Financial Independence, Retire Early that I became even more curious and asked her to chat with me. I find that there is always something that tips people over the edge financially and makes them feel annoyed enough to do something about the strife they find themselves in. In Dani’s case, it was the purchase of new curtains to go into their home. The home they bought in an effort to keep up with The Joneses.

Sometimes, a minor conversation lights a spark and makes me want to know more about a person. This was the case with today’s guest Zoe. She emailed me a question, which I answered, but what got me interested was how financially assured this recently retired woman from Christchurch was as she actually begins to live off New Zealand superannuation plus the investments she has built up. The thing was, though, it was only more recently that she began to feel more financially confident as she only really started to pay attention to her pūtea (money) when she was in her late 50s, proving that it’s never too late to take control of your finances.

Senia and her small whānau moved to Ashburton, New Zealand, from Samoa back in 2010 and quietly began to take on consumer debt. Until one day, enough was enough, and some well-timed conversations about becoming debt-free coincided with her realising they were living paycheque to paycheque. This kicked off the process of paying off $70,000 in consumer debt and completely changing the future of her family.

Australian based Kiwi Dad of two Jon went through a relationship separation and a financial crisis some years ago but is now on track to be mortgage-free within the next four years. The key for him has been self-taught education about how to handle his personal finances and he was particularly keen to share with other single parents that they can get their finances sorted too. He calls himself ‘a work in progress’ but he is well on his way and is proof that reaching FI is a marathon, not a sprint.

Today I have a chat with Jay. He reached out to me with a story to share about him and his wife Shelle and their property investment journey. He sees residential real estate as their way to riches, and he enjoys the ins and outs of the property market. He has been incredibly successful so far in building wealth using debt, yet he is still constantly looking for new information and tweaking his approach as a result. He’s building on a foundation built by his whānau and continuing to grow his investments, with the main goal being for him and Shelle to hand them on to the next generation, their three tamariki.

This is the fourth time that I’ve interviewed Bradie for this podcast! Why do I keep coming back for more? Because I am hooked on her journey from suffocating mortgage debt to financial independence in just six short years. Each time we speak there is an exciting new development and this episode does not disappoint. I’ve also enjoyed following the personal transformation that Bradie has gone through, from feeling significant stress to feeling that anything is possible. Join me in this latest episode to find out where she is now.

This week I’m sharing the story of early retiree Brendan. We’ve met in person many times now, even more so since he moved to Central Otago in late 2021 and I have always found him a relatively quiet and contemplative kind of guy. So I was delighted when he took the time (because let’s face it he has heaps) to share with me just how, at the young age of 39, you manage to have enough money that you never need to work again.

In today’s podcast, I’m doing a revisit with Bella who I interviewed in Episode 52. She shared the realities of student loan debt in New Zealand and how you can meander your way into student loan debt, but you need to fight your way out again. She explains how she has been tackling her $85,000 of student loan debt and how people are so wrong when they say that interest-free student loan debt just does not matter. Because it does. It matters a whole lot. Bella has not been idle, smashing out $66,000 of debt in just 14 months. Yep, you read that right. If she can do it, so can you!

Kiri and I have been emailing each other since mid-2018 discussing all manner of money related things as they unfolded for her whānau of three. Kiri, her husband John and their four-year-old daughter, had big plans for 2020, which included a move to Australia, paying off student loans, buying a home and starting new jobs. But we all know how 2020 unfolded, and it was interesting to hear how Kiri and John didn’t bow out in defeat as their plans went up in a cloud of smoke but instead stepped up, created a new strategy and maneuvered themselves into their first home and a more secure position right here in Aotearoa.

I first heard from Andy when he was 29. He emailed with several questions and observations, and the bit that stuck with me most was that he was pretty keen to buy himself a car parking space as an investment. Indeed, he said, “I love the idea of owning a car park in the city”. He thought it was a pretty legitimate investment, plus he thought he might even use it himself one day - if he got a car, that is. I on the other hand thought, “what has the world come to that people can’t afford a house (which is what Andy wanted), and they have to convince themselves that owning a piece of dirt the size of a car is the next best thing”. So, Andy had my attention and for the last 18 months, we swapped a few emails back and forth. He writes for a living, so he writes a good email and through those, I got to see his thoughts evolve and the evolution of a workable financial plan. And to cut through the suspense, I’ll cut to the chase; it does not involve a car park.

This week I’m sharing the story of a central Hawke’s Bay couple Rach and Becs. They made the bold move to leave both of their families behind and move out of Auckland, headed for Hawke's Bay so they could get ahead both financially and for a better work-life balance. With careers in IT and Health Advisory, whanau and friends warned them of career setbacks but they have happily proved them wrong, both securing dream jobs and higher incomes. I heard from them when they wanted to share their absolute joy at the fact they had become mortgage-free, at the age of just 35.

Over the years Janet, who is 59, has worked out that other people can be unreliable, so she is better to plan for her own success, instead of relying on others. She is a huge forward thinker and she spends time gently tweaking all aspects of her financial life to gently steer her waka where she wants it to go. She does not earn a lot, just $798 a week, but as she said to me “I guess it’s what you do with it that matters right”? She knows her exact costs and she pays cash for them, then from her take-home pay at any one time she is saving up for a number of things that she has coming up, PLUS she is supporting her daughter through university. You can plan not to be broke and she is pretty keen to share what she has learnt so those walking along beside her can also achieve the financial peace that she has.

Today I’m introducing you to Fatima. By working hard and being at the right place at the right time, she had managed to buy several properties but there was a tipping point one day when despite the net worth she had built up, she found herself seriously short on cash and having to borrow money from whanau. Fatima is not one to muck around, so after listening to these very podcasts, she decided to implement some change and reintroduce some balance into her life.

I’m starting out this series of six new episodes with a woman that I know pretty well, the reason being that she is one of my sisters! It took a little convincing to get her to appear on my podcast and I’ve changed her name for a bit of anonymity, but the reason I wanted to share her story is that it is an excellent example of steady and consistent attention to detail over a long period of time. As you will soon hear Rachel (48) has had a few downs and ups but it was careful planning and setting of goals that has helped her stick to her teaching career, weather the Christchurch earthquakes and the subsequent insurance battle and, with her now teenage daughter, thrive after a divorce. I was particularly keen to catch her at an important milestone and we spoke on the eve of her last ever mortgage payment.

For the last episode in this series, I have once again reconnected with a few people that I’ve interviewed before. I like to check in on people and get a feel for the progress and changes they have made and I know you do too. A lot of people ask me, ‘what happened to so and so’? So, I’ve got three revisits for you this time: There is Lucas who was feeling the burden of a $1,200,000 mortgage in Auckland. Callum, the now 26-year-old from Christchurch who has just jumped boots and all into housing and gone from zero houses to five in just three short years. And Bradie and her husband Paul who climbed their way out of a tonne of mortgage debt and are now investing hard out for their futures.

When Julian and Sophie met in 1999 they each had a car, a very small amount in savings and no debt. Just 21 ‘short’ years later they have an approximate net worth of $1,500,000. So, how did they do it? Their current wealth is the combination of good budgeting, steady investing into retirement accounts, timely house purchases and aggressive debt repayments meaning they are now in a position for Julian to reduce to part-time work so he can spend more time with their two young children.

In today’s podcast, 26-year-old Bella shares the realities of student loan debt in New Zealand and how you can meander your way into debt, but it’s far harder to meander your way out again. She explains how the pressure of taking on student loans from the age of just 18 can quickly add up to $85,000 of student loan debt and how people are so wrong when they say that interest-free student loan debt just does not matter. Because it does. It matters a whole lot.

Aria and her husband Dave didn’t grow up with much so once they got together they knew they didn’t want to live paycheque to paycheque like many of their friends and whanau. In their mid-forties they have now reached a point where they can work part-time and afford to be generous with both their time and their money to help out others, all the while taking care of their immediate family. When asked what financial independence means to them they said it means “we don’t have to worry about money” and that is a sentiment that they want for everyone. Such a great couple with so much to share.

I first heard from Hamish when he sent me an email in late 2020 telling me that back in 2018, at the age of just 24 he had saved up and bought a $379,00 house in Palmerston North with a big deposit of $125,000. Apparently, that’s meant to be impossible in this day and age? Hence, no surprises I was pretty keen to hear more from Hamish about the how and the why of this. The short answer from him was he achieved it by planning and deliberate effort. He said that too many people fail to plan for something that they want - but they still expect it to happen. Not so with him.

“Well this is awkward” I thought when some guy called Chris started secretly emailing me without his partner’s knowledge! Big long emails with tonnes of questions about personal finance, my favourite topic for sure! That is how I came to sit on the sidelines of the transformation of not just Chris but of his partner Rosemary’s (phew, he told her) financial life. It took a bit of work to get her on board but finally, together, they embarked on a journey to financial independence and the pursuit of happiness. I’m delighted to bring you this podcast today and I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed creating it.

Jen freaked out at 49! She considered herself to be halfway through her life and had big concerns about what the other half might look like. She became heartily sick of working so hard. At the age of 16, she started full time work, at 20 she had bought her first house, then got married and slowly became mortgage free. But a divorce halved her net worth and becoming a single mother introduced a whole heap of new challenges. But amongst all this she constantly repeated her mantra of “everything is working out perfectly”, even when it clearly was not! Yet despite these challenges she pushed on. She worked hard! Now debt-free once again, she is fast tracking to an early retirement at the age of 55. Jen is a wonderful example of showing just what a woman on a mission is capable of!

So often people tell me that they ‘wish their parents had talked to them more about money’ when they were growing up. Well, in today’s podcast that’s exactly what happened. Nina was homeschooled and part of her education involved investing in the share market and preparing from the age of just 13 to cover the cost of her future university degree. Now in her late 20’s and living in the South Island town of Oamaru with her husband and three small children she is feeling content with the journey ahead and that includes paying off their home and then starting to invest for the long term financial wellbeing of her and her family.

Alana’s debt of choice was buying household items on Hire Purchase. Lots of them! But before long she had precommitted her income years into the future so she could service these debts. Yet that still didn’t stop her borrowing money for a vehicle and running up credit card debt. But finally she reached a pivotal point of being heartily sick of living pay cheque to pay cheque and a chance conversation where someone said “just try writing down your expenses for a month or two” was to be the catalyst that changed everything. She got her somewhat reluctant husband on board and in just a few short years they have had a massive financial turnaround and are now firmly on the path to financial independence instead.

This week, I’m heading South to one of New Zealand's more underrated cities, Invercargill, where I had a chat with Steve who described his financial story as “not so much an epic dig out of deep debt”, or a “becoming fabulously wealthy” kind of story. But, more of a “jigsaw puzzle piecing it all together over time” kind of story, which, he told me, is still very much ongoing. Aged 31, a part-time teacher and almost full-time stay at home Dad and married to Madie, a 29-year-old junior doctor who is working while also studying to finish her qualification. These two have been relatively strategic in how they have gone about things and I think they have a story that many millennials could emulate.

When a former multisport athlete turns the same motivation, hard work and attention to detail that they used for their sport to their personal finances, great things can happen. Chris and his wife Megan were tired of it taking so long to pay off their mortgage, so they focussed on the detail and developed a game plan that will see them own their own house on 31st December 2020. Plus, a key decision to pay into their retirement schemes from the day they started working has really paid off because now, in their mid-thirties, they have the strong foundations in place to provide a wonderful future for their family of five. There are a few other investment decisions they are working through, plus there is the small matter of him convincing his wife ‘they’ need a boat...

There were many points during Ella’s 40 plus years that her gut instinct told her to make a few changes to the way her family handled money. Many of us can relate to this. 2020 has been a huge time of change with her reassessing her current financial situation and making some radical changes that will have a huge positive impact on the years ahead. These changes all stemmed from her wanting to be able to financially help her kids and once she worked out that she needed to be in a strong financial position herself in order to do this, the rest is rapidly falling into place.

In this final podcast of this series, I’m doing a recap of two people that I’ve spoken with earlier. Firstly there was Bret from episode #20, a guy who had gone from being a super consumer to someone who is finally, much to the relief of his partner Shelley, in control of money. And secondly, I spoke with Lucas from episode #28 who last time we met was staring down the barrel of a $1.2 million dollar mortgage. Both of these couples have come an extremely long way in a very short space of time and I think that hearing from them will help many people who are currently finding themselves in tough situations of their own.

This week I tell you all about Catherine and her husband Luke. Both of them had been enjoying successful careers and had been working to a financial plan that had them thinking years into the future. Life was sailing along pretty well, all things considered, until very recently when they hit a major roadblock, due to a job loss caused by COVID-19. Sometimes we think we are heading in one direction but a fork in the road throws up a few other suggestions and we have no choice but to adapt.

This week I’m going to share the story of Linda, a woman in her early 50’s who has had a huge shift in mindset over the last ten months. Linda’s journey with money had just been trundling along year in year out for, oh I don’t know, about 52 years! But in July 2019 there was to be a bit of a change in direction when she started to question the status quo and wondered if not paying her house off until she was in her mid 70’s was the best idea after all?

Becky described herself as a spender at heart who has to constantly battle against the desire to just spend, spend, spend. The spiral began with interest free debt in her first year of university and continued on from there. Today she has decided to stop turning to debt to finance the things she and her family want, but it’s still a struggle and it still has the ability to occasionally trip her up. But there is hope for spenders like her and while still a work in progress, she has come a very long way in a short space of time and has paid off old debt and said no to any more. This is how a ‘natural spender’ gets her money under control.

Aaron and his wife Shannon have a young son, just six months old and it’s what they did in the lead up to his birth that got my attention. They decided to work like crazy people, as many hours as they possibly could, in order to knock down their mortgage and set a chunk of cash aside before the birth so that they could head into parenthood prepared. Learn how this truck driver and administrator went about it.

Often when I speak with people their one regret is that “they didn’t start saving and investing earlier”. Well today, you are going to hear about Nat and she DID manage to start investing early in life and the proof sure is in the pudding when at the age of just 36 she has an investment portfolio that she can be proud of.

When I think of Mandy, the word that keeps coming to my mind is ‘determined’. She was living the good life right up until she wasn’t. We pick up her story at the point of her divorce when she had two young children, a small divorce settlement, a limited income and a burning desire to turn things around for the better. But how could she find her feet again? With determination, that’s how.

Jo is a busy Mum of a two year old, they had just returned from an overseas trip and she is juggling parenting with a 30 hour work week, while her partner is working as well. We had a great chat where she told me how at a very young age she was encouraged into buying property and she discussed how that decision has impacted her life over the years and how she is now discovering new ways to invest outside of what she knows, housing.

I came upon Tracy via Instagram. She was on a debt repayment marathon, trying to pay down $94,278 of consumer debt and was estimating it would take her 33 months. It all started because she was on the brink of bankruptcy and the suggestion was made that she needed to sell everything, including her beloved dog! By August, when we spoke she was down to $10,471.11 of debt and the sprint to the finish line was on! She has worked her tail off in her day job and taken up any and every side hustle that she could think of. She is one determined and focussed lady.

What do you do when you become debt free for the very first time in your life? You email me to share your fabulous news of course! That is how I came to know Dale and Dean. They were ambling along just fine until Dean realised that soon he would be 50 and he became determined that he wanted to be debt free before his birthday. So, they got after it and in today’s podcast, I share how they did it.

In this week’s podcast I spoke with Farrel and Chihiro, a Christchurch couple in their early forties who are a great example of how to get two people with completely opposite money personalities on the same page. One was a spender and one was a saver and it would have remained that way unless an ultimatum was given: Either shape up or ship out!

I get a lump in my throat when I think about Tracey, her family and the journey they have been on together. Back in 1996, she had no money, she had less than no money actually, she was in debt. With a divorce, the recent loss of her father, a failed business and with two seriously ill children to care for she was at her lowest point. Today I tell the story of how she found her way back and how she inspired me to cherish TIME over everything else.

Ryan is a 23 year old Australian who started trading penny stocks at 16, worked pretty much full time while he was at university and has now begun his professional career in finance. He invests in all sorts of things, just to see what happens and if he fails, he adds that experience to his learning and just keeps moving forward, undeterred and full of energy for the next phase.

Arataki is a woman who focuses on the collective and not on the individual and as she has moved through life she used some difficult experiences to not hold her back, but to drive her forward. At every turn, she has been a leader to others and today she is on the cusp of financial freedom where stepping away from work means she will be stepping towards helping build up her own whanau and her wider community.

New Zealand is a fabulously multicultural place and I often find myself speaking with people who were not born here but have chosen to make this place their home. Today is no exception because Lucas was born in Southern Europe but has called New Zealand home for the last ten years. Lucas had reached a bit of a cross roads. He appeared to have what seems to be the Kiwi dream, a house and a rental property but he has come to realise and understand that for his situation he will need to keep handing over money month in month out to banks to pay down debt in order to make himself and his family comfortable in 25 to 35 years time and the thought of waiting this long actually no longer aligns with his goals in life. Will Lucas stay on the treadmill that is the New Zealand housing market or will he step off?