Since last week’s 0.75 percentage point increase in the official cash rate, there’s been much talk about a recession. Although it was a large increase in OCR, the talk has been more based around the commentary from the Reserve Bank.

The Reserve Bank mentioning in no uncertain terms that inflation must be tamed and that they are trying to engineer a recession. Of course, the […..]

Small changes over the long term can make huge differences to your financial progress that are intuitively underestimated.

Let’s take someone on […..]

When you have no money you can only afford the cheapest of everything. Unfortunately though, cheap often costs more over the long run.

Not until you start building up your cash reserves do more options open up.

When you have no money, for example, you may only be able to afford a $50 pair of shoes for work. These shoes, due to the poorer quality of materials, may need replacing every year. Whereas a […..]

There is so much doom and gloom in the news at the moment.

All the news can be […..]

Sometimes in life there are those often repeated statements that everyone says and it assumed to be correct because everyone is saying it.

Right now that seems to […..]

If I offer you one million dollars cash now or 1 cent that doubles in value every day for a month, which would you choose and why?

I’ve noticed a lot of financial advisers using the words independent to describe their business and services, yet when you look deeper, many are clearly not.

Any reasonable consumer of financial advice would expect […..]

There has been a glut of articles in the latter half of the year about a shortage of everything thanks to shipping delays.

Headlines along the lines of […..]

Have any of you ever googled something and then be inundated for weeks with ads for what you googled?

The other week I did a google search for fertilising our lawn, then immediately for the next month I was […..]

Occasionally I will come across someone who has no savings goals at all. Naturally, they will then spend all their money since they can’t think of any reason to save it. Others feel like giving up on their savings because their […..]

With two young kids (6 months and 3 years) I am by no means a parenting expert, but I have recently gone through the process of setting them up with identification and financial accounts, and thought that new parents may […..]

There are several often repeated misunderstandings I see when it comes to managing your finances. Below are the top five, in no particular order […..]

If you don’t already know this, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but no one cares how much money you have or how ‘prestigious’ your job is.

If you are chasing money and a good paying job for your own reasons then […..]

Everyone wants your money. Government. Insurance companies. Banks. Lawyers. Electricity companies. Real estate agents. Landlords. Charities. Telecommunications. Furniture and appliance stores. Supermarket. Clothing retailers. Your children. Your siblings. Your parents. The church. Car companies. Petrol stations. Coffee shops. The avocado salesman if you’re a millennial. The list […..]

One thing I have learned since having a daughter is that kids are extremely observant. More than you think.

That is why I think the most valuable learning is through observation. Our kids learn far more from […..]

You wouldn’t get advice on healthcare from a tobacco company, so why would you get financial advice from a bank?

Both tell you what they want you to hear. Not […..]

Occasionally I’ll get email questions from readers of the blog, but I don’t have time to answer them now. I need to paid for my time with life being so busy now with two kids under three, two jobs and a blog. So I decided to answer the most common question as a blog article and kill two birds with one stone so to speak. The most common has been […..]

I’ve had some clients come to me recently for a second opinion. They had previously been to an unnamed company that had given them a financial plan but they weren’t entirely happy with the plan they received, nor felt listened to.

The adviser firm they went to charges very little up-front cost but make their money by […..]

In New Zealand we have a pretty decent public healthcare system. Yet, one third of kiwis still choose to take on private health insurance.

There are two […..]

Very few adult children know the lay of the land when it comes to the finances of their parents. Understandably so. I mean, finances are very personal so why should […..]

In my 20’s and early 30’s I was often a delay the hard things as long as I could type of guy.

• Difficult problem to solve at work? Leave it until the end of the day if I could

• Didn’t understand money? No attempt to […..]

One question I see all the time is where should I put my emergency fund for good returns?

People are looking to optimize every single dollar, but at what risk?

Common suggestions I have seen, for maximum return include […..]

Income and wealth are two very different things. Income is what you get paid in the hand. It could be from your job, your investments or your savings. Income can create wealth if used wisely, but income does not […..]

The other week, one of my friends got in touch with me regarding a reddit post that he got slaughtered over.

For anyone who doesn’t know, reddit is a website where you can discuss any topic you like. Each subject is called a sub reddit. For example, personal finance is one sub reddit that I used to frequent regularly before the commentators started turning nasty. I have stopped wasting my time there.

Anyway, my friend is also interested in personal finance and he commented one the attached post.

His comments have received over 30 downvotes and he asked me: “Am I wrong?” […..]

All too frequently I see comments and advertising making people feel guilty for not banking with New Zealand owned banks.

Instead of attacking overseas owned banks, New Zealand banks should be looking at what they […..]

At times like this it is difficult to remain positive. People are losing jobs or at risk of losing jobs. We can’t visit friends and family. We can’t travel. Financial markets are in free fall. We can’t gather in groups or socialize. We are stuck in our homes. The threat of the virus is scary.

So today I’d like to discuss some of the […..]

’m sure there are some relationships where the responsibility for the finances is shared 50/50, but the reality for most is that there is a significant imbalance.

One partner will often take the responsibility of looking after the finances, while the other partner takes a bit of a back seat in the department.

If someone isn’t interest in finances then no harm no foul, right?

I have recently gone through the process of reviewing my electricity pricing and thought I would share my process. I have used the same process for several years now and it has worked every time, enabling me to get much cheaper electricity […..]

How good would it be to have employees every get exponentially better at their jobs every year and not cost an extra cent?

Well I have that….

Have you ever heard the saying “penny wise pound foolish”?

It refers to being watchful with your spending over small cost items, yet not as mindful when making larger purchases. It is an extremely common problem, and I see it all the time.

It makes no sense to […..]

It’s all very well and good to have long term financial goals, but having such large and distant goals can make things seem unlikely.

There is a saying that goes along the lines of “we overestimate what we can achieve in a day, and underestimate what we can achieve in 10 years”. I think this is extremely true. Every time I look back 5 years I am surprised at how far I have come […..]

As a blogger, I am always trying to create content that is beneficial to the ready. The problem with this is that it makes me appear like I know exactly what I’m doing. This isn’t always the case though.

So, in order to be relatable, here is a list of my biggest financial mistakes thus far. I know there will be more in the future too […..]

In one of my early posts, I discussed what financial independence meant to me. Within that article, I briefly raised the concept of savings rate and how it is an important metric to measure on your path to financial freedom.

But just how important a metric is it?

Saving money is so often viewed as a sacrifice.

In New Zealand, we have a paltry household savings rate of minus 1% per year. This basically means we are spending everything that we earn.

Naturally, most people would then view saving money as a sacrifice, since it means living a lifestyle that costs less than […..]

I used to have so much junk that I barely used. In the past I have splashed out untold amounts of money on things such as fancy golf bags, top of the range bikes, and impressive cell phones.

Why did I buy a pro golf bag when I am lucky if I play once a year? Did I think all of a sudden I would play more often or become as good as the pros?

Credit card debt has become so normal that we no longer call it debt. It is called a credit balance. Sounds much nicer doesn’t it? This was no doubt rephrased by the credit card industry to normalise debt. In a similar way Kentucky Fried Chicken rebranded to KFC because they didn’t want people thinking of the word ‘fried’, the credit card industry doesn’t want […..]

A bit of a loaded question here because I am not going to answer it. I aim to get you thinking about this matter that has been weighing on my mind recently […..]

Tax is often a bit of a sore point in many conversations. Most people think they are paying too much of it. Without getting too political in this blog, many people don’t like paying taxes to people on benefits. Read some of the […..]

This is a question that my wife and I are going through right now and I thought I would share our current thought process. Hopefully you can apply some of it to your own situation […..]

One summer’s day, a grasshopper was hopping around in a field, chirping and singing to its heart’s content. An ant passed by, carrying with great effort an ear of corn he was taking to […..]

Last week we went over several tricks that marketers use to try and get us to purchase their goods and services. They are very good at getting into our minds and getting us to not think rationally. 

Today, we will go over a few tips that may help to overcome the temptations and beat the marketers at their own game.[…..]

Have you ever looked around your house and ask, “why did I buy that?”. Or come out of a shop with a new powertool and later thought, “what was I thinking?”. Chances are you have fallen prey to clever sales marketing and product placement. I think we have all fallen prey to these moments of post purchase regret. With a growing range of products now available, the marketing is only getting more pronounced and difficult to avoid.

With Christmas fast approaching, I thought it would be a good time to […..]

How much do you get paid to work?

Seems a relatively straightforward question, right?

Most of us will reply with $25 per hour, or $50,000 per annum. The amount doesn’t matter. The point is we often […..]

I’m not talking about your height, weight or bra size.

There are certain numbers in personal finance that you should […..]

Knowledge is power. By doing research, you will be able to determine how much the car you want is worth. This means you will be very unlikely to over-pay for the car. This is very easily done by […..]

So you’ve decided you want to purchase a car. We can easily shop around by looking at the advertised sale price of the vehicle. That is fraught with danger though, as there are […..]

Transportation is most people’s second largest expense, behind housing. If you are wanting to get in control of your finances and accelerate your savings, saving money from owning a car can be a […..]

When we make investing decisions, there is a cost that is frequently ignored. It is called […..]

There are 3 things to consider whether a financial adviser may be worth while or not. Whether we have the […..]

Before we move on, emergency savings is a certain amount of money that is held in a safe, easily accessible place, such as a bank account, to be used in an emergency.

An emergency is something that is truly unpredictable such as […..]

The word ‘budget’ has many negative connotations. It is one of those words that make us squirm. It brings feelings of living cheaply and not getting to enjoy life. It’s no wonder budgeting is one of life’s least enjoyable tasks.

When choosing between more than one debt, there are two common schools of thought on repaying debt. One school is adamant that the best method is to pay down the highest interest debt first – called the debt avalanche. The other school is adamant that paying the smallest debt is best – this is called the debt snowball.

To try and convince someone who doesn’t set goals to set goals is a very difficult proposition. There are so many other seemingly more important things competing for our time. Why would I want to waste it sitting down writing goals?