This week, I’m making a bit of an exception and chatting with someone who was a bit reluctant to talk about money. Which is ironic, given this is a podcast that talks about money. Rob, a 33-year-old plumber from Western Australia, took a little persuading to come on my podcast, but I persisted because I knew enough about him to know that his personal finance story is one that many of us will be able to relate to and draw ideas from. Rob is essentially financially independent, working just a...

In today's episode, I will be sharing the financial journey of Jack, a Kiwi from the lower North Island. Jack found The Happy Saver when he was searching for podcasts on money. As an investor in rental property, he was looking to learn about shares. As you’ll find out shortly, he leads an interesting life. He has a personality that I can relate to; he said he could talk to a lamp post, and as a result, he meets heaps of people, so he had no qualms about stopping in to visit Jonny and I when...

Today’s episode is an update on North Island couple Chris and Rosemary. Their first episode came out in March 2021 — it was episode number 49. Since then, we’ve kept in touch, and today’s episode is an update on where this couple are now, in terms of both money and life. It’s safe to say they have absolutely transformed their situation, and I hope this episode lights a fire under those listening and prompts you to reach for a few stretch goals, whatever they might be. Over the last four...

Today's episode began with an email from a Kiwi couple in their mid-40s, who asked to be called Tokyo and Rio, inspired by the show Money Heist. Tokyo reached out just before Christmas 2023, sharing how a sinking fund she started nearly a year ago was making her happy amidst a tough financial year. It had been a challenging one—an overseas trip, big bills for their rental property, tax and ACC bills, and a lower-than-expected income. They were considering a $15,000 mortgage top-up to cover it...

When I received an email from a guy called John saying that he and his wife Betty have gone from being terrible with money and trying (unsuccessfully) to grow wealth via debt to completely changing their mentality to one of getting away from debt, even going so far as to head to the mines in Australia to clean up the consumer debt mess they had created, they had my attention. Today, I want to share the story of a 38 and 39-year-old married couple with two primary school-aged kids who are on...

Ruby stumbled across The Happy Saver in October of 2022, prompting her to email me with a couple of questions. She’d recently signed up with Sharesies and was testing the waters by investing $20 a week, and had a few questions about where to start. Plus, she had a question about her KiwiSaver. While at home with two young tamariki, she had just realised that even when she was not in the paid workforce, she could voluntarily contribute money into her account, which she immediately started...

Congratulations, you have made it to the final episode of this series of six: INVESTING. Investing can be incredibly complex, but I found a way to simplify it. I used to feel overwhelmed by the options available, but now I don't. I’m hoping to help you feel the same way. But still, this is one of the most challenging podcasts I have EVER written. Condensing “investing” into a single episode is no easy feat. The Happy Saver was born out of my search for information about what I could invest...

Get out of debt, and stay out of debt. I think of debt as a phase of life that I moved through. That period has passed, and I’ve moved on. Jonny and I have been entirely debt-free since our early 30s, and I encourage you to head down the debt-free path as well. Debt has always had an ‘ick’ factor for me, a feeling I am grateful for. I like earning interest, but I hate paying it. Despite our bank trying to lure us back into debt to buy a rental property, there has never been a day that we...

The fourth part of this six-part series is one of the easier topics to cover, KiwiSaver. Joining KiwiSaver is a no-brainer, and it still surprises me when I meet people who are not in it. I’m always looking ahead and doing my best to determine what I might need money for and how much I might need. I keep my ear to the ground about how affordable retirement is for New Zealanders. I talk to people over 65 and ask them what advice they would give me about financially preparing for retirement....

The best thing I ever did was set some cash into a bank account, which we could instantly access in a financial emergency. It is an amount of money set aside in a specific bank account to be used for bailing myself out if something happens that I didn’t otherwise plan for, but I need money to pay for. It takes me less than one minute to log into my banking and move money from my emergency account to my spending account. My previous episode discussed budgeting and planning for upcoming...

In the first episode in this series of six, I quickly showed you how to calculate your net worth. It will take a little longer today, but I want to explain why you need to keep an eye on how and where you earn and spend your money, i.e., budgeting. When you learn to budget, your net worth will begin to increase. Budgeting is simply making a plan for your pūtea (money). Although I meet hundreds of people who are keen, motivated, and willing to do better with their money, I meet few who are,...

Welcome to the first episode in a short six-part series. On my blog, thehappysaver.com, I created a comprehensive Financial Independence Series of six blog posts where I mapped out a plan to help you on your way to becoming financially independent. Because I know that there are some in my audience who only read my blog and others who only listen to this podcast, I wanted to make sure that both parts of my audience got the same information, so what I've done is I have turned each blog post...

Today, I have an update on Nic from Episode 78, released in March 2023. A lot can happen in a year, which I wanted to share with you today. When Nic and I spoke in early 2023, Nic was still very new to the whole concept of personal finance and long after we had finished the episode, I wondered how she was getting on. A year after we spoke, an update email arrived in my inbox. She said it's been an interesting 12-plus months, and they are slowly but surely getting ahead. It seems like a case...

I met 19-year-old Josephine in mid-2023 when she emailed me with some questions about money. I actually already knew a little about her because her Mum and I have been in contact for a number of years, chatting about personal finances over email. Josephine hoped that I might be able to answer a few of her questions too. She mentioned that her Mum had sparked an interest in personal finances in her, which had led her to do a lot of reflecting on her money skills. She had been out of school and...

In early January, I was lucky enough to have a long chat with Grace, who is now in her late 20s. Grace has been following my podcast since 2019, which is when her money journey did a sharp U-turn as she moved out of about $40,000 of consumer and education debt and onto a new path of saving up to buy a home by the age of 30. Listening to money stories on this very podcast from people all across our motu gave her ideas of where to start because, for her, this whole ‘money thing’ was pretty...

I’m particularly excited about today’s podcast because it is a revisit episode with Bradie and Paul. This is actually the fifth time we have caught up on their money journey. The elevator pitch for them is that they felt they were drowning in debt just seven short years ago, and now they have just completed their first year of early retirement! The entire point of this podcast is to show you that becoming financially independent is entirely possible. Bradie and Paul did it, Jonny and I are...

I chatted with Isobel and Sam for almost three hours on a sunny Sunday afternoon. As with all of these interviews, straight out of the gate, we were into the nuts and bolts of the financial lives of this 56 and 57-year-old deeply-in-love couple who are parents to three adult tamariki. Very handily, Sam had sent me a four page Vision Board of their financial and life journey. To sum it up I’d say they are creative planners who work as a tight team towards their goal of creating a really strong...

In this episode, I’m going to be sharing the experiences of Scott and Jane. This couple are from completely different backgrounds and also from different countries. Scott’s from New Zealand, in his late 20s and Jane’s from South America and in her mid-30s. They’ve been together about four years and have settled into life in the Central North Island. Today, I want to share how they have melded their lives together and where they are headed from here. Jane wanted to share their journey to home...

Today I am really looking forward to sharing the financial ins and outs of Rachael, a wonderful wahine who has been listening to this very podcast for years. She enjoys this podcast because the stories I share are relatable because they are, of course, about everyday Kiwis in Aotearoa. Hers, as you are about to find out, is a cautionary tale that she hopes you don’t have to go through yourself, but you will come out more aware and informed having heard about it. Her partner of eight years,...

The standout for me today is how quickly you can change your financial lot in life simply because you decide to. Helen and Scott are 45 and 42 respectively, and have lived a life common to many of us, with good bits, not-so-good bits and, to a large extent, following the crowd for whom managing money is a struggle. With five tamariki between them, they have known each other a long time, yet only became a couple a few years ago. Both carry the scars and financial lessons from previous...

I’ve been corresponding with Kiri for about five years now. Those back-and-forth email conversations eventually led to me picking up the phone and chatting in person for the first time, and back in September of 2021, I released that episode: 60. First Home Buyers, where I detailed the rollercoaster that Kiri and her husband John had been on with their money and their life. That episode was all about the lead-up to buying a home. Today’s episode is what happened after that; it’s much less...

Today, I have the pleasure of sharing the story behind how Tony and his wife Karen came to create a net worth of $2.8 million and retire aged 49 and 54, respectively. Now that I have your attention, you might also be interested to know that they own one home and have a large retirement fund which they built from always investing a portion of their take-home pay, about 10%, from their 20+ year careers in the New Zealand Police. Despite their success, there are still many unknowns as they try...

Lucy, Steve and their two teenage children openly talk about money in their family. It comes from them trying to make sense of their complicated financial upbringing and then joining their financial lives together at 19. When they were young, they made many decisions because their backs were against the wall, and they now know they want their children to head out into the world more prepared than they were. While I understand that failure is a good teacher, I just don’t see why you would...

In this episode, we hear from Jess, a single 52-year-old woman who reached out to me in early 2022 when she sent me a lovely email telling me she had been using my blog and podcast, plus The Barefoot Investor, to learn more about money to help her keep on track with some long-term money goals. After paying off her credit card debt, Jess was working on building up her emergency fund, but beyond that, she struggled to see how she could ever afford a home of her own. In a subsequent email, Jess...