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...

I met 29-year-old Dylan when he heard my call out for younger people to get in touch and share their stories with money. Through luck and good timing, aged just 21, he found himself buying his first property, an empty section, and then one thing led to another; he stumbled upon a cracking good deal, paying just $18,000 for a second section. This sounds impossible, and stories such as this need a deeper dive. As a sound bite, it's a good one, but I know that there is a lot that goes on behind...

In this week's episode, I wanted to revisit an earlier episode with an update on Nathan from episode 71, and introduce a new guest, Sam, a 16-year-old Year 12 student who is starting a financial journey similar to Nathan's and already demonstrates a forward-thinking mindset towards his financial well-being. He recognises that financial stability is vital to achieving his goals. Nathan and Sam's experiences provide a valuable opportunity to educate young people about the importance of...

I’m looking forward to telling you all about 37-year-old Tui. She described herself as someone who has worked hard to get her financial house in order, and in the last three years in particular, she has made great progress. She had spent her teens and twenties gathering life experiences by living and working overseas, getting an education, beginning a career and buying a home with a friend. But more recently, she has increased her understanding of personal finance, and when she added that new...

Nic described herself as a 42-year-old professional who sometimes has to pinch herself at the job she has. It’s a tough demanding role in a field she loves that pays really well. A mum to two tamariki and a partner to the world's most laid-back, carefree non-money-driven man. Her money journey started slowly, full of bad decisions, good luck, and some great times. Now she finds herself in the very fortunate position of earning an above average income, which up until recently, she spent. More...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...