How I help
Most financial advice in New Zealand comes in one size: a full plan, an ongoing relationship, and a fee attached to your balance.
I do full plans. But I also do the smaller thing, which is what most people actually want. One decision, worked through properly, and then you get on with it.
One decision, worked through
Some people don't need a comprehensive plan. They need an answer to the thing that's been going round their head for six months.
Should I pay off the mortgage or invest?
Can we afford for one of us to go part-time?
Is it worth buying a rental?
Should we buy, or keep renting?
Can I take a year off?
Do we sell the house or stay put?
Should I change career?
Can I actually retire, and if so when?
Are we saving too much?
You'll notice several of those have a free calculator on this site. That's deliberate. The maths of the general case is something you can and should be able to do yourself.
What a calculator can't do is tell you which assumptions are reasonable for you, what you've left out, and what happens to the rest of your plan if you're wrong. That's the part worth paying for, and it's usually a few hours, rather than a project.
A full plan
If your situation warrants it, the full version covers whatever applies:
Retirement — traditional, early, semi-retired, sabbaticals, or some combination. How much you need, how to get there, and whether the date you have in mind is realistic.
Drawdown — the harder half. Where the money should sit and how to spend it without lying awake wondering whether it'll last.
Investing — how your savings and assets should be arranged to reach your goals, and how much risk that actually requires. Often less than people assume.
KiwiSaver — the right fund for your situation and the right contribution rate. A short conversation that's worth a surprising amount over thirty years.
Wealth — property, business, cash, bonds, shares. Where it should go, and how much you need before the question stops mattering.
Everything else that gets in the way — the emergency fund, the budget, how the accounts are set up, and the relationship dynamics that decide more financial outcomes than any spreadsheet does.
Current prices are here — published, not quoted on request.
Why me
I'm independent, and I mean it in the narrow sense. No affiliation with any provider, no commission, no products to sell. When I tell you your KiwiSaver fund is fine as it is, there's no version of that conversation where I'd have been better off saying otherwise.
You deal with me. Not an associate, not a junior member, not a paraplanner, not a call centre. The person you speak to first is the person who does the work and the company owner.
I'll see you when you're not at work. Evenings and weekends. Your income matters and I'd rather not take you away from earning it.
Wherever suits. Face to face around Whangārei, or video and phone anywhere in New Zealand.
No lock-in. No ongoing agreement you have to extract yourself from later. Come back when something changes, or don't.
I've done a version of this myself. I spent my twenties broke, sorted it out in my thirties, and then deliberately scaled the plan back in my forties when two young children changed what mattered. That story is here. It's the reason I'm more interested in whether a plan survives contact with real life than whether it's optimal on paper.
Background
New Zealand Certificate in Financial Services (level 5)
9 years as a financial adviser, across a wide range of clients
Over a decade in corporate roles before that
Private landlord for over a decade
Over a hundred personal finance calculators built and given away free
Regular writer on the blog since 2018
What happens next
A free 30 minute conversation, no obligation. The purpose is to work out whether I'd be useful to you. Sometimes the answer is no, and it's better to find that out in half an hour than after an invoice.
If it makes sense, we book a first proper session. If it doesn't, you'll have had a free half hour with someone who has no reason to tell you anything other than the truth.
Get in touch — email, phone, or book a time directly.
If you'd rather get a feel for how I think first, the blog is eight years of it, and the calculators are free and need no email address.
Hope to hear from you soon,
Nick
