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 […..]

Happy Monday team.

Today is not one of my usual postings. More of a public service announcement […..]

A common scenario in New Zealand is to buy a house as soon as we can afford one. We spend as much as the bank will lend us.

As our incomes increase over the years, or maybe our family size increases, we tend to buy […..]

Here are two cars - can you guess which one is owned by a millionaire?

I am a member of a few personal finance related online forums and I frequently see the question of “Where should I put my emergency savings?”

Without a doubt, the top answer always tends to be to keep it in the mortgage account, for those that have a mortgage.

Now the members of these communities mean well, but unlike financial advisers, they are no repercussions for bad advice, or advice given without explanation of the risks […..]

A few months back, I wrote an article worried about the number of people using their Kiwisaver retirement funds to buy a house.

It seemed to me that a lot of us were tapping into our Kiwisaver just because we can, and I’m not sure that everyone understands the impact this may have on long term savings.

Well I have recently come across a report that tells us how many first home buyers are tapping into their Kiwisaver to buy a house […..]

Throughout my 20’s I spent every dollar I earned. I’d tell myself things such as “I deserve it” or “it doesn’t cost much”. The problem is these times became too frequent. I was telling myself I deserved something new every single week. I’d hardly been in the workforce for one year, yet here I was […..]

Several months ago I wrote a post outlining some of my thought process used behind making the decision to stay at home or to work for someone with kids.

After a year and a half of being a single income household, my wife has taken on a part time job […..]

Now is not the time to be taking on more debt. The Reserve Bank thinks the economy is flat lining. They just won’t admit it. Here is why you should be concerned too […..]

Stock index funds are all the rage these days. They occupy about 20% of the global market and this amount is increasing every year. The main driver of the conversion of investors from active to passive stems from the fact that many active funds (after fees) are delivering worse results than passive index funds.[…..]

Index fund investing can offer good results for two reasons. Low costs can save you hundreds of thousands over the long term and index funds tend to perform better than actively managed funds over the long term. Better performance at […..]

My plan is to have the ability to retire before I hit the age of 50. I want the ability to be able to choose how to spend my time, instead of giving my most valuable time to my employer.

A typical lifetime for someone from the age of 23 may look like this […..]

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?

Generally speaking, New Zealander’s are mad for housing. We love owning houses and we are willing to pay over 10 times our incomes for them. We are willing to pay more than […..]

As a volunteer budget adviser, I often see clients that ignore their debt problem. Their theory is, “If I ignore it then I won’t know there is a problem.”

I have had clients come into the office with a pile of unopened envelopes. They know it is bills inside but by not opening the mail, they convince themselves that there are no bills to pay and there is no problem. But guess what? It doesn’t […..]

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 […..]

Anything worthwhile in life is difficult. Raising a family, losing weight, starting a business or new job and saving money are all examples of worthwhile endeavours that can be a big challenge.

Whereas staying in your same mundane job, not exercising and spending all your earnings is the easy option.

Unfortunately easy doesn’t buy you freedom […..]

I have an extremely difficult time being OK with paying life insurance.

On the one hand, if I don’t pay for insurance my family will not be taken care of upon my departure from this planet. On the other hand, if I stick around like a bad smell, then all this cost is wasted, right?

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 […..]

Now, more than ever, we have so many options available at our disposal. This makes it extremely easy for us to latch onto something to do, something to eat, something to drink […..]

Just a quick thought experiment for you today.

I find it rather sad that after all is said and done, after 40 years of working at our job we are just an employee file number to our employer. Our employer moves on. They usually replace us, and we are all but a distant memory. Yet for us, our time in employment […..]

There are many roads to Rome, and this couldn’t be more true when it comes to pursuing financial independence […..]

Previously I’ve written about the hidden costs of home ownership, that housing is not the dream, so called property gurus, and false housing stories. Anyone would think that I am against home ownership.

I am not against home ownership. I am for maths and facts.

So that brings me to today’s short post based on a common misperception of current and wannabe landlords […..]

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 […..]

I’ll admit it. I used to be a chronic procrastinator. It was just too easy to put off things I didn’t want to do until the last minute. The last minute has seen a lot of action over my time. In this last minute of getting things done there is a lot of stress and anxiety, not to mention […..]

You may not be the CEO of your workplace, or even your marriage. But you are the CEO of your life. Many people go to jobs they don’t like to finance life’s they don’t like. To continue living this life we […..]

I was recently in the hospital waiting room with 12 other people. Do you know how many of these people had their head down on their mobile phones for pretty much the whole duration? 10 out of 12! I have seen similar numbers in airports too. It is not just the young either. The older generation have also managed to pick up this habit of […..]

Back when I was a young fulla, my first impressions of money were that my mum had a lot, and my dad didn’t have much.[…..]

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 […..]

There are so many people retiring early and living the life of their dreams at the same time there are so many people struggling to save enough for retirement. How can this be? How can we have so many people struggling, yet so many succeeding?

About a month ago I wrote an article about how the stories we tell each other help promote increasing house prices through misinformation.

My $100,000 increase in house price was actually a big loss due to $273,000 in home ownership costs […..]

Everyone is so busy these days. I have to book weeks in advance to catch up with friends and family. We say things like “I have so much on at the moment”, or “things are just crazy.”

There is nothing wrong with being busy if what you are busy adds value to your life. Such as starting a business or being prime minister. It is when we are busy just for the […..]

One year ago I finally hit the publish button on my thoughts. It was, and still is, my intention to help New Zealanders be better with their money.

As a nation, our savings rate is negative 2%. This is quite frankly shocking, and will never allow us to reach any sort of financial freedom. At these savings rates, we will forever be […..]

Did I hook you in with the title? Bold statement isn’t it?

This investment costs very little money. The investment returns beat the stock market by a long shot […..]

Why is it that over time, socks mysteriously disappear? I’m sure I’m not the only one that experiences this. I now have a collection of single socks divorced from their significant other. They are not in the house, in the washing machine, in the drawers, or […..]

When was the last time you read an article about hose prices in New Zealand? My guess is it hasn’t been too recent.

Up until last year there were articles daily. “Record house prices”. “I made $500,000 flipping property”.

Banks, property developers, property investors, and real estate companies were all actively promoting content on our computer screens. Where have they all gone now? It’s been extremely quiet […..]

When I was growing up I used to love computer games. My favourites were the strategy role playing games, where you had to make strategic decisions as a main character. Each decision lead you down a path to a new bunch of challenges. Some paths would lead to […..]

Just over a month ago I published an article about the sale of my apartment. I have had a couple of clients and readers comment that I must have done well from the sale.

Well here I am to pour fire over popular opinion of housing. The housing market is so hot because of all these stories we tell ourselves. I made $100,000 in 10 years sounds pretty exciting doesn’t it? But it doesn’t tell the whole story […..]

The difference between millennial's and previous generations is not minor. The difference is the world is currently a much tougher place financially.

I can hear boomers spitting out the coffee as they read the opening sentence. “Honey, I can’t believe what I am reading. Look what this clown is saying about those entitled, selfie taking, avocado eating, Laté drinking, slackers. He is saying they are the same as you and I were at that age. Unbelievable […..]

Just over a year ago the jewel of my eye was born. We have had some ups and down, but I wouldn’t change anything.

Watching our daughter grow has been an incredible experience […..]

One Saturday morning last year, my wife and I drove past a man on the side of the road in obvious pain. As concerned citizens we spun the car around and pulled over to make sure he was ok. He was bleeding from his face and […..]

So often self-control is seen as a negative act. Where we are depriving ourselves of something fun or something so good, but oh so bad for us. We are taught from an early age we can’t have ‘bad’ foods all the time, even though we want them. As adults, the list of things that are supposedly ‘bad’ for us grows exponentially. Ironically, these are also the things that […..]

Many of us lead comfortable lives. We have shelter, are well fed, we have jobs that we are good at, and a close group of friends. In our spare time we tend to follow the same routine and do the same things. Over time we find […..]

Thinking of our future leads many of us to become anxious or disinterested. We tell ourselves things such as […..]

With so many options we can’t always make the best choice. It would require far too much time and effort deliberating even the smallest decisions and then when we make the wrong decision we will beat ourselves up over it. Once we have finished giving ourselves the uppercut then next time we may be too scared to even make a decision at all in fear of getting the bash again [……]

The title may sound a bit strange if you have been following my blog for some time. I am forever singing the praises of saving and investing your money so that you can gain financial freedom and free up your time to do what you want. Time on earth is finite and the more of it we can use on our own terms, the better. In fact, the whole reason I am […..]

Most of the time, index fund investors will invest at regular intervals, such as weekly or monthly. Occasionally though, we may be lucky enough to come across some extra money. This may be from the sale of a house, or maybe you are thinking about starting to invest.

Naturally, this leads to one of the most common investing questions. Should I invest it all at once (lump sum), or spread the contributions out over a longer period of time (dollar cost average)?

I constantly hear people bashing Kiwisaver. Not helped by articles like this, that feed into the hype.

9 Common objections to Kiwisaver[…..]

One month into the new year and some of you may have given up on your goals or are thinking about it. Before you do, read ahead […..]

have seen people in various online forums, and some of my clients have recently asked, about the impact of capital gains on their investments.

“How will my Kiwisaver be taxed”?

“How much will my rental property be taxed”?

“Will my business be affected”?

Just a quick thought exercise for today to get the juices flowing.

If you look back in time 5 years, is where you are today what you pictured?

I ask because mine is not even close. 5 years ago I was […..]

There is a common tendency in life to say yes to too many things. We are getting busier and busier, not getting to spend time on the things we really enjoy.

Think about what you are saying yes to. Is it […..]

We are born into this world as curious little things. I am sure most of you have experienced the ‘why’ game with a child. This is where you do your best to answer their question, but they are still not happy with the answer! They respond why to every answer you give them, no matter how […..]

We all like to thing we are the king/queen of the basketball court, the best lover and the smartest financial guru. No? Just me? Awkward

We can’t all be in the top 20%. There always has to be a top, a middle, and a bottom. Our chance of winning first division lotto is 1 in 5 million, yet much more than […..]

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 […..]

In the last blog we discussed the results of New Zealand based research of the 4% safe withdrawal rate study. In it we highlighted how big an impact a share market crash can have on whether or not we run out of money in retirement.

I won’t be leaving this this to chance. The first ten years of retirement tend to be the most important indicator of whether […..]

There is a United States based study called the trinity study that looked into how much someone can successfully withdraw from their investment portfolio over a 30-year period. The result of the study concluded that […..]

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 […..]

We all want the best of life, but at what cost?

It is so easy to spend money now. Not only are there a lot more options, but the method of payment is effortless. Tap ‘n go, pay by cell phone, we can even purchase […..]

On a recent family holiday to Abel Tasman National Park I was out swimming in the sea, when I felt something slipping away from me. No, not my togs. 

It was my wedding ring.

As it fell off my finger I took a swipe at it with my other hand, only to […..]

To change our path in life we are said to be either inspired or desperate. As a volunteer budget adviser in the community I see a lot of desperate people wanting to change their lives so money no longer controls them. They are desperate to get out of debt and desperate to free the mind from money worries. Over time it becomes such a heavy burden to carry that we […..]

I woke up on New Years day to find my ugly mug splashed across the NZ Herald webpage. I was one of the subjects on an article about kiwis planning to achieve financial independence at a young age […..]

For the last two years, the NZ Herald has asked approximately seven investment firms for their stocks predictions for the year ahead. Each firm picks five companies they think will perform the best and the Herald publishes their picks. Here is a link to the 2018 picks.

So, how did they do?

Just a short story today that inspires me to live life more simply, only worrying about the things that matter the most to me now. Not waiting until later. Life is too short. Enjoy

An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked.  Inside the small boat were [….]

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

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

This week I had the privilege of being invited to write a guest post on the blog of a fellow kiwi doing great things.

Peti at The Leveraged Mama quit her full time job to allow her to be at home with her child. She is now finding creative ways to earn income from home and you can follow along on her journey as she documents her experiences.

If you’ve ever wondered if your house was a good investment, then look no further. I have collated 25 years worth of regional data and compared this against investing in the stock market.

For the results, you can view the article here.

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

We all know that we should be saving for our future but a lot of us don’t. Why? […..]