Making Cents

Frances Cook joins the TVNZ Breakfast team to talk through one of her favourite money hacks, using the second hand market to both clear out the clutter at home and score serious bargains on everything from furniture to kids clothes. Follow me everywhere! Facebook / Frances Cook - Journalist Instagram / Frances | Money | Investing (@francescooknz) • Instagram profile TikTok / Frances Cook on TikTok...

Are there still good property deals in New Zealand right now? Here's where to actually look. A listener wrote in with the question everyone's asking: prices are technically down, but they still feel expensive. Interest rates aren't friendly. Rents don't cover the mortgage. So is property investment still worth it, or has the window already closed? On this episode of Ask the Experts, Katie Wesney f...

There's actual behavioural science behind why we freeze up around money, and it's the same science that Mark White-Robinson has built a business around solving. Mark is the co-founder of Feijoa, an app that rounds up your everyday purchases and tips that spare change straight into your KiwiSaver. Seven months in, his users are on track to build millions in retirement savings. The trick to money is...

Frances Cook joins Jim Mora on RNZ Sunday Morning to cover the latest in money news, from why the job market feels so tough right now and where the work actually is, to the AI investment boom, social media spending traps and whether nicking the hotel soap counts as a financial strategy. Follow me everywhere! Facebook / https://www.facebook.com/FrancesCookNZ Instagram / https://www.instagram.com/fr...

Your side hustle is making real money. Now what? Because when the income is real, things are growing, you can suddenly realise the whole operation is held together with sticky tape and good intentions. Income from a job, income from side work, all of it landing in the same personal account with no clear picture of what's coming in, what's going out, or what any of it means for tax time. This week...

There’s a wealth transfer ready to happen right now, but only if you know where to look for it. A generation of baby boomers built their businesses over decades. Now they're ready to retire. But they can't find buyers. Which means there are businesses out there right now, with existing customers, existing income, existing systems, waiting for the right person to take them over. Jeremy Pak has a ri...

Financial freedom sounds great in theory, but what does it actually take to get there as a normal person? In this webinar, Frances Cook is joined by Sheppard & Ormsby chartered accountant Bronwyn Candish and EnableMe national coaching lead Katie Wesney to break down what financial freedom really means, how to find the money to invest, the biggest mistakes people make along the way, and one thi...

Being weird with money is the smartest thing you can do, to get financial freedom. Most of us are following the same money playbook, and it’s not working. Around 30% of New Zealanders don't have $1,000 in savings, and over 60% couldn't cover a real emergency. Frances Cook, financial journalist and host of Making Cents, shares exactly how embracing "weird" money habits helped her build financial fr...

Many New Zealanders are overpaying tax, missing refunds they're entitled to, and leaving money on the table, simply because the system is confusing and nobody explained the rules. In this episode of Making Cents, chartered certified accountant Baqir Hussain, founder Finex Accounting, breaks down exactly how to stop losing money to the tax system and start making it work in your favour. We talk: Th...

Frances Cook joins the TVNZ Breakfast team to explain the loyalty tax costing New Zealanders hundreds of dollars a year on power, insurance and banking, and the simple habit that can win it back without even switching providers. Follow me everywhere! Facebook / Frances Cook - Journalist Instagram / Frances | Money | Investing (@francescooknz) • Instagram profile TikTok / Frances Cook on TikTok Joi...

You're about to spend thousands getting your house ready to sell. Professional staging. A photographer. Maybe a lick of paint on the fence. But in a buyer's market with interest rates climbing, how do you know what actually moves the needle for getting the house sold? Vanessa Williams from http://realestate.co.nz is back in the hot seat with the actual data on what's working right now. We get into...

Something’s off, and that something is the economy. The latest drop of economic forecasting shows exactly what’s happening with the cost of living, your job, and your mortgage. It’s not looking great. But if we know what's coming, we can actually plan for it. To help us make sense of it all, Massey University’s Christoph Schumacher is in the hot seat. He’s Professor of Innovation and Economics, Di...

As SpaceX hits the share market in one of the biggest IPOs ever, Frances Cook breaks down how IPOs actually work, why retail investors are getting an unusually large slice this time and whether that is as generous as it sounds. Follow me everywhere! Facebook / Frances Cook - Journalist Instagram / Frances | Money | Investing (@francescooknz) • Instagram profile TikTok / Frances Cook on TikTok Join...

Retirement planning is stressful enough without governments constantly threatening to move the goalposts. Means testing, wealth taxes, a rising retirement age; how much of it is real, and how much can you actually count on NZ Super? Katie Wesney, National Coaching Lead at EnableMe, joins us in the hot seat to cut through the noise. We get into whether the pension is a plan or just a foundation, wh...

Most investing mistakes don't look like mistakes when you're making them. Chris Walsh from MoneyHub joins us to break down the most common investing traps New Zealanders fall into, and the simple strategies that actually work long term. We get into why dollar cost averaging beats trying to time the market, what "invest in what you know" actually means (and how it gets misused), why borrowing to in...

Best Business Podcast - NZ Radio & Podcast Awards 2026

With the latest Budget signalling little relief for struggling Kiwis, Frances Cook joins the TVNZ Breakfast team to talk about what you can actually do to protect yourself financially when the recovery keeps getting pushed further down the road. Follow me everywhere! Facebook / Frances Cook - Journalist Instagram / Frances | Money | Investing (@francescooknz) • Instagram profile TikTok / Frances C...

Could the home of the future be the size of a carpark? The government is talking about scrapping minimum apartment size rules, and one Making Cents listener wants to know if that's a housing fix or a housing trap. Vanessa Williams from http://realestate.co.nz has fresh data to help us figure this out. We get into whether micro apartments could actually ease the housing shortage, what banks will an...

Adele Holland cooked for billionaires on private jets. Now she helps real people eat well for $50 a week, and she reckons the skills transfer better than you'd think. Adele is a Michelin-trained chef who spent years cooking in Swiss chalets and on superyachts before walking away from the waste and opulence of that world. Now, as the creator behind Dishes with Del, she's on a mission to make budget...

Apartments and townhouses are selling for less than people paid for them, and in record numbers. Frances Cook joins RNZ Nights to break down why smaller properties are taking a bigger hit than the rest of the property market and what it means for first home buyers, investors, and owners in negative equity. Follow me everywhere! Facebook / https://www.facebook.com/FrancesCookNZ Instagram / https://...

If you've ever wondered why some people build real wealth on ordinary incomes, while others save for decades and still feel behind, this episode is the answer. Financial journalist Frances Cook breaks down the relationship between money and time, and why getting this right changes everything about how you invest, where your money goes, and how hard it can work for you. In this episode: The rule of...

What if the chaos of parenthood is actually building your business brain? Renata Wiles was posting videos on the internet, with no business background, no tech background, and no real following. Now she's the founder of Roam with Kids, an app helping New Zealand parents find family-friendly places to go. In this episode, Frances talks with Renata about the messy reality of going from frustrated mu...

Frances Cook joins the TVNZ Breakfast team to crunch the numbers on a proposed policy that would automatically enrol newborns into KiwiSaver with a $1,000 government contribution and what that could actually be worth by the time they retire. Follow me everywhere! Facebook / Frances Cook - Journalist Instagram / Frances | Money | Investing (@francescooknz) • Instagram profile TikTok / Frances Cook...

One in four young people in NZ can't find work. But some jobs are up 200% year on year. The job market hasn't collapsed - it's split. And if you're on the wrong side of that split, waiting for things to improve isn't a strategy. In this episode, we get into which jobs are actually booming right now, what the latest Stats NZ unemployment numbers really mean once you dig past the headline figure, an...

Most of us assume that getting ahead financially means working harder, watching the markets, and making smart moves. The data says that’s wrong. In this episode, Frances talks with Sean Freer, Director of Global Exchange Indices at S&P Dow Jones Indices, about why passive investing consistently beats active fund management, and what that means for everyday investors. We talk about: Why 86% of...