The Happy Saver Podcast - Personal Finance in New Zealand

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 mo...

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...

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...

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...

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 s...

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 Co...

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 d...

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 intere...

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...

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...

Neil has come a long way in life since his move from London to New Zealand in 2005. His one-year adventure has turned into 17 and counting, and year on year, he has continued to learn a little more about how money works. Today he finds himself in his late 40s, a father of one, with investments both in the UK and New Zealand, which he is steadily adding to from his take-home pay and rental income....

I managed to cross paths with 35-year-old Dani because both of us are runners and seeing the trails she was enjoying always inspired me to lace up my own shoes and head out the door for a run. It’s probably no surprise that when I found out she was also navigating her own path to FIRE, or Financial Independence, Retire Early that I became even more curious and asked her to chat with me. I find tha...

Sometimes, a minor conversation lights a spark and makes me want to know more about a person. This was the case with today’s guest Zoe. She emailed me a question, which I answered, but what got me interested was how financially assured this recently retired woman from Christchurch was as she actually begins to live off New Zealand superannuation plus the investments she has built up. The thing was...

Senia and her small whānau moved to Ashburton, New Zealand, from Samoa back in 2010 and quietly began to take on consumer debt. Until one day, enough was enough, and some well-timed conversations about becoming debt-free coincided with her realising they were living paycheque to paycheque. This kicked off the process of paying off $70,000 in consumer debt and completely changing the future of her...

Australian based Kiwi Dad of two Jon went through a relationship separation and a financial crisis some years ago but is now on track to be mortgage-free within the next four years. The key for him has been self-taught education about how to handle his personal finances and he was particularly keen to share with other single parents that they can get their finances sorted too. He calls himself ‘a...

Today I have a chat with Jay. He reached out to me with a story to share about him and his wife Shelle and their property investment journey. He sees residential real estate as their way to riches, and he enjoys the ins and outs of the property market. He has been incredibly successful so far in building wealth using debt, yet he is still constantly looking for new information and tweaking his app...

This is the fourth time that I’ve interviewed Bradie for this podcast! Why do I keep coming back for more? Because I am hooked on her journey from suffocating mortgage debt to financial independence in just six short years. Each time we speak there is an exciting new development and this episode does not disappoint. I’ve also enjoyed following the personal transformation that Bradie has gone throu...

This week I’m sharing the story of early retiree Brendan. We’ve met in person many times now, even more so since he moved to Central Otago in late 2021 and I have always found him a relatively quiet and contemplative kind of guy. So I was delighted when he took the time (because let’s face it he has heaps) to share with me just how, at the young age of 39, you manage to have enough money that you...

In today’s podcast, I’m doing a revisit with Bella who I interviewed in Episode 52. She shared the realities of student loan debt in New Zealand and how you can meander your way into student loan debt, but you need to fight your way out again. She explains how she has been tackling her $85,000 of student loan debt and how people are so wrong when they say that interest-free student loan debt just...

Kiri and I have been emailing each other since mid-2018 discussing all manner of money related things as they unfolded for her whānau of three. Kiri, her husband John and their four-year-old daughter, had big plans for 2020, which included a move to Australia, paying off student loans, buying a home and starting new jobs. But we all know how 2020 unfolded, and it was interesting to hear how Kiri a...

I first heard from Andy when he was 29. He emailed with several questions and observations, and the bit that stuck with me most was that he was pretty keen to buy himself a car parking space as an investment. Indeed, he said, “I love the idea of owning a car park in the city”. He thought it was a pretty legitimate investment, plus he thought he might even use it himself one day - if he got a car,...

This week I’m sharing the story of a central Hawke’s Bay couple Rach and Becs. They made the bold move to leave both of their families behind and move out of Auckland, headed for Hawke's Bay so they could get ahead both financially and for a better work-life balance. With careers in IT and Health Advisory, whanau and friends warned them of career setbacks but they have happily proved them wrong, b...

Over the years Janet, who is 59, has worked out that other people can be unreliable, so she is better to plan for her own success, instead of relying on others. She is a huge forward thinker and she spends time gently tweaking all aspects of her financial life to gently steer her waka where she wants it to go. She does not earn a lot, just $798 a week, but as she said to me “I guess it’s what you...

Today I’m introducing you to Fatima. By working hard and being at the right place at the right time, she had managed to buy several properties but there was a tipping point one day when despite the net worth she had built up, she found herself seriously short on cash and having to borrow money from whanau. Fatima is not one to muck around, so after listening to these very podcasts, she decided to...

I’m starting out this series of six new episodes with a woman that I know pretty well, the reason being that she is one of my sisters! It took a little convincing to get her to appear on my podcast and I’ve changed her name for a bit of anonymity, but the reason I wanted to share her story is that it is an excellent example of steady and consistent attention to detail over a long period of time. A...