The Happy Saver Podcast - Personal Finance in New Zealand

This week I tell you all about Catherine and her husband Luke. Both of them had been enjoying successful careers and had been working to a financial plan that had them thinking years into the future. Life was sailing along pretty well, all things considered, until very recently when they hit a major roadblock, due to a job loss caused by COVID-19. Sometimes we think we are heading in one direction but a fork in the road throws up a few other suggestions and we have no choice but to adapt.

This week I’m going to share the story of Linda, a woman in her early 50’s who has had a huge shift in mindset over the last ten months. Linda’s journey with money had just been trundling along year in year out for, oh I don’t know, about 52 years! But in July 2019 there was to be a bit of a change in direction when she started to question the status quo and wondered if not paying her house off until she was in her mid 70’s was the best idea after all?

Becky described herself as a spender at heart who has to constantly battle against the desire to just spend, spend, spend. The spiral began with interest free debt in her first year of university and continued on from there. Today she has decided to stop turning to debt to finance the things she and her family want, but it’s still a struggle and it still has the ability to occasionally trip her up. But there is hope for spenders like her and while still a work in progress, she has come a very long way in a short space of time and has paid off old debt and said no to any more. This is how a ‘natural spender’ gets her money under control.

Aaron and his wife Shannon have a young son, just six months old and it’s what they did in the lead up to his birth that got my attention. They decided to work like crazy people, as many hours as they possibly could, in order to knock down their mortgage and set a chunk of cash aside before the birth so that they could head into parenthood prepared. Learn how this truck driver and administrator went about it.

Often when I speak with people their one regret is that “they didn’t start saving and investing earlier”. Well today, you are going to hear about Nat and she DID manage to start investing early in life and the proof sure is in the pudding when at the age of just 36 she has an investment portfolio that she can be proud of.

When I think of Mandy, the word that keeps coming to my mind is ‘determined’. She was living the good life right up until she wasn’t. We pick up her story at the point of her divorce when she had two young children, a small divorce settlement, a limited income and a burning desire to turn things around for the better. But how could she find her feet again? With determination, that’s how.

Jo is a busy Mum of a two year old, they had just returned from an overseas trip and she is juggling parenting with a 30 hour work week, while her partner is working as well. We had a great chat where she told me how at a very young age she was encouraged into buying property and she discussed how that decision has impacted her life over the years and how she is now discovering new ways to invest outside of what she knows, housing.

I came upon Tracy via Instagram. She was on a debt repayment marathon, trying to pay down $94,278 of consumer debt and was estimating it would take her 33 months. It all started because she was on the brink of bankruptcy and the suggestion was made that she needed to sell everything, including her beloved dog! By August, when we spoke she was down to $10,471.11 of debt and the sprint to the finish line was on! She has worked her tail off in her day job and taken up any and every side hustle that she could think of. She is one determined and focussed lady.

What do you do when you become debt free for the very first time in your life? You email me to share your fabulous news of course! That is how I came to know Dale and Dean. They were ambling along just fine until Dean realised that soon he would be 50 and he became determined that he wanted to be debt free before his birthday. So, they got after it and in today’s podcast, I share how they did it.

In this week’s podcast I spoke with Farrel and Chihiro, a Christchurch couple in their early forties who are a great example of how to get two people with completely opposite money personalities on the same page. One was a spender and one was a saver and it would have remained that way unless an ultimatum was given: Either shape up or ship out!