Become Your Own Financial Advisor

Become Your Own Financial Advisor

Ruth
Financial Advisors, Money Education, Personal Finance, PocketSmith, Sharesies, Sharesight, Simplicity, SmartShares, Hatch, Kernel

Before I started The Happy Saver I thought the only way to learn about money was to seek out a financial advisor, the supposed experts in the field, so I did go to a couple of financial advisors. As a result of these attempts I completely gave up on letting anyone else tell me what to do with my own money and decided that no one cared more about it than I did myself so I decided to take matters into my own hands and educate myself. I did it by actively taking an interest in my/our money and reading, listening, asking and deep-diving into all things personal finance related.

Financial Peace in an Emergency

Financial Peace in an Emergency

Ruth
Personal Finance, Saving, Emergency Fund

This blog post might be the quickest and shortest one I have ever written! My inbox has just received yet another round of invoices for payment. February has been a particularly expensive month with a number of invoices due for payment over and above what we would usually expect. Some we have budgeted for and had fully covered, others we had partially saved for or were out of the blue. For the unexpected expenses, I was faced with only one option really, to reach into our emergency fund and use that to pay the invoices.

An Alternative to Property Investment that Works

An Alternative to Property Investment that Works

Ruth
ETFs, Hatch, Index Funds, Kernel, Investment, KiwiSaver, PocketSmith, Sharesies, Sharesight, Simplicity, SmartShares

I’ve long said that there are alternatives to buying rental property and today I wanted to actually give you some decent detail on this. So today I’m going to give you an idea of what investing into KiwiSaver and index funds/ETFs actually looks like a few years down the track. I find with this blog of mine that it’s helpful to share some real numbers instead of just talking hypothetically all the time.

“Borrowing money won’t take you where you want to go”

“Borrowing money won’t take you where you want to go”

Ruth
Debt, Investment, Mortgage, Index Funds, Banks

Rental real estate investment brings out some pretty passionate opinions and although I always enjoy a conversation, I don’t like arguing, therefore I rarely write about property. That and the fact it just does not interest me as a way to grow wealth. I regularly speak with such a wide range of people about money and I’m lucky that I get to see the allure or otherwise of property from many different angles and I conclude from talking to a lot of people who are ‘real estate investors’ that most of them appear not to be making any money.

Consistency and Planning, boring yet effective.

Consistency and Planning, boring yet effective.

Ruth
ETFs, Index Funds, Investment, Money Education, Saving, PocketSmith

I thought I would start the year with something that I think is a mega important topic if you want to get your finances in order, Consistency and Planning. Both are boring yet effective. As always, I like to share what I’m up to and what works for us, you can then take from it what you will. A few years back I implemented a few simple things and today I’m reaping the rewards of my consistency, planning and good habits. You can do the same, but you do need to start today.

2020 MONEY WINS from fellow Happy Savers!

2020 MONEY WINS from fellow Happy Savers!

Ruth
ETFs, Index Funds, Investment, Kernel, KiwiSaver, Money Education, SmartShares, Sharesies

I recently asked subscribers of my blog to share their money wins for 2020 so you could get some insight into what fellow Kiwis did on a personal level to navigate 2020. It has been particularly awesome to hear from people during 2020 who had sorted themselves out financially either before, during or after Covid-19 came along and they are each now looking to the future feeling empowered and in control.

Book Review: Money Lessons For My Younger Self

Book Review: Money Lessons For My Younger Self

Ruth
Reviews

With many other Kiwi personal finance books that I have read, there is a lot of sitting on the fence, or not saying quite what you mean and of pandering to the people who try to be the exception to any rule. This book by Nick Carr is pretty blunt which might be a surprise to a young 18-year-old, but to anyone over the age of 60, they will just be nodding along with the practical thoughts he shares.

I don’t believe the phrase “don’t put money in the share market that you can’t afford to lose”

I don’t believe the phrase “don’t put money in the share market that you can’t afford to lose”

Ruth
ETFs, Index Funds, Money Education, Shares

I think this well-worn phrase, “Don’t put money in the share market that you can’t afford to lose”, contributes to our over-reliance on housing as the only way to grow your wealth in New Zealand. That’s a great shame in my mind because people have turned their back on our strong share market. When I hear prominent Kiwi’s in the New Zealand investing space I want them to educate and inform me. I want them to show me that investing in something other than housing is a viable option for growing the wealth of my family over time. I don’t want them to confirm any biases that I might hold about the share market being risky and akin to a casino. Because it’s not. Yet when they repeat the phrase “don’t put money in the share market that you can’t afford to lose”, that’s exactly what they are telling myself and others.

Reimagining my budgets with PocketSmith

Reimagining my budgets with PocketSmith

Ruth
Budgeting, PocketSmith, Reviews

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of budgeting in some way, shape or form and knowing where your money is coming from and going to honestly helps you get ahead faster. There is no doubt in my mind about this. And from time to time I give my budgets an overhaul and this week I made a cup of coffee and took about an hour to look over every corner of my budgets in PocketSmith. The prompt to do this was because PocketSmith have launched a brand spanking new Dashboard with heaps of new customisable features and once I started having a look around, I was like a kid in a candy store.

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