What is your net worth? $1,482,000
Are you filling this out as an individual or a couple? Couple
At what age(s) did you become a net worth millionaire? In April 2021 at ages 28 & 29
What region of New Zealand do you live in? Wellington
How did you accumulate your net worth, what are you invested in? Breakdown of what we're currently invested in (as at December 2021) and what makes up our net worth:
- House Equity: $1,020,500
- Employee share scheme: $149,000
- Investments in ETFs: $99,500
- Cryptocurrency: $80,500
- Combined KiwiSaver:$72,500
- Cash: $38,000
- Investments in individual company shares: $14,000
- Car (depreciated value): $8,000
= $1,482,000 net worth
Next up our goals are to get to $1,000,000 net worth each as individuals.
What was your highest average household WEEKLY income after tax? $3,083.25
What is your career? Sales and Sustainability
Do you have children? NO
Do you have a tertiary qualification? YES
Did you inherit any of your money? NO
What's the approximate value of your house? $1,660,000
Are you debt free now? NO
If NO, how much debt do you have and what is it for? Mortgage on our property - currently at $639,000
Are you in KiwiSaver? YES
Were you taught about money? YES
If YES, how were you taught? We didn't learn much budgeting or share investing from our family's, but both our parents have owned investment properties so we saw that growing up, but it wasn't explicitly taught or discussed. Watching our parents be generally sensible with money throughout life. Also we both studied Accounting at University which I think has helped us get our head around the money, tax and business fundamentals.
What is the most enjoyable thing you do with money? The mental peace and serenity that having this money/net worth has bought to our lives is probably the most enjoyable thing. We haven't 'waited for pay day' or worried about how we will pay for a bill in a very long time. Also never having to worry or hesitate when friends want to go out for dinner or go to a festival or show or weekend away. Also watching our money grow is very fun, haha. Updating our net-worth spreadsheet at the end of every month and using Sharesight to see our ETF's grow is secretly very fun.
Do you use your money or your time to help others? YES
If YES, can you please elaborate. This year (2021) we read 'The Life You Can Save' and 'The Most Good You Can Do' by Peter Singer, an Australian ethics philosopher, and it opened our eyes to effective altruism movement and identifying ways you can be the most effective and have the most impact with your charitable giving. We are giving 1% of our pre-tax income to effective charities at the moment, and are working out what large goals we could set and how much we could give in our wills once compounding has done its magic over our lifetimes. We feel if we're lucky enough to be born into a safe country like NZ with access to education and opportunities, we should do our best to share the luck we've been born into with others where we can, and Peter Singer's “Life You Can Save” charity really helps us know we're giving money to the most effective places and changing the most lives with each donation. Free copies of the book are available in e-book format if anyone is interested: www.thelifeyoucansave.org/the-book
What is your greatest financial win? Both of us being on the same page with finances and both being interested in investments and personal finance. We make a great team and having each other is a great financial win. Getting our property just as the Wellington market boom was starting up, and our employee share scheme stocks.
What is your worst financial mistake? We both regret getting 'living costs' added to our student loans - Partner A was already working 20 hours a week on top of their studies to pay for living and partying, and Partner B was living at home with parents so they didn't have costs to cover, and could've got a part-time job if they needed to. Partner A sort of regrets going flatting in their early 20's despite studying and working in the same city as their family. In retrospect, it would've been sensible to stay at home with parents and pay them some board and saved money instead. The peer pressure for young people in their early 20's to move out and flat with friends rather than be 'uncool' and live at home with their parents and keep saving is unfortunate. I agree with moving out if that's better for your relationship with your family, but if you're lucky enough to have a family/parents who you mostly get along with and you contribute around the house (cook/clean/pay board and don't act like a child), I think it can be very clever to stay home and save money rather than follow the crowd and pay exorbitant rent to live in damp uni flats. It can be fun, but the money that could've been saved and invested elsewhere would be worth so much in the future.
What advice do you have for others? Read The Barefoot Investor. The Barefoot investor changed our lives. It's clear and straight up. And The Happy Saver herself has done an excellent job deciphering any of the Aussie specifics into Kiwi alternatives: Applying The Barefoot Investor in NZ - UPDATE. Once you read one finance book like that, you start to fall into the personal finance rabbit hole (and it's so fun!) - just keep learning and consuming personal finance books/blogs/social media/podcasts etc. I follow a lot of personal finance Instagram accounts to stay inspired and motivated like @Girlsthatinvest and @mymillennialmoney, along with joining Facebook groups like 'Barefoot Investor - New Zealand' etc. Also play around with a compound interest calculator and have your mind blown. This helped us click on how powerful investing and holding over the long term can be. MoneySmart has a great visual one: Compound interest calculator. We are almost 30 now, so viewing 45 years on the compound calculator and seeing what our net worth could be at 75 years old blows us away.
What is the point of having a net worth above $1,000,000. What does it mean to you? Peace of mind has been the big one so far, but also making our parents and family's proud about our achievement and self-sufficiency. Feeling like we can probably weather most storms life may bring is a big one.
Finish these sentences:
If you want to build wealth do this… Start now! Time in the market, not 'timing' the market is true. Every investor wishes they started sooner. Also track your money and net worth. Get all your numbers in a spreadsheet and track it. What gets measured gets managed.
If you want to build wealth avoid doing this… Getting spooked and selling. Buy and hold is the common mantra among most investing gurus. Trust the process. Buy and hold. Also, avoid lifestyle inflation. Don't spend more when you start to earn more. Know what key things bring you joy and only splurge on those few things. Be clever and be on a budget with the rest of life's activities.