What is your net worth? $2,500,000
Are you filling this out as an individual or a couple? Couple
At what age(s) did you become a net worth millionaire? 55
What region of New Zealand do you live in? Waikato
How did you accumulate your net worth, what are you invested in? Superannuation in Australia, NZ KiwiSaver, property (home and investment property) and shares.
What was your highest average household WEEKLY income after tax? $3,300
What is your career? Education
Do you have children? YES
Do you have a tertiary qualification? YES
Did you inherit any of your money? NO
What's the approximate value of your house? $1,700,000
Are you debt free now? NO
If NO, how much debt do you have and what is it for? $300,000 mortgage on family home (valuded at $1.7m)
$450k mortgage on investment property (valued at $680k)
Are you in KiwiSaver? YES
Were you taught about money? YES
If YES, how were you taught? Sort of … parents were frugal and managed on a modest income but also spent small inheritances when they got them (renovating house). They always saved for things, but never had confidence to invest. Have been self-taught last few years as I’ve ‘woken up’ a bit.
What is the most enjoyable thing you do with money? Able to travel and see children, supporting kids and older family members.
Do you use your money or your time to help others? YES
If YES, can you please elaborate. Volunteer for a community organisation. Have a regular direct debit donation to a refuge. Regularly buy or make food to share with students at my workplace.
What is your greatest financial win? Getting super in Australia for 10 years was a huge education. It woke us up to the value of investments and it meant we hopped on KiwiSaver as soon as it started (the year we came back to NZ)
Both Australia and Kiwi funds are building really well.
What is your worst financial mistake? After having very little money for a long time (until our mid 30’s) when we did finally get two incomes we let lifestyle creep take over and didn’t have any sort of plan to pay down our mortgage. Now trying to go hard on mortgage in our late fifties when we could have knocked it off a lot earlier.
What advice do you have for others? Make a plan to pay mortgage off faster if you can. Resist lifestyle creep. Try and save an emergency fund. Don’t worry what anyone else thinks - you’ll have lots of choices later if you do.
What is the point of having a net worth above $1,000,000. What does it mean to you? It means we will have a lot more choice when we retire. Doesn’t mean a lot at the moment as we still have to pay debt down. Will be better once this is gone (incl possibly the rental property).
Finish these sentences:
If you want to build wealth do this… Pay into retirement savings. Even just the minimum to KiwiSaver to get the government bonus, then do your own investing if you don’t want money locked away. Pay your mortgage off as quickly as you can. Don’t be afraid to talk about money and get advice - there’s a lot you can learn from practical websites like this one.
If you want to build wealth avoid doing this… Upgrading your lifestyle through taking on extra debt (a bigger house in our case). Not making a plan, relying on income instead of good habits.
If these questions don’t adequately tell your story, feel free to briefly elaborate here: I always thought that money was something that wasn’t talked about, was private, and that you had to be a commerce whizz to invest - I was wrong! We have done well from growth in retirement savings, both putting into these over 20 years. We have benefitted from doing a lot of our own renovation work and the increased values for our two properties, so that’s the bulk of our net worth. But if I had my time again I would take a shorter term mortgage and go hard in my 30’s/40’s. I think this would have given us a lot more options now. While we’ve never had much consumer debt, don’t drive flash cars, buy jewellery etc, we also never made a plan. We lived week to week for far too long. Friends on smaller incomes are now mortgage free because they worked towards this, whereas if we needed to do something bigger, we’d borrow against the house. We have now stopped that, started an emergency fund, are budgeting and are saving for what we need to buy. We’re also talking about money more as a couple, and have plans for how we want our future to look. Finally!