All in Personal Finance
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.
By working hard and being at the right place at the right time, Fatima had managed to buy several properties but there was a tipping point one day when she found herself seriously short on cash and having to borrow money from whanau. Fatima is not one to muck around, so she decided to implement some change and reintroduce some balance into her life.
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! I was particularly keen to catch her at an important milestone and we spoke on the eve of her last ever mortgage payment.
For the last episode in this series, I have once again reconnected with a few people that I’ve interviewed before. I like to check in on people and get a feel for the progress and changes they have made and I know you do too.
When Julian and Sophie met in 1999 they each had a car, a very small amount in savings and no debt. Just 21 ‘short’ years later they have an approximate net worth of $1,500,000. So, how did they do it?
Bella shares the realities of student loan debt in New Zealand and how you can meander your way into $85,000 of debt, but it’s far harder to meander your way out again.
Aria and her husband Dave didn’t grow up with much so once they got together they knew they didn’t want to live paycheque to paycheque. When asked what financial independence means to them they said it means “we don’t have to worry about money” and that is a sentiment that they want for everyone.
I first heard from Hamish when he sent me an email in late 2020 telling me that back in 2018, at the age of just 24 he had saved up and bought a $379,00 house in Palmerston North with a big deposit of $125,000. No surprises I was pretty keen to hear more from Hamish about the how and the why of this.
“Well this is awkward” I thought when some guy called Chris started secretly emailing me without his partner’s knowledge! Big long emails with tonnes of questions about personal finance, my favourite topic for sure! That is how I came to sit on the sidelines of the transformation of not just Chris but of his partner Rosemary’s financial life.
Jen freaked out at 49! She considered herself to be halfway through her life and had big concerns about what the other half might look like. A divorce halved her net worth and becoming a single mother introduced a whole heap of new challenges. She is now fast tracking to an early retirement at the age of 55 and is a wonderful example of showing just what a woman on a mission is capable of!
Nina was homeschooled and part of her education involved investing in the share market and preparing from the age of just 13 to cover the cost of her future university degree. Now in her late 20’s and with a husband and three small children, she is feeling content with the journey ahead and that includes paying off their home and then starting to invest for the long term financial wellbeing of her and her family.
Alana’s debt of choice was buying household items on Hire Purchase. Lots of them! But before long she had precommitted her income years into the future so she could service these debts. But finally she reached a pivotal point of being heartily sick of living pay cheque to pay cheque and in just a few short years she and her husband have made a massive financial turnaround and are now firmly on the path to financial independence.
This week, I had a chat with Steve who described his financial story as “not so much an epic dig out of deep debt”, or a “becoming fabulously wealthy” kind of story. But, more of a “jigsaw puzzle piecing it all together over time” kind of story, which, he told me, is still very much ongoing. I think Steve and Madie have a story that many millennials could emulate.
