As a volunteer budget adviser I saw the result of many clients burying their heads in the sand. Years and years of pretending there is no problem or looking the other direction.

High credit loans, bad debts, and so on. Some would even come to the office with a pile of unopened envelopes containing bills and invoices. They couldn’t […..]

The Covid pandemic has been a major disruption for many and one we can’t wait to see the back of, but one shining light on the whole thing has been the fact that it has forced many people to assess their priorities.

In a world where […..]

Hopefully by now you all know the importance of having diversified investments and not putting all your hopes on one asset, one company or one industry.

But rarely do we think about […..]

Everything in life evolves. Your money and thoughts about money is no exception, sometimes changing in a few years or so.

Since starting this blog as someone hell bent on […..]

On a recent family holiday to Abel Tasman National Park I was out swimming in the sea, when I felt something slipping away from me. No, not my togs. 

It was my wedding ring.

As it fell off my finger I took a swipe at it with my other hand, only to […..]

’m not sure if this is true of other financial advisers but a significant majority of first contact for my services is made by women.

I may be wrong here, and I run the risk of upsetting some people, but I […..]

A couple of years ago I wrote about my experience of making some pull up bars in our back yard. Until recently I never used them as much as I should.

I’d try and do some pull ups, but would get despondent that I […..]

We’re over halfway into the year and many of you have probably given up, or even forgotten, your New years’ goals.

That’s the great thing about goals though. They don’t […..]

Recently lost your job? You will likely wish you had a higher emergency fund than when you still had a job.

Your favourite stock in free fall? You will probably not […..]

Sometimes when a message gets repeated so often it loses its importance.

Over our lifetimes we are told how important a good night’s sleep is that we can easily disregard it, as it is so bleedingly obvious.

With two young children in the house, it is only now I[…..]

As a young fulla, I was madly into most sports. My favourite was tennis. I played up to a pretty high level, competing in the various tournaments in Wellington. To get to the next level, my interclub coach thought it would be a good idea for me to […..]

From the outside, it may seem like me, and others that like to talk about money, think about it all the time.

But it’s not actually the case.

About 5 years ago when I was really struggling to keep up with my mortgage payments and living dollar to dollar in my ridiculously large house I was ALWAYS thinking about money […..].

Over the summer break from work we had plans to stain the deck and complete our underfloor insulation. A bit ambitious for a family of 4 with a 2 and a half year old and a 7 week old? Perhaps.

But we do have […..]

Getting ahead with your finances is not difficult once you get the initial basics. It can be achieved with at least two of the following […..]

Often I will come across someone that seems sour about the position they are in compared to someone else. “They have so much more money than me”. “They have a better job than me”.

On the other hand though, they aren’t prepared to do anything about it. They want all the upside but don’t want to […..]

Every time I have started something new recently I have felt like a fraud and that I don’t belong.

Starting a financial advice business

Starting a blog

Writing a book

Many times I felt like […..]

Now it seems obvious that we had to ‘lock down’ New Zealand. Despite the fact that we knew of the virus in February, the impact and devastation were unknown. It made sense to […..]

Shortly after I had arrived home from work the other day, my daughter was bawling her eyes out. She wanted to watch her favourite TV shows on Netflix.

I had a very long day at work and all I wanted to do was […..]

When it comes to being good with money, I have found that behaviours are far more important than knowledge. Sure, a base level of knowledge is important such as smart ways to invest and where to keep an emergency fund. But this knowledge will not get you far if you […..]

The NBA championship is set to resume shortly, thanks to the players all being housed in a bubble at the Disney World campus in Florida. Several players have complained about the food and the rooms, but Kiwi player Steven Adams uttered four simple, yet powerful words […..]

Below is a letter from my 65-year-old self to my younger self if I didn’t make good decisions with my money in my younger years. As sad as it may be to think about these things, I’m hoping it provides some motivation to make some changes today.

When I was about 7 years old, I recall being part of a soccer training camp for kids.

It basically involved approximately 50 local kids being trained by expert coaches on the skills of the game. There were also a few games and competitions thrown in for good measure.

Each competition had a prize.

It is one of the competitions that has remained in my memory banks. Winning it probably helps, but it was more than that. It was the way I won […..]

Do any of you have a place you can go and just feel at peace? Where you don’t have a care in the world and can just let your mind wander?

For me this place is Abel Tasman National Park. I was introduced to this magical place, by my then girlfriend, about 5 years ago.

The National Park is surrounded by […..]

There is nothing in life more important than happiness. We all want to be happy. Most of us want our friends and families to be happy. It is the overarching goal that all of us share. The holy grail.

But is happiness the right goal? I think we are pursuing the wrong goal here […..]

I would argue that the most important feelings in life are togetherness and connectedness. We can be as rich as Scrooge Mcduck, but if we don’t have […..]

Sure, you can try all the tricks such as avoiding certain supermarket aisles or websites, or delaying the decision by a week to see if you still feel the same way.

But couldn’t it be much better if you didn’t have to fight all the time?

Instead of having a constant battle with yourself, it is much better to try and change your overall mindset so that you don’t want so many things in the first place […..]

One of my favourite movies as a child was the Karate Kid. For some reason, I was always drawn to the underdog from an early age.

In the movie, Daniel San as he is affectionately known, is experiencing some bullying at his new school. The lead bully Johnny is a skilled, albeit dirty, Karate fighter from the Cobra Kai dojo. Daniel is a skinny, unpopular, out of […..]

A few weeks ago, I received an email from my manager at the volunteer budget centre.

She asked me if I’d like to give a 10-minute presentation to 40 young adults aged between 17 and 25, as part of the limited service volunteer programme. My first thought was […..]

Throughout my 20’s I spent every dollar I earned. I’d tell myself things such as “I deserve it” or “it doesn’t cost much”. The problem is these times became too frequent. I was telling myself I deserved something new every single week. I’d hardly been in the workforce for one year, yet here I was […..]

As a volunteer budget adviser, I often see clients that ignore their debt problem. Their theory is, “If I ignore it then I won’t know there is a problem.”

I have had clients come into the office with a pile of unopened envelopes. They know it is bills inside but by not opening the mail, they convince themselves that there are no bills to pay and there is no problem. But guess what? It doesn’t […..]

Anything worthwhile in life is difficult. Raising a family, losing weight, starting a business or new job and saving money are all examples of worthwhile endeavours that can be a big challenge.

Whereas staying in your same mundane job, not exercising and spending all your earnings is the easy option.

Unfortunately easy doesn’t buy you freedom […..]

I have an extremely difficult time being OK with paying life insurance.

On the one hand, if I don’t pay for insurance my family will not be taken care of upon my departure from this planet. On the other hand, if I stick around like a bad smell, then all this cost is wasted, right?

Now, more than ever, we have so many options available at our disposal. This makes it extremely easy for us to latch onto something to do, something to eat, something to drink […..]

I’ll admit it. I used to be a chronic procrastinator. It was just too easy to put off things I didn’t want to do until the last minute. The last minute has seen a lot of action over my time. In this last minute of getting things done there is a lot of stress and anxiety, not to mention […..]

You may not be the CEO of your workplace, or even your marriage. But you are the CEO of your life. Many people go to jobs they don’t like to finance life’s they don’t like. To continue living this life we […..]

I was recently in the hospital waiting room with 12 other people. Do you know how many of these people had their head down on their mobile phones for pretty much the whole duration? 10 out of 12! I have seen similar numbers in airports too. It is not just the young either. The older generation have also managed to pick up this habit of […..]

There are so many people retiring early and living the life of their dreams at the same time there are so many people struggling to save enough for retirement. How can this be? How can we have so many people struggling, yet so many succeeding?

Everyone is so busy these days. I have to book weeks in advance to catch up with friends and family. We say things like “I have so much on at the moment”, or “things are just crazy.”

There is nothing wrong with being busy if what you are busy adds value to your life. Such as starting a business or being prime minister. It is when we are busy just for the […..]

Did I hook you in with the title? Bold statement isn’t it?

This investment costs very little money. The investment returns beat the stock market by a long shot […..]

So often self-control is seen as a negative act. Where we are depriving ourselves of something fun or something so good, but oh so bad for us. We are taught from an early age we can’t have ‘bad’ foods all the time, even though we want them. As adults, the list of things that are supposedly ‘bad’ for us grows exponentially. Ironically, these are also the things that […..]

Many of us lead comfortable lives. We have shelter, are well fed, we have jobs that we are good at, and a close group of friends. In our spare time we tend to follow the same routine and do the same things. Over time we find […..]

With so many options we can’t always make the best choice. It would require far too much time and effort deliberating even the smallest decisions and then when we make the wrong decision we will beat ourselves up over it. Once we have finished giving ourselves the uppercut then next time we may be too scared to even make a decision at all in fear of getting the bash again [……]

One month into the new year and some of you may have given up on your goals or are thinking about it. Before you do, read ahead […..]

have seen people in various online forums, and some of my clients have recently asked, about the impact of capital gains on their investments.

“How will my Kiwisaver be taxed”?

“How much will my rental property be taxed”?

“Will my business be affected”?

Just a quick thought exercise for today to get the juices flowing.

If you look back in time 5 years, is where you are today what you pictured?

I ask because mine is not even close. 5 years ago I was […..]

We are born into this world as curious little things. I am sure most of you have experienced the ‘why’ game with a child. This is where you do your best to answer their question, but they are still not happy with the answer! They respond why to every answer you give them, no matter how […..]

We all like to thing we are the king/queen of the basketball court, the best lover and the smartest financial guru. No? Just me? Awkward

We can’t all be in the top 20%. There always has to be a top, a middle, and a bottom. Our chance of winning first division lotto is 1 in 5 million, yet much more than […..]

We all want the best of life, but at what cost?

It is so easy to spend money now. Not only are there a lot more options, but the method of payment is effortless. Tap ‘n go, pay by cell phone, we can even purchase […..]

To change our path in life we are said to be either inspired or desperate. As a volunteer budget adviser in the community I see a lot of desperate people wanting to change their lives so money no longer controls them. They are desperate to get out of debt and desperate to free the mind from money worries. Over time it becomes such a heavy burden to carry that we […..]

We all know that we should be saving for our future but a lot of us don’t. Why? […..]

If we have choice that means we have control over our decisions. That is a fantastic thing, as many cultures do not have this luxury. Take arranged marriages in India for example.

The power of choice can be very powerful indeed. Imagine inheriting 2 million dollars […..]

It seems nowadays we are inundated with options. Hundreds of TV channels, online clothing stores and many investment options. Even once we have finally chosen on a mortgage provider for example, then we have another set of decisions. Do we fix? Do we float? Both? Revolving credit? Interest only? Decisions within the decision if you will. This may seem like a good thing on the surface. More options mean more competition for our attention, which should result in a greater quality of product or service at a lower price.

However, the end result can make us tired of thinking and analysing, and potentially making a sub par decision. Or no decision at all

Habits are what get us from point A to point B in the quickest amount of time and can be both fantastic and crippling. They are the actions we can do without even […..]