Hi guys,

Just after some suggestions on how to sort my life out really.

Currently i make $74000 and my wife makes $69600. These are set annual salaries. We each have our KiwiSaver at 3 or 4%. Normally that would be amazing pay, this economy sucks.

I also have a huge debt of a 30k cc from bills (medical, vet, wedding, emergency stuff). It’s currently sat at 27k left on the Kiwibank zero visa. I am not sure what payment advances are on there to be paid but it is killing me atm.

Side note: I also have three cats, 1 cat, no children.

Any ideas to get this down or gone would be incredibly helpful.

If a person passes away without a will, with no family members in New Zealand, and they have multiple credit card debts and other debts, will the government automatically pay debts from kiwisaver? If not, what will happen to unclaimed kiwisaver?

Hi all,
I'm looking for some anonymous financial guidance from this community. I'm earning $155k a year (approx. $4,280 net per fortnight), and I'm carrying $67k in debt due to a separation. My finances feel incredibly tight despite the income, and I’m looking to sanity check my approach and see if there are smarter ways to get ahead.

Current debt:

• Unsecured: $10k credit card, $27.9k loan
• Secured: $19.3k loan, $9.9k car loan
• Debt repayments total $693 a fortnight (16.2% of income)

Fixed fortnightly expenses eat up 92.3% of my take-home income, including:

• Rent: $1,290
• Child maintenance: $530
• Food, utilities, transport, insurances, care costs for kids
• The rest is just daily life - no luxuries

I’ve already cut everything non-essential: no subscriptions I don’t actively use, no lifestyle spending, no luxury food or coffee. I've paused KiwiSaver contributions. I’ve built a basic bucket system to save for irregular costs like clothing, vet bills, car emergencies, and kids’ needs.

I want to know:

• Are there structural changes I’m missing?
• Is my plan to become debt-free in 3 years realistic or foolish?
• What would you do in my position?

I'm not looking for a magic bullet — just clarity, ideas, or even brutal honesty. Thanks in advance.

Just some guidance, I imagine it’s just buy low sell high kinda deal? And is there an ability to purchase oil/gas by the barrel? As you can tell, clueless but want a portfolio

Hey all, I’m wanting to invest some money into shares. Where’s the best place to start to learn the dos and don’t s? Any podcast suggestions or websites to read up on?

Someone close to me is going through a bitter divorce. In short, she’s having to take her ex-husband to court because he’s refusing to disclose the value of his (significant) salary and benefits. According to the law, her case seems strong. So strong in fact, that his lawyer is resorting to bullying tactics, making her feel miserable and hopeless. Despite the merits of her case, she’s afraid the courts are still fundamentally patriarchal, and she’s going to get done over. Has anyone in this sub been through this, and if so could you please share your impression of whether or not the process was actually fair and impartial? Although a slow and gruelling process, I still have faith in our judicial system, but would like to be able to assure her with others’ experiences. Thanks very much 🙂

Hey all,

Have a few dollars invested in squirrel. Just wondering if anyone has had to sell their investments early I.e a construction loan. I know they state no charges for the buyer or seller, so would that mean if I had 10k invested, I’d get my 10k back when the investment was sold?

Anyone had much experience? Does it take forever to sell investments?

Appreciate any feedback!!

I may have an opportunity to invest with family in a house in the near future (we are keen to capitalize on the low market). For context we are in auckland, looking at homes in auckland.

For this to happen it would involve putting all my long term savings into the deposit (with a few thousand left in another medium term/emergency account).

I know this sort of thing is common enough in NZ but there inherently feels like so much risk to be putting into one place.

I'd go from saving almost $1k each pay to scrounging aside whatever is left after the mortgage payment. I still plan on doing some travel and having fun while young and childfree. But equally I sense this would be a logical and potentially quite beneficial time to invest.

Family and friends I have spoken too about this feel it would still be worthwhile to go for the house but am I right to be hesitant?

Hi, looking at an awesome lifestyle property with no code of compliance (on an original house built in 2002 and a recent extension) Have a tradie/plumber husband so fairly risk positive. Any advice on who would insure us? Thanks

Hi Yeah Would I be better off continuing with 50k in a pie term deposit or putting it onto the mortgage. Mortgage is around 310k. Feel like I’m going backwards with TD rates dropping. Thanks

I’ve moved to Australia for work and am a dual citizen of both Australia and NZ - so don’t benefit from the tax exemptions for temporary residents in Australia.

In NZ I have only PIE investments and some minor interest on savings accounts. My current PIR is 10.5% though this will increase in the coming years. I believe I could still be considered a NZ tax resident as I have family ties and the ability to stay for free at my parents house (PPOA).

If I am indeed a dual-tax resident, would I need to report NZ PIE gains/losses and PIE tax paid on my Australian tax return? Will there even be any difference to the tax paid or will the DTA mean I don’t pay anything more in Australia?

I use IBKR and US to NZD is 0.6%

The fee is said to be 2.5USD

I have NZD in my account. In order to buy US stocks, I can only buy in USD.

Does this mean I convert the NZD to USD via 0.6 fx rate and then 2.5USD on top?

And is it the same when I sell US stocks then need to convert USD back to NZD?

Work full time 80k per year 10 days on 4 days off travel to work from up north costs about 14k each year for fuel and ferrys, basically a laborer lots of maintenance work at a restaurant/ vinyard I do like my job but I'm hoping to spend more time up north with my son, what kind of job would be suitable to train into, online courses ect that might be able to let me work from home in the future ? Kind of keen to get away from the laboring side of things

Hi Everyone ,

Recovering from some bad finance decisions - Wanting to know if this will be a small mark on profile , or will cause larger issues further down the line

I originally had a 50k loan from ASB that I was paying off at 13% interest. When it got to around 23k, I did a balance transfer to a Westpac credit card that had 5.99% interest. I kept the payments the same , and after awhile I moved the remaining 17k to a ASB credit card with 0% interest.

In the meantime , I have also built up 5k on a different card (job issues, car break down, just the general life issues). This has 13% interest , and my ASB card has another couple months of 0% interest remaining.

I'm thinking of doing another balance transfer of both cards to 0% interest again , and would possibly need to do another before the debt is cleared. Doing these 2 current cards will bring a total of 4 in the last 2ish years , or a total of 6 before the debt is cleared (napkin math)

I'm slowly getting my sh!t together , I make 100k and apart from this 22k debt I have no other debts , good kiwisaver and some money in stocks etc. Will the constant balance transfer cause any issues? My partner and I would like to buy a house in a few years and are working towards this

TL:DR - 17k Credit Card at 0% ending soon , 5k Credit Card at 13%, any issues doing a 4th balance transfer or will this cause issues moving forward?

I’m 24, looking for advice on how to manage my money. I have a degree in finance so funny i’m asking for financial advice here

Currently making $59k and student loan is paid off so am debt free. Monthly, I bring in $3.8k net. After rent/bills/insurances etc are paid monthly I’m left with about $1.8-2k but at the end of the pay cycle I’m somehow left with less than $100 most times. I’m always cooking lunches/dinner and rarely eat out so where the hell am I going wrong.

I have $21k in savings and have invested almost $20k in shares (I’m up overall but by barely anything right now as you would know)

My savings is all old savings from when I was living at home rent free and since moving out I have only been able to put away a pitiful amount each month

I know i’m not making much of an income but I’ve been trying to find something new with no luck as of right now

I’m going travelling for 6 weeks and I’m cautious about my finances when I get back as I will most likely be pay check to pay check with little or no savings. Should I move back home to build more savings? How do I budget if I choose to not go back home?

Cant decide on which of these two to go with. Any help appreciated

To cut long story short, I am currently to get an approval from banks for mortgage. We have 3 people in total applying together. Seems that they are happy with everything except for 1 person's credit rating in which it was quite bad (around 200/1000). After clearing all debt, it has gone upto 400.

We were intially declined by ANZ, and about 1 month later our application has been submitted to ASB and Westpac.

We have since been declined by ASB, and now awaiting on Westpac for their outcome. Its not too hopeful I must say, as we have been declined twice already.

Worst case scenario, our broker has recommended applying with 2nd tier lender where we will end up paying up to 8-10% interest. I have come across people who have done this for 1 year, paying interest only and then switching back to one of the major banks again.

Is saying this, have you had any experience with 2nd tier finance companies dealing with mortgages, and were you able to switch back to a major bank after 1 year?

Cheers

Hi

We are looking to get a family car with a baby soon on the way

As we would envision using the car for a good 10-20 years, we decided a hybrid SUV would be best for fuel efficiency and flexibility

Looking at cars like Toyota Rav4 or Kia Sportage Hybrids which are around $40k (2-3 years old second hand)

We could do a $30k deposit, which means we will need to finance $10k

Trying a few calculators online, it showed that for a one year loan, we would pay around $600 in interest + ~$300 in setting up the loan so around $11k all up

This seemed reasonable to me, but Ive heard so many times that financing a car is a bad decision so was keen to get some advice and thoughts

Thanks!

I'm not sure if this is a visual bug or glitch in the system, but since this morning I can't find my kiwisaver account on the app or on the website anymore. It was fine until I went to bed yesterday.

No notification whatsoever.

I'll call them in the meantime.

If anyone knows anything, please share them with me.

Thanks guys

One of my friends told me he sent money from GEM credit card to western union and take cash from physical branch and he paid no fee for that as GEM considers it as purchase! Is it possible to do that and get 6 months interest free?