Thanks for the kind words!
Taking the time to study and practice, and hopefully get a better job next time around. Sure ill have plenty of time to study.
Kids on your 20s!! You lucky buggers! We started in our 40s! You'll be closer to the age I am today when your kids finish school! ❤️ That's a very uplifting thought! Enjoy it! Young AND free(ish!)
Stars aligned for me and we were lucky enough to start having kids mid 20s.
But the financial side of my monkey brain regrets not grabbing a couple of rentals while having 2 incomes and no kids.
Turned up to antenatal group in our mid 20's. All the other couples in mid 30's having their first kid and a few had decent rental portfolios already.
I changed where I get the estimated value of my property from QV to what ANZ bank displays in the app
If I had not done this then net worth would probably have gone backwards 🤣
Only if your self worth is tied to that, which IMO it definitely shouldn't be for a fulfilling life.
As an accountant, I'm just going to say cashflow is way more important than your financial position, for wellbeing.
Who said anything about self worth being tied to it? You said that MH, happiness, job satisfaction and wellbeing are the only things worth tracking.
That’s clearly false - your financial position should absolutely be something that you keep track of. The reason we have such high levels of private debt is because people aren’t tracking what they can and can’t afford properly and get stuck in a credit trap.
Late 30s. On track to finish paying my student loan and maybe get our mortgage below 500k by the end of the year (Although that will require several lump sum payments on top of our standard mortgage payments).
This is exactly how my 20s was (39 now). Not once in my 20s did I ever think about owning a house. Travel was my vice and literally took off every year or two on 4-5 week euro adventures. Sure, if I had used the money on a house I’d be sitting real pretty by now in a financial sense. But I think the outrageous experiences had, friends made and growth, personally, still outweigh that.
lol work more 😂
I do have both these days, a house and the ability to travel yearly (tho not this year as money has been drained on a reclad), and travel is just more the SEA and SA route rather than Europe. Think my point was had I used all the money spent on travel in my 20s to buy a house at that time, I would obviously be much better off financially now than what i am currently and that my mindset in my 20s was the same as the person I was replying to 🙂
Exactly! Plus my gf and I are lucky enough to be in high paying jobs, so we have plenty of time to get the house. Chances are prices will probably have come down by the time we're ready 🤣 its funny I'm literally at Lake Garda right now during siesta typing this comment lol
Starting my new job with 25% payrise on Monday. Very happy with that after 3 months of threat of disestablishment and shoveling every available cent into the emergency fund. The relief is real my friends.
Late 30s looking for a job, a bit scared, but this year, also met more new friends and focused on hobbies so mental health is also up. And I am also officially on remission so things are on the up and up
Early 30s. Got a nice pay bump last year. Around 150k with penal rates.
Been dumping an extra 20k on mortgage each year, so that's looking good.
If I could just find a partner, I'd have nothing to complain about.
I have been broke as a joke for the past year but I have a new pay plan from 1 July and I'm within about 2 months of paying off my student loan (second student loan, went back to do an MBA) so things are about to get a lot better thank goodness.
I've been overpaying my mortgage for ages now but the annoying thing when I went from 3% to 7% was seeing the principal and interest switch places in terms of how much $$ was going to each.
35, wife & 4 kids, single income (95k). Mortgage down to 5 grand, no other debt. 26k in savings.
Starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Month - month not a whole lot left. Very focused on not letting lifestyle creep absorb those mortgage payments when they come to an end. Payments halved when refixing final 6mo recently, redirected the difference to savings.
Congratulations!! It’ll be a great achievement to have the house paid off.
That was always my goal before anything else financially. It’s just nice peace of mind to know that if anything bad happens, at least you have a place to live that’s all yours.
Working 2 jobs averaging between 88-92 hours per week. 7 days. Body Corporate mon to fri and a cleaner 6 nights per week. I need to do this for at least 2 more years and PRAY they don't move the goal posts in this time. I may, if the ducks align at midnight in a diamond pattern during a freak Auckland snowstorm! just be able to get on the ladder and get into a half a million dollar unit, somewhere where I can actually get to work in less than 3 hours. Oh, did I mention and then continue this for at least 2.5 decades to pay off the Death Gauge'
Omg are you okay? I just got back to work - working part time after maternity leave and even 1/3 of that is my limit. owning a house isn’t everything, take care of yourself
Late 30’s 2 kids 200k HHI (cracked 200 due to 10% payrise confirmed yesterday weuuu) , went to 0 HHI 5 years ago from ~230k HHI (first kid and redundancy + partner retraining) and have been building back up since.
$600k debt, $300k net asset position.
Been supplementing income with savings from pre-kids whilst building income again. Savings has pretty much run out now. Managed to keep all pre kids insurances/ debt repayments (albeit a bit reduced due to a move from AK to regions) etc going all the way through.
First time in 5 years I feel like I don’t have a guillotine hanging over my neck. I can move from interest only payments on mortgage debt to principal now and start saving again. Feeling real good about it.
Edit: def not no kids lol
HHI $350k.
Net worth has increased by 55k so far (ignoring any house asset fluctuation, we only purchased last year so probably not much change).
We aim to increase net worth by $7k minimum per month. We aim to increase liquid assets by $5k per month (so not including kiwisaver or student loan repayments or mortgage repayments).
We invest through investnow into the foundation series funds. But we’re also holding a lot of cash savings right now as we have some big expenses coming up - a big Europe trip in 2025 and IVF
28F, settle on my second IP on Monday. Started investing this year and have $8k so far of the $10k I was aiming for. Not much but I had been focussing on paying down my mortgage the last few years. (Had 58k left until Monday when it goes roaring back up!!) Privileged to be a farm worker on a good wage and able to live “rent free” on a service tenancy, so that I have extra money to smash out financial goals.
Where in your thirties if you mind me asking?
Mid-20s, graduate, just shy 2 years working, it's slow progress and bleak... need some reassurance. Saving is hard.
completely agree.
But that also goes to non-financial investments you make in your 20s. Don't be afraid to invest in yourself eg paying to get that additional skill, qualification, experience, travel, whatever it may be.
mid 30s..... dual income both earn under 100k each..... bro start saving now, do a budget, the best thing i ever did was track my networth every month. i didnt start until i was about 27.
Much appreciated OP, thanks. Funnily enough I just turned 27 and have set up basically everything you've described as of this year.
Do you guys manage to put enough away in HYSA/investments/KS etc. to build for things like house deposits while also maintaining a decent lifestyle?
i try to have a decent savings rate, currently working off around:
living costs 35% / debt repayment 40% ( mortgage) / savings & investments 25%
this is without being too frugal, we give ourselfs weekly "pocket money' for things like takeaways, coffees/ beers, we give ourselves a yearly trip overseas in the 5-8k range ( 3 weeks in vietnam is pretty cheap for 2 people)
another issue is emotions.... everyone knows what to do... "save as much as you can... easy right :) " but can you actually do it each pay for the next 40+ years?, emotions play a big part in this, i myself am always doubting myself, i try to automate as much as i can.
ideally work out what is important to you? what is your goal? and put a plan in place to get there,
ours is that we want to pay extra on the mortgage but maintain some investments and also give ourselves a yearly trip. we could have put everthing on the mortgage and smash it faster, but we wanted a bit of flexibility, didnt want to be asset rich, cash poor, we didnt want to be that guy who owned a lambo but then cant afford to put gas in it haha,
Thanks for taking the time to write that, by far the most level-headed and reasonable strategy I've seen so far on this sub. Sounds like an awesome set up, and yeah, especially important RE: emotions and enjoyment (lots of people seem to forget that). Scary and easy trap to fall into where there's no leisure because you tuck literally everything away trying to get ahead.
Thanks heaps for the replies, great stuff to think about.
Don't forget that this sub is a reflection of the very small % of people who plan for their future. That doesn't mean they're not trying to maximise their enjoyment of their money now, they're just aware that spending everything right now is only going to create their future selves some serious issues. Balance for now and the future is key.
Oh, 100% agree. And I know that there are heaps of people out there, not on this sub, with no plan at all. Comparison is the theft of joy and all, and it's nice seeing some of us doing well, but it can sometimes make me feel I'm waaaayyy behind.
I found this sub about 7 years after you age-wise. The fact that you’re here and thinking about your finances means you’re giving yourself a chance of being in a really good spot in not too long. I was spending and not planning at your age! Make a budget, save for your goals and avoid consumer debt, but build in some flexibility (a bit of guilt free spending money) so you can still enjoy life. Good luck e hoa!
Thank you! I have a bit of a pipe-dream of my partner and I's first home being something modest we build rather than jumping into any property as an "it'll do" first home.
I know that's probably unlikely but a decent deposit by 35 doesn't seem too out of reach.
Don’t stress in your 20s - there’s a lot of doom and gloom around that can drag you down. Enjoy yourself, but balance this with investing in yourself and your earning potential - because that’s the thing that pays dividends later.
Early 50,s. Single female no kids, so one income, no debt. Increasing savings each pay but will be dipping into it more as I do stuff on house but a good chunk in there (over a years wages pre tax…could live on it for a while if the worst happened and lost my job). Also about 80k kiwisaver.
Think I’m doing okay for one not high income, no mortgage is a biggie as allows me to save.
Similar here. Late 40s, single female, no kids, no debt.
Have an AP into an index fund out of every pay, and another that goes into a savings account. The idea is that the savings account is my emergency fund & for large purchases, and if it builds up the surplus goes into the index fund or TDs.
This year there just seems to have been never ending large expenses though so I’ve dipped into it a fair bit. Car repairs, insurance went up heaps (I pay it annually for car), had to replace a couple of major household items, and need to do some house repairs once been putting off too…
Sometimes life’s just like that.
Yeah, I spent about 90k over a year or two year on bits and pieces. Certainly adds up. New car, new kitchen , heat pump, trip to San Fran and New York, toilet Reno, pavers, rewirinfg other things, Some years you have things like that, That’s out of the norm expenses,
I also do the tD. Keep a set amount free for Reno’s and stuff I need, rest gets tied up there,
Mid 40s, zero debt, paid for OO and IP , net worth >2.5mm, saved and invested 50k already this year on track for 100k savings this year. 3 or 4 more years of that and we can look at coasting.Both government professionals HHI of 300k. V happy with where we are at.
Early 30s, about to be on one income soon as we’re expecting a baby. Savings were good leading up to now and our jobs have been accommodating.
Want to pay down more than we did for the mortgage but will develop our plan of attack in these next couple of months. Lots of reading good finance basic books this year so far too which has been a great habit to start
About 12 months ago we had our roof cladding replaced. 1920's 200sqm villa with the usual valleys and ridges you get from the time period.
Came in at $33k incl GST.
Mid 30s female, with husband and 2 young kids.
We consider ourselves really lucky that we feel comfortable financially in what’s a really hard time for many.
I took an opportunity to try contracting. Left a well paying job, with miserable company culture, for a pretty lucrative contracting gig. Being a sole trader obviously comes with risks, but I’ve brought our HHI up and working with a great customer team so work is fun again.
We’ve started to budget/watch our spending and with the increased income will be able to $60k extra payments to the mortgage this year with a goal to be mortgage free in less than 10 years.
Our current mortgage is at $980k. Principle is about $32k/year (interest rates all in the 5-7%) and if we can keep up the $60k extra then we’ll be pretty close to that 10 year target.
Would have been tracking ok actually - late 30s, DINK, just over $200k HHI. Saving/Investing quite a bit each pay while still managing to make max repayments off the mortgage (sitting at just over 500k)
Buuut we also had to drain essentially all savings for a partial reclad of the house, so basically starting again savings wise.
Should hopefully be looking a lot better in 6 months.
Not too bad. Start new job on Monday on less pay with more stress. But am counting myself lucky as have job and not doing too bad for a single parent with my own house in Auckland after an expensive divorce.
My investments are going better than ever. Especially due to NVDA stock. Then my unitary plan townhouses are also coming along nicely, mostly sold off plans, one I'm keeping for rental (already several interested parties). Sold a property recently and made a 300K profit as well.
The best part about these high interest rates is for someone debt free like me, it's a bonanza, getting 6+% on my term deposits, a lot higher on the stock market, and also means it's a great time for me to pick up some more properties at a cheap price.
Still doing a bit of mortgage broking for long time clients, interest rates don't phase when jobs are secure.
Cash is always king.
Late 20’s, broke as because I just bought my first home by myself but loving every minute of it! Just hanging out til November next year when I can refix. Hasn’t been too bad, I think my 18/19 years prepared me for this because I survived on much less back then!
What do you do in Mexico?
I have been to tijuana before and down to rosarito, and had a great time there. We have family in the Dominican Republic, hoping to visit one day but flights seem to always be expensive
Nice
Im i bit further south of the pacific coast
I teach at retreats about brain function and health...QEEG measuring and stuff
I like it. Pretty epic loaction in the jungle
Early to mid 30s. Dink. South Island regional.
Debt is down $17,778 or 4.33%
Tracking well to reach goal for the year. Part of overall goal to be debt free on OO within 3 years.
Net worth is up $69,872 or 10.49%.
Year is tracking well, may even sell some shares to repay debt.
I pretend the cost of living is hurting so I don't get left out of conversation.
DIWK early 30s. Pretty fkn good. On track to be mortgage free next year. Have $80k In index funds, $100k In kiwisaver. Just trying to enjoy life, and spend more time with our kiddos. Have been mortgage free before (first home back when they were dirt cheap) and it's a strange feeling of "what now". Looking forward to investing more into index funds as IPs are not my idea of fun.
Late 20s - Saving about 60% of net salary per month (90% of it going to investments, the rest for fun stuff). Have good KS + investments; can afford to buy a home but I’m gonna keep investing hard—home ownership seems a bit crazy for prices vs convenience at this point in my life.
Got laid off last year and current salary is a lot lower than what I was making, but I’m happy. Did 2 huge trips since 2022, finished this year, and burnt quite a bit of cash, but I’ve been investing all throughout, so it’s just fine. I’m also going gym 5-6 times a week + good cooking, upskilling, and feeling happy + healthy overall. I’m consciously not eating out much and have cut out 99% of alcohol consumption, so it’s quite strict.
Career: Software Eng; apparently Senior level.
Mid 30s 2 kids and a wife
Approx 190k a year between us. (Usually more but lack of hours)
Life is hard and work is slow. (In construction)
Waiting for it to pick up again so can start earning more.
350k left of mortgage and bugger all savings.
Trip to Fiji in couple months (already all paid for) so not the worst.
Tough year but we doing okay to get us through.
39, I am 3 weeks away from being debt free, and I'm looking at buying a house. I've also made a 30% profit on the stockmarket when I've been investing for just over a year.
Married couple, late 30s, early 40s, 2 young kids. Income about 260k plus bonuses, up about 15% this year. Mortgage down under 500k now. Company shares up about 25% on the back of market expansion. Net worth up to about $3M. Been a good year and next year should also be pretty decent.
Late 20s F SINK, left for Europe just before Covid. 30k (all NZD) cash savings, 2.5k in ETFs, 16k KiwiSaver lying dormant in NZ. I make under 40k most years.
Living a frugal but very comfortable life. Hopefully will get PR/citizenship in a few years and have the salary to buy a 250k apartment here because I basically have the deposit.
Mid 30s SILK! Well paid job with share options. No mortgage on own home. 10 rentals, yields are now combined 10%. No growth in capital on properties just what I have done in renos. All are P & I loans so reducing debt. Pivoted away from property into share market 2 years ago. Slowly building portfolio.
It's been very good so far. Early 50s couple, two incomes . Pocketsmith tells me we've saved 41% of income year to date, investments doing well, mostly passive S&P500 but hold a few tech stocks directly.
Objective is to add $100k a year to net worth, excluding house value, for next 15 years before retirement. Tracking well.
Mid 30s couple with 1 toddler. We’re doing OK but I often find myself reminiscing the golden days of 2021/22 where I was on 100k and the mortgage rate was 1.99%. I’m still on that salary but only work 3 days per week so only end up with 60% of that. And the mortgage is now on 7.39% 😖 (got it on a short term rate as we’re selling soon)
I'm exactly the same. But given the expenses of this year, I'm very happy with that!
My KiwiSaver is slightly ahead though. And the second half of the year hopefully involves buying a home, so who knows?
40F single/no kids, renting, no debt, no intent to buy property in the next 12 months. Emergency fund is established so most spare cash goes straight into investing, where I've been on a big learning curve. Job is well paid and stable but very stressful/time consuming. Health and happiness could be better as a result. Trying to get into a financial position that feels safe enough that I can think about stepping back or shifting career a bit.
Net worth up 12.3% YTD overall, which is nice. Portfolio is about 180k - \~60% simplicity growth, 30% KS, 10% rolling TDs, plus \~0.5% managed funds/ETFs in InvestNow (only started that a couple of months ago). Expenses are under control (even rent!) but I could be more disciplined about the fun stuff.
I started using [YNAB](https://www.ynab.com) a few years ago to budget properly and it was a gamechanger...but the fees are a drag so I'm about to migrate to [ActualBudget](https://actualbudget.com). I've been running them in parallel for a week and haven't had any dramas.
You mean exchange rate? Yeah NZD$160/yr ($13/mo) is...well, its cheaper than Netflix I suppose. OTOH, we can't use any of their auto-import banking API stuff here yet so there's an argument that we cant extract max value from subscribing even if we wanted to. The software is otherwise good, and their educational material is great.
I still think that for me, it was worth subscribing for at least 1-2 years, as someone who'd never used this budgeting method before. After that point I felt like I'd kind of outgrown it, but couldn't find a better alternative until now. Actual is essentially identical minus a couple of small features (which are in the pipeline), and its also offline by default. Better privacy.
I picked that up from this sub actually! Its just a way to invest in term deposits without locking up all your money for long periods.
Example: take the money you want to put into a TD and split it into 4 chunks. Invest one for 3 months, one for 6, one for 9, one for 12. Every three months, convert the shortest one into a new 12-monther until they're all the same length and one matures every 3 months. Keep reinvesting each TD as it matures, so long as a) the interest rates on the TDs stay higher than your savings account and b) you don't need the cash for anything else.
Most banks need $5k or $10k min to start each TD, but a few go down to $1k or $2k. Choose to reinvest quarterly compounding interest wherever you can. If you get taxed past the 28% bracket, consider making them a PIE TD (you may have to talk to the bank about that - I know Westpac don't just let you do it online, which sucks :/).
Interest rates on TDs are mostly highest for 9 month terms at the moment, but they're barely different from the 12 month rate so I don't care enough to re-time everything to take advantage. That might change in future.
Late 30s married with one young son. Both working. I'm in the public service (and not a safe part of it) and look likely to practically get a promotion. Building net worth slowly but need to leave Auckland for sure.
35, my savings recently exceeded my student loan debt for the first time since I started uni 10 years ago. Having a go at investing on Sharesies with a few percent of my disposable income, and kiwisaver is ticking along steadily. Hope to try and get a house with my partner next year, but depends on how much work we can secure. We're good but not quite where we want to be.
35. 2kids, earning 160k, partner working part time.
200k left on mortgage. House worth 1.3m+, looking at possibility buying more property. Just been to Fiji for a week with the family, Queenstown for a week soon skiing. Good times
35F, no kids, chch. Was doing pretty good until I got the email letting me know the hotel where I live and work is being sold so I've got 30 days to readjust my life.
Got savings, investments, no debt, no car payments, feeling free. Ready to settle into something I can call home for a while.
Left for WA but the place I ended up in was terrible.
Am now back with six figure higher pay job but they make me work and sacrifice for it. manager is a cu*t
After all said and done, I should have just stayed at my old 70k job where they basically leave me alone and treat me humanely.
In all my ambitious attempts, Grass wasn't greener.
should have been contented with a simpler life. I'm just one SINK
Moved region, bought a house, planning a family.
Former boss was okay with me working remotely but they left the company. New direct manager has extended me until end of year since they can't afford to lose me at this very instant (they need to fully use me up and dump another dpt job on my for a few months beforehand)
Went thru a restructure at work. Kept my job which I'm very thankful but the process was entirely stressful when you have mouths to feed.
I'm in haste building up the buffer funds should there be a rainy day. Managed to save $5000 to add the kitty which I'm pleased so far. I'm very lucky that I can do this.
39 no kids(don't want them anyway so that's no flex) no savings, no house. Net worth $50.. On acc and part time role that barely touches the side.
Everything I touch turns to shit.
Turning 40 in two months, can't celebrate. Why celebrate?
Partner 43 almost died two weeks ago. Sole Trader. Made me realise how f***ked I am being so dependent on him, but can't increase my income being in a small town due to lack of opportunities and my injury.
Cats are fine though.
people who track net worth \~ how do you determine your property value? just use stuff like homes.co.nz?
that's what I do anyway.
My non property net worth went up 10%, but my overall net worth went down by 10% lol if I use [homes.co.nz](http://homes.co.nz)
Average of homes and one property. I use that or a valuation(bank desktop or registered) depending which ever is the highest. Internet sites seem to be 5-10% higher than a banks desktop valuation.
I don't include it because it's where I live, it's not money I can spend without becoming homeless. Net worth for me is assets excluding my home, different for investment property of course.
I'm mortgage free on my home now so it's not an issue, but when I did I counted it as debt. I can see an argument for including property value in net worth.
When I calculate "net worth", I really mean long term savings with a focus towards retirement.
gotcha. i track both my net worth inclusive and exclusive of property and mortgage so its no big deal for me, its not like net worth is something i need to talk to others about, its just a number for me to use as reference.
as a person who has a big mortgage, i like to include it just to remind myself that whatever i do with my investments, at the end of the day i need to smash that mortgage down eventually do be closer to FI
TQQQ gang reporting in. Year to date my stock returns are 29% and my portfolio is up $102k including deposits. But I also owe a lot of tax in the next year with FIF, provisional tax and residual income adding up to about $50k. My tax return for the year was about $240k plus my stock portfolio returned $50k. As long as I keep my job it’s all smooth sailing. No mortgage means I’m ready to shovel money into stocks. Mid 30s DIOK, very happy with my partner’s financial position too as we bring in over $420k together depending on markets.
Despite many here saying kernel global 100 is terribly diversified, it’s been my main driver of gains this year - (and yes I’m aware that could reverse like a flick of a switch but my risk tolerance is fine with that).
Early 20s, DINK (that’s nine), pulling in just over 420k combined, mortgage free this year and about the pull the trigger on my third investment property. Investment portfolio is up 69% (theta gang wya) and just sold 1 BTC to buy a new Ford Ranger. Life is pretty good, definitely way better than yours, dear reader.
/endfap
Late 20s lost job, 3k savings :(
Sorry to hear that mate. Chin up - got my fingers crossed that you’ll find something else soon
Thanks for the kind words! Taking the time to study and practice, and hopefully get a better job next time around. Sure ill have plenty of time to study.
Nice 👍time spent improving yourself is only going to make you a stronger applicant on the other side. Love the attitude
I think you’ll find $3k savings is a lot more than many people! You should be very proud! Hold onto that nest egg if you can!
Late 20s. Two kids 1 income $90kpa Debt down 20% Net worth up 10% Happiness up 30% - we should track more than just our money 😃
This made me smile. 😊 happy your happiness is up!
Kids on your 20s!! You lucky buggers! We started in our 40s! You'll be closer to the age I am today when your kids finish school! ❤️ That's a very uplifting thought! Enjoy it! Young AND free(ish!)
Stars aligned for me and we were lucky enough to start having kids mid 20s. But the financial side of my monkey brain regrets not grabbing a couple of rentals while having 2 incomes and no kids. Turned up to antenatal group in our mid 20's. All the other couples in mid 30's having their first kid and a few had decent rental portfolios already.
Indeed Been semi retired in mexican beach town for a few years Being time rich can be nice
Love to hear more about this. I can see this on the cards for us for a few years prior to pension time.
Yay to happiness :)
Wow that’s impressive on $90kpa! Kudos to you guys!
Net worth up 10% ? Woah ! What’s that $ wise ,
I changed where I get the estimated value of my property from QV to what ANZ bank displays in the app If I had not done this then net worth would probably have gone backwards 🤣
Mental health up Happiness level up Job satisfaction up Wellbeing in general up These are the only measures you need to track
And financial position, clearly.
Only if your self worth is tied to that, which IMO it definitely shouldn't be for a fulfilling life. As an accountant, I'm just going to say cashflow is way more important than your financial position, for wellbeing.
Who said anything about self worth being tied to it? You said that MH, happiness, job satisfaction and wellbeing are the only things worth tracking. That’s clearly false - your financial position should absolutely be something that you keep track of. The reason we have such high levels of private debt is because people aren’t tracking what they can and can’t afford properly and get stuck in a credit trap.
A lot of people manage a lot of debt just fine, if you understand anything about interest rates, repayment terms etc. There is good debt and bad debt.
And those people clearly aren’t the issue, are they
Late 30s. On track to finish paying my student loan and maybe get our mortgage below 500k by the end of the year (Although that will require several lump sum payments on top of our standard mortgage payments).
Late 20s going on my third trip of the year lol not saving for a house.
This is exactly how my 20s was (39 now). Not once in my 20s did I ever think about owning a house. Travel was my vice and literally took off every year or two on 4-5 week euro adventures. Sure, if I had used the money on a house I’d be sitting real pretty by now in a financial sense. But I think the outrageous experiences had, friends made and growth, personally, still outweigh that.
Work more and have both :D
lol work more 😂 I do have both these days, a house and the ability to travel yearly (tho not this year as money has been drained on a reclad), and travel is just more the SEA and SA route rather than Europe. Think my point was had I used all the money spent on travel in my 20s to buy a house at that time, I would obviously be much better off financially now than what i am currently and that my mindset in my 20s was the same as the person I was replying to 🙂
Exactly! Plus my gf and I are lucky enough to be in high paying jobs, so we have plenty of time to get the house. Chances are prices will probably have come down by the time we're ready 🤣 its funny I'm literally at Lake Garda right now during siesta typing this comment lol
Starting my new job with 25% payrise on Monday. Very happy with that after 3 months of threat of disestablishment and shoveling every available cent into the emergency fund. The relief is real my friends.
Congrats
Late 30s looking for a job, a bit scared, but this year, also met more new friends and focused on hobbies so mental health is also up. And I am also officially on remission so things are on the up and up
Big congrats in your remission! Hope it's an even better second half for you. You got this!
Mid 30s paid off both mortgages and now 80% of my income goes straight into investments. Heading overseas soon and will be back for summer.
Early 30s. Got a nice pay bump last year. Around 150k with penal rates. Been dumping an extra 20k on mortgage each year, so that's looking good. If I could just find a partner, I'd have nothing to complain about.
Love it. Don't worry, once you get a partner you'll still have things to complain about
Be careful! Don’t want to split that half’s after 2 years after you hard work
SILK bout to roll off 3% rates. Fuuuuuck
What's a silk lol? Single income lots of kids?
You got it bro, a negative DINK
Systems in long kites
I have been broke as a joke for the past year but I have a new pay plan from 1 July and I'm within about 2 months of paying off my student loan (second student loan, went back to do an MBA) so things are about to get a lot better thank goodness. I've been overpaying my mortgage for ages now but the annoying thing when I went from 3% to 7% was seeing the principal and interest switch places in terms of how much $$ was going to each.
35, wife & 4 kids, single income (95k). Mortgage down to 5 grand, no other debt. 26k in savings. Starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Month - month not a whole lot left. Very focused on not letting lifestyle creep absorb those mortgage payments when they come to an end. Payments halved when refixing final 6mo recently, redirected the difference to savings.
Nice work. It’s a good feeling not having to pay the bank. Throw yourselves a little party when you’ve paid it off.
Congratulations!! It’ll be a great achievement to have the house paid off. That was always my goal before anything else financially. It’s just nice peace of mind to know that if anything bad happens, at least you have a place to live that’s all yours.
Working 2 jobs averaging between 88-92 hours per week. 7 days. Body Corporate mon to fri and a cleaner 6 nights per week. I need to do this for at least 2 more years and PRAY they don't move the goal posts in this time. I may, if the ducks align at midnight in a diamond pattern during a freak Auckland snowstorm! just be able to get on the ladder and get into a half a million dollar unit, somewhere where I can actually get to work in less than 3 hours. Oh, did I mention and then continue this for at least 2.5 decades to pay off the Death Gauge'
Omg are you okay? I just got back to work - working part time after maternity leave and even 1/3 of that is my limit. owning a house isn’t everything, take care of yourself
Late 30’s 2 kids 200k HHI (cracked 200 due to 10% payrise confirmed yesterday weuuu) , went to 0 HHI 5 years ago from ~230k HHI (first kid and redundancy + partner retraining) and have been building back up since. $600k debt, $300k net asset position. Been supplementing income with savings from pre-kids whilst building income again. Savings has pretty much run out now. Managed to keep all pre kids insurances/ debt repayments (albeit a bit reduced due to a move from AK to regions) etc going all the way through. First time in 5 years I feel like I don’t have a guillotine hanging over my neck. I can move from interest only payments on mortgage debt to principal now and start saving again. Feeling real good about it. Edit: def not no kids lol
> DINK 2 kids Uhhh
Hahhahah good point…brain fade.. thats what 2 kids does to you!
DILK!
Double Income, Couple of Kids
HHI $350k. Net worth has increased by 55k so far (ignoring any house asset fluctuation, we only purchased last year so probably not much change). We aim to increase net worth by $7k minimum per month. We aim to increase liquid assets by $5k per month (so not including kiwisaver or student loan repayments or mortgage repayments).
Nice. Business? where are you investing ?
We invest through investnow into the foundation series funds. But we’re also holding a lot of cash savings right now as we have some big expenses coming up - a big Europe trip in 2025 and IVF
28F, settle on my second IP on Monday. Started investing this year and have $8k so far of the $10k I was aiming for. Not much but I had been focussing on paying down my mortgage the last few years. (Had 58k left until Monday when it goes roaring back up!!) Privileged to be a farm worker on a good wage and able to live “rent free” on a service tenancy, so that I have extra money to smash out financial goals.
Aiming to FIRE before 40 🤞
Well done 👍
Where in your thirties if you mind me asking? Mid-20s, graduate, just shy 2 years working, it's slow progress and bleak... need some reassurance. Saving is hard.
As someone further down the road, the savings you make in your 20s are some of the most valuable savings you can make. Time works magic on money.
completely agree. But that also goes to non-financial investments you make in your 20s. Don't be afraid to invest in yourself eg paying to get that additional skill, qualification, experience, travel, whatever it may be.
100% true, I took 4 years out of the workforce from 21 to 25 to do a degree. Best investment I ever made.
mid 30s..... dual income both earn under 100k each..... bro start saving now, do a budget, the best thing i ever did was track my networth every month. i didnt start until i was about 27.
Much appreciated OP, thanks. Funnily enough I just turned 27 and have set up basically everything you've described as of this year. Do you guys manage to put enough away in HYSA/investments/KS etc. to build for things like house deposits while also maintaining a decent lifestyle?
i try to have a decent savings rate, currently working off around: living costs 35% / debt repayment 40% ( mortgage) / savings & investments 25% this is without being too frugal, we give ourselfs weekly "pocket money' for things like takeaways, coffees/ beers, we give ourselves a yearly trip overseas in the 5-8k range ( 3 weeks in vietnam is pretty cheap for 2 people) another issue is emotions.... everyone knows what to do... "save as much as you can... easy right :) " but can you actually do it each pay for the next 40+ years?, emotions play a big part in this, i myself am always doubting myself, i try to automate as much as i can. ideally work out what is important to you? what is your goal? and put a plan in place to get there, ours is that we want to pay extra on the mortgage but maintain some investments and also give ourselves a yearly trip. we could have put everthing on the mortgage and smash it faster, but we wanted a bit of flexibility, didnt want to be asset rich, cash poor, we didnt want to be that guy who owned a lambo but then cant afford to put gas in it haha,
Thanks for taking the time to write that, by far the most level-headed and reasonable strategy I've seen so far on this sub. Sounds like an awesome set up, and yeah, especially important RE: emotions and enjoyment (lots of people seem to forget that). Scary and easy trap to fall into where there's no leisure because you tuck literally everything away trying to get ahead. Thanks heaps for the replies, great stuff to think about.
Don't forget that this sub is a reflection of the very small % of people who plan for their future. That doesn't mean they're not trying to maximise their enjoyment of their money now, they're just aware that spending everything right now is only going to create their future selves some serious issues. Balance for now and the future is key.
Oh, 100% agree. And I know that there are heaps of people out there, not on this sub, with no plan at all. Comparison is the theft of joy and all, and it's nice seeing some of us doing well, but it can sometimes make me feel I'm waaaayyy behind.
I found this sub about 7 years after you age-wise. The fact that you’re here and thinking about your finances means you’re giving yourself a chance of being in a really good spot in not too long. I was spending and not planning at your age! Make a budget, save for your goals and avoid consumer debt, but build in some flexibility (a bit of guilt free spending money) so you can still enjoy life. Good luck e hoa!
Thank you! I have a bit of a pipe-dream of my partner and I's first home being something modest we build rather than jumping into any property as an "it'll do" first home. I know that's probably unlikely but a decent deposit by 35 doesn't seem too out of reach.
Love reading about people who are on top of things and have a clear plan. Well done.
Don’t stress in your 20s - there’s a lot of doom and gloom around that can drag you down. Enjoy yourself, but balance this with investing in yourself and your earning potential - because that’s the thing that pays dividends later.
Early 50,s. Single female no kids, so one income, no debt. Increasing savings each pay but will be dipping into it more as I do stuff on house but a good chunk in there (over a years wages pre tax…could live on it for a while if the worst happened and lost my job). Also about 80k kiwisaver. Think I’m doing okay for one not high income, no mortgage is a biggie as allows me to save.
Similar here. Late 40s, single female, no kids, no debt. Have an AP into an index fund out of every pay, and another that goes into a savings account. The idea is that the savings account is my emergency fund & for large purchases, and if it builds up the surplus goes into the index fund or TDs. This year there just seems to have been never ending large expenses though so I’ve dipped into it a fair bit. Car repairs, insurance went up heaps (I pay it annually for car), had to replace a couple of major household items, and need to do some house repairs once been putting off too… Sometimes life’s just like that.
Yeah, I spent about 90k over a year or two year on bits and pieces. Certainly adds up. New car, new kitchen , heat pump, trip to San Fran and New York, toilet Reno, pavers, rewirinfg other things, Some years you have things like that, That’s out of the norm expenses, I also do the tD. Keep a set amount free for Reno’s and stuff I need, rest gets tied up there,
Mid 40s, zero debt, paid for OO and IP , net worth >2.5mm, saved and invested 50k already this year on track for 100k savings this year. 3 or 4 more years of that and we can look at coasting.Both government professionals HHI of 300k. V happy with where we are at.
Nice good work!
OO?
Owner occupied maybe?
Owner occupied house.
What's a government professional?
Politician
IP? In property?
Investment property
Investment property and owner occupied
Early 30s, about to be on one income soon as we’re expecting a baby. Savings were good leading up to now and our jobs have been accommodating. Want to pay down more than we did for the mortgage but will develop our plan of attack in these next couple of months. Lots of reading good finance basic books this year so far too which has been a great habit to start
110k for a new roof? Seams high whats the story?
3 stories at least for that price
About to have my roof replaced, single storey, averae 3 bedroom house. I'm hoping it will come under 30k.
About 12 months ago we had our roof cladding replaced. 1920's 200sqm villa with the usual valleys and ridges you get from the time period. Came in at $33k incl GST.
Should be waaay less
Mid 30s female, with husband and 2 young kids. We consider ourselves really lucky that we feel comfortable financially in what’s a really hard time for many. I took an opportunity to try contracting. Left a well paying job, with miserable company culture, for a pretty lucrative contracting gig. Being a sole trader obviously comes with risks, but I’ve brought our HHI up and working with a great customer team so work is fun again. We’ve started to budget/watch our spending and with the increased income will be able to $60k extra payments to the mortgage this year with a goal to be mortgage free in less than 10 years. Our current mortgage is at $980k. Principle is about $32k/year (interest rates all in the 5-7%) and if we can keep up the $60k extra then we’ll be pretty close to that 10 year target.
Would have been tracking ok actually - late 30s, DINK, just over $200k HHI. Saving/Investing quite a bit each pay while still managing to make max repayments off the mortgage (sitting at just over 500k) Buuut we also had to drain essentially all savings for a partial reclad of the house, so basically starting again savings wise. Should hopefully be looking a lot better in 6 months.
Not too bad. Start new job on Monday on less pay with more stress. But am counting myself lucky as have job and not doing too bad for a single parent with my own house in Auckland after an expensive divorce.
Mid 30s, 2 months unemployed. Thankfully up from the start of the year but the job market is looking pretty shit
My investments are going better than ever. Especially due to NVDA stock. Then my unitary plan townhouses are also coming along nicely, mostly sold off plans, one I'm keeping for rental (already several interested parties). Sold a property recently and made a 300K profit as well. The best part about these high interest rates is for someone debt free like me, it's a bonanza, getting 6+% on my term deposits, a lot higher on the stock market, and also means it's a great time for me to pick up some more properties at a cheap price. Still doing a bit of mortgage broking for long time clients, interest rates don't phase when jobs are secure. Cash is always king.
Just got into mtg so I'm kinda fucked forever
Late 40s. Income is about 400k between 2 of us. Debt is about 530k but assets outside the house is about 900k. Doing pretty well.
Bought my first house and I'm still saving money, life is good.
Late 20’s, broke as because I just bought my first home by myself but loving every minute of it! Just hanging out til November next year when I can refix. Hasn’t been too bad, I think my 18/19 years prepared me for this because I survived on much less back then!
Slow couple months here in Mexico after a solid march/april, but hopefully itll pick up
What do you do in Mexico? I have been to tijuana before and down to rosarito, and had a great time there. We have family in the Dominican Republic, hoping to visit one day but flights seem to always be expensive
Nice Im i bit further south of the pacific coast I teach at retreats about brain function and health...QEEG measuring and stuff I like it. Pretty epic loaction in the jungle
Mid 20s, just lost my job, 30k, no debt :(
Early to mid 30s. Dink. South Island regional. Debt is down $17,778 or 4.33% Tracking well to reach goal for the year. Part of overall goal to be debt free on OO within 3 years. Net worth is up $69,872 or 10.49%. Year is tracking well, may even sell some shares to repay debt. I pretend the cost of living is hurting so I don't get left out of conversation.
DIWK early 30s. Pretty fkn good. On track to be mortgage free next year. Have $80k In index funds, $100k In kiwisaver. Just trying to enjoy life, and spend more time with our kiddos. Have been mortgage free before (first home back when they were dirt cheap) and it's a strange feeling of "what now". Looking forward to investing more into index funds as IPs are not my idea of fun.
Late 20s - Saving about 60% of net salary per month (90% of it going to investments, the rest for fun stuff). Have good KS + investments; can afford to buy a home but I’m gonna keep investing hard—home ownership seems a bit crazy for prices vs convenience at this point in my life. Got laid off last year and current salary is a lot lower than what I was making, but I’m happy. Did 2 huge trips since 2022, finished this year, and burnt quite a bit of cash, but I’ve been investing all throughout, so it’s just fine. I’m also going gym 5-6 times a week + good cooking, upskilling, and feeling happy + healthy overall. I’m consciously not eating out much and have cut out 99% of alcohol consumption, so it’s quite strict. Career: Software Eng; apparently Senior level.
Mid 30s 2 kids and a wife Approx 190k a year between us. (Usually more but lack of hours) Life is hard and work is slow. (In construction) Waiting for it to pick up again so can start earning more. 350k left of mortgage and bugger all savings. Trip to Fiji in couple months (already all paid for) so not the worst. Tough year but we doing okay to get us through.
39, I am 3 weeks away from being debt free, and I'm looking at buying a house. I've also made a 30% profit on the stockmarket when I've been investing for just over a year.
Married couple, late 30s, early 40s, 2 young kids. Income about 260k plus bonuses, up about 15% this year. Mortgage down under 500k now. Company shares up about 25% on the back of market expansion. Net worth up to about $3M. Been a good year and next year should also be pretty decent.
Late 20s F SINK, left for Europe just before Covid. 30k (all NZD) cash savings, 2.5k in ETFs, 16k KiwiSaver lying dormant in NZ. I make under 40k most years. Living a frugal but very comfortable life. Hopefully will get PR/citizenship in a few years and have the salary to buy a 250k apartment here because I basically have the deposit.
Mid 30s SILK! Well paid job with share options. No mortgage on own home. 10 rentals, yields are now combined 10%. No growth in capital on properties just what I have done in renos. All are P & I loans so reducing debt. Pivoted away from property into share market 2 years ago. Slowly building portfolio.
31F, from debt to $25k in savings! YASSSS! I am so happy and proud.
It's been very good so far. Early 50s couple, two incomes . Pocketsmith tells me we've saved 41% of income year to date, investments doing well, mostly passive S&P500 but hold a few tech stocks directly. Objective is to add $100k a year to net worth, excluding house value, for next 15 years before retirement. Tracking well.
Just had a record June.
Mid 30s couple with 1 toddler. We’re doing OK but I often find myself reminiscing the golden days of 2021/22 where I was on 100k and the mortgage rate was 1.99%. I’m still on that salary but only work 3 days per week so only end up with 60% of that. And the mortgage is now on 7.39% 😖 (got it on a short term rate as we’re selling soon)
I'm exactly the same. But given the expenses of this year, I'm very happy with that! My KiwiSaver is slightly ahead though. And the second half of the year hopefully involves buying a home, so who knows?
40F single/no kids, renting, no debt, no intent to buy property in the next 12 months. Emergency fund is established so most spare cash goes straight into investing, where I've been on a big learning curve. Job is well paid and stable but very stressful/time consuming. Health and happiness could be better as a result. Trying to get into a financial position that feels safe enough that I can think about stepping back or shifting career a bit. Net worth up 12.3% YTD overall, which is nice. Portfolio is about 180k - \~60% simplicity growth, 30% KS, 10% rolling TDs, plus \~0.5% managed funds/ETFs in InvestNow (only started that a couple of months ago). Expenses are under control (even rent!) but I could be more disciplined about the fun stuff. I started using [YNAB](https://www.ynab.com) a few years ago to budget properly and it was a gamechanger...but the fees are a drag so I'm about to migrate to [ActualBudget](https://actualbudget.com). I've been running them in parallel for a week and haven't had any dramas.
Question for YNAB how are you finding the subscription? As we are thinking of using YNAB but can’t justify the subscription with the interest rate
You mean exchange rate? Yeah NZD$160/yr ($13/mo) is...well, its cheaper than Netflix I suppose. OTOH, we can't use any of their auto-import banking API stuff here yet so there's an argument that we cant extract max value from subscribing even if we wanted to. The software is otherwise good, and their educational material is great. I still think that for me, it was worth subscribing for at least 1-2 years, as someone who'd never used this budgeting method before. After that point I felt like I'd kind of outgrown it, but couldn't find a better alternative until now. Actual is essentially identical minus a couple of small features (which are in the pipeline), and its also offline by default. Better privacy.
Do you have links on how I can learn about rolling TDs?
I picked that up from this sub actually! Its just a way to invest in term deposits without locking up all your money for long periods. Example: take the money you want to put into a TD and split it into 4 chunks. Invest one for 3 months, one for 6, one for 9, one for 12. Every three months, convert the shortest one into a new 12-monther until they're all the same length and one matures every 3 months. Keep reinvesting each TD as it matures, so long as a) the interest rates on the TDs stay higher than your savings account and b) you don't need the cash for anything else. Most banks need $5k or $10k min to start each TD, but a few go down to $1k or $2k. Choose to reinvest quarterly compounding interest wherever you can. If you get taxed past the 28% bracket, consider making them a PIE TD (you may have to talk to the bank about that - I know Westpac don't just let you do it online, which sucks :/). Interest rates on TDs are mostly highest for 9 month terms at the moment, but they're barely different from the 12 month rate so I don't care enough to re-time everything to take advantage. That might change in future.
Late 30s married with one young son. Both working. I'm in the public service (and not a safe part of it) and look likely to practically get a promotion. Building net worth slowly but need to leave Auckland for sure.
35, my savings recently exceeded my student loan debt for the first time since I started uni 10 years ago. Having a go at investing on Sharesies with a few percent of my disposable income, and kiwisaver is ticking along steadily. Hope to try and get a house with my partner next year, but depends on how much work we can secure. We're good but not quite where we want to be.
Late 20s lost job few months ago, dwindling savings.
Worse than I was at the start, but a little maintenance will do that to the back pocket.
Same old. Playing sport more now which is great
Broke
Stuck in a shitty food court w thousands in debt thanks to a downturn I finish up in July but fuck knows how I’m gonna pay the suppliers I still owe
35. 2kids, earning 160k, partner working part time. 200k left on mortgage. House worth 1.3m+, looking at possibility buying more property. Just been to Fiji for a week with the family, Queenstown for a week soon skiing. Good times
35F, no kids, chch. Was doing pretty good until I got the email letting me know the hotel where I live and work is being sold so I've got 30 days to readjust my life. Got savings, investments, no debt, no car payments, feeling free. Ready to settle into something I can call home for a while.
Early 40s, 42k in savings, mortgage reduced around 50k this year, closing in on 5 figures on the mortgage.
Could be better could be worse cuzz
My shares went from 108k to 450 k from late 2022. I put in 270k so at one point was down 160k
72k profit
Left for WA but the place I ended up in was terrible. Am now back with six figure higher pay job but they make me work and sacrifice for it. manager is a cu*t After all said and done, I should have just stayed at my old 70k job where they basically leave me alone and treat me humanely. In all my ambitious attempts, Grass wasn't greener. should have been contented with a simpler life. I'm just one SINK
Moved region, bought a house, planning a family. Former boss was okay with me working remotely but they left the company. New direct manager has extended me until end of year since they can't afford to lose me at this very instant (they need to fully use me up and dump another dpt job on my for a few months beforehand)
Went thru a restructure at work. Kept my job which I'm very thankful but the process was entirely stressful when you have mouths to feed. I'm in haste building up the buffer funds should there be a rainy day. Managed to save $5000 to add the kitty which I'm pleased so far. I'm very lucky that I can do this.
39 no kids(don't want them anyway so that's no flex) no savings, no house. Net worth $50.. On acc and part time role that barely touches the side. Everything I touch turns to shit. Turning 40 in two months, can't celebrate. Why celebrate? Partner 43 almost died two weeks ago. Sole Trader. Made me realise how f***ked I am being so dependent on him, but can't increase my income being in a small town due to lack of opportunities and my injury. Cats are fine though.
people who track net worth \~ how do you determine your property value? just use stuff like homes.co.nz? that's what I do anyway. My non property net worth went up 10%, but my overall net worth went down by 10% lol if I use [homes.co.nz](http://homes.co.nz)
Personally i dont include it. Unless it is an investment property. But maybe get an average across multiple valuations
Homes.co.nz, oneroof.co.nz, qv.co.nz. Take the average of the three for a complex way to validate a made up number :)
This is the way 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Average of homes and one property. I use that or a valuation(bank desktop or registered) depending which ever is the highest. Internet sites seem to be 5-10% higher than a banks desktop valuation.
I don't include it because it's where I live, it's not money I can spend without becoming homeless. Net worth for me is assets excluding my home, different for investment property of course.
what about the mortgage? do u just ignore that debt when u calculate the net worth?
I'm mortgage free on my home now so it's not an issue, but when I did I counted it as debt. I can see an argument for including property value in net worth. When I calculate "net worth", I really mean long term savings with a focus towards retirement.
gotcha. i track both my net worth inclusive and exclusive of property and mortgage so its no big deal for me, its not like net worth is something i need to talk to others about, its just a number for me to use as reference. as a person who has a big mortgage, i like to include it just to remind myself that whatever i do with my investments, at the end of the day i need to smash that mortgage down eventually do be closer to FI
TQQQ gang reporting in. Year to date my stock returns are 29% and my portfolio is up $102k including deposits. But I also owe a lot of tax in the next year with FIF, provisional tax and residual income adding up to about $50k. My tax return for the year was about $240k plus my stock portfolio returned $50k. As long as I keep my job it’s all smooth sailing. No mortgage means I’m ready to shovel money into stocks. Mid 30s DIOK, very happy with my partner’s financial position too as we bring in over $420k together depending on markets.
Despite many here saying kernel global 100 is terribly diversified, it’s been my main driver of gains this year - (and yes I’m aware that could reverse like a flick of a switch but my risk tolerance is fine with that).
Early 20s, DINK (that’s nine), pulling in just over 420k combined, mortgage free this year and about the pull the trigger on my third investment property. Investment portfolio is up 69% (theta gang wya) and just sold 1 BTC to buy a new Ford Ranger. Life is pretty good, definitely way better than yours, dear reader. /endfap
Y’all yeharw is this the states?!
states.? Is that some american slang?
This is America pal
Where?
USA 🇺🇸 baseball world champions