Genuinly trying to understand the reasoning behind this. Businesses might make a ton of revenue but they get to make sure their bills and expenses are all paid for before they get taxed on what’s leftover. We make much smaller scale revenue personally and require a large portion/majority of that to pay for necessities yet we are taxed straight off the bat and then have to scramble and make do to with the after tax amount to hope it covers our necessities.

What’s the financial logic behind this?

It feels a bit backwards when people work, they pay quite high tax, then they can’t make ends meet and then might have to seek additional support from the govt in forms of emergency housing or accommodation supplement etc. child support is calculated to allow for a certain amount of your income to be expected to be spent on necessities and then worked out an amount to contribute to the other parent. How come similar logic isn’t applied that a standard amount of money is expected to go towards essential living costs and then we are taxed.

Essentially saying why isn’t the first tax bracket set at $50k (or whatever the current average costs of essential costs are) and then we are taxed?

Any financial advisors or similar that can educate me? I feel like I’m missing something very obvious, I’m all for encouraging businesses and obviously we need businesses to stay afloat to keep jobs around, but why is it set up so easily for businesses to keep so many profits and write off expenses. Feels a bit off.

A few years ago I thought reaching my current salary would feel like a major milestone. Instead it feels like every increase gets absorbed by rent groceries insurance and everything else. I'm still saving and investing but progress feels slower than expected. Maybe this is just normal adult life in NZ now but I'm curious whether others feel the same way or if I'm missing something obvious.

Hi NZ finance,

For the first time in my life I have an okay income (~72kpa). I'm in smallish city, medium cost of living area. I work 2 days a week at one place and 3 at another place. Secondary job tax is a bitch but I'm still earning more than I've ever earned in my life and, as in title, I don't have dependents or assets - it's just me.

My bills are non-negotiable - rent, doctor, gym membership

Maxed out KiwiSaver and student loan payments from weekly income.

Some money to savings

Then I have $200 left over for all groceries and discretionary spending. It's not enough. I find myself reaching into my savings almost every week to pay for some extra thing. What if I need new shoes, or need to fill up my car or I want to take my mother out to dinner or something fairly ordinary happens that costs a little extra? I haven't built up my savings nearly as fast as I thought, right now I only have a couple grand if things go south.

Advice wanted: how do you make it work? Is there an expense I'm missing? Am I deluded and this is actually a crappy income, maybe I need to change my mindset and get mega thrifty?

Context:

I've had many years of financial insecurity and I thought that full time work would allow a LITTLE more comfort, like enough to afford takeaways once a fortnight or buy myself new clothes, but every week I find myself tightening the belt more and it's getting exhausting. What gives?

Edit for context: I rent with 4 other flatmates, it's extremely cheap at $160p/w and I pay for it with mould, damp and noise.

I'm a single female 30 and need to get some savings for a house deposit. I really want to focus on it in the next 12 months. What are your best savings tips?

My partner and I are getting close to having enough for a deposit and we've been looking at properties around Christchurch. The strange thing is that now that we're actually close, we're feeling less confident than before. Prices, rates, insurance, maintenance costs... everything seems harder to predict than it did when we started saving. We don't expect perfect timing, but we also don't want to rush into something we'll regret. Did anyone recently buy their first place? How did you know it was the right time?

29M earning 82k annual Single

Been saving 2.3k -2.5k month

Biggest monthly expenses are

Rent: 31% (Studio in CBD)

Grocery and dining out: 8%

Transport: 3% (Mostly public with occasional uber no personal car)

Utility, Phone and wifi: $250 per month.

Gym $50 per month.

I have been worried sick because of AI and the idea of maybe not having a job next year or the one after that. I work in tech sector so was trying to save as much as possible before the inevitable.

Will be switching from a fixed term rent contract to rolling this month to reduce risk exposure.

Any comment or advice on how I'm doing so far?

With the failed referendum the share price for Canasouth and other marijuana companies are in a bit of a slump. Would people recommend investing? I figure it is only a matter of time before nz joins the rest of the progressive world.

I'm with milford aggressive for the last 3 yrs, returns have been about +7% ARR, they have gone done hill i heard from losing good staff. They fee is too high to justify that return, I've beaten that with my own portfolio.

Who are people with from the sharesies providers? Strictly on Sharesies app as i need to show family etc on it and this is easier to digest for them

Hi all.

47/M.

I'm stuck in a spot and don't know what to do.

Having 0 luck finding work, I had a part time role that lasted only 3 months as the war in the middle east ended that job overnight unfortunately prior to that in 2 years not even a single interview regardless of what I did it just feels helpless.

Currently have a mortgage which is covered as I have my elderly father staying with me who helps contribute to paying it but he's 78 so unsure how much time he has left.

The constant rate rises and power, water etc rises is making me want to sell my house and buy a van a good one and live in that, I'm finding home ownership for me isn't worth it as I can't stand people so I could never have a flatmate also my dog isn't good with people he doesn't know. I'd also never, ever rent.

I would pocket about 350k or so after selling the house and would bank most, invest some and also buy the van.

The more I think about living in it it makes so much sense I save all that money on home repairs, rates, power, water, internet, insurance all which easily are more expensive then a van ownership.

Any thoughts to my idea I just can't see another way out.

My meta position has grown to 1/8th of my portfolio! Great stock and I do like it for the long term but I can help but think that it is running on a bit of hype atm, should I trim, up 32% on a mega cap? If so, how much?
Thanks

I see it as a way to add enough tax for an EOY payment. I'm guessing it sits against my IRD number for that particular EOY tax payment if I add in the date?

Hi there, I'd consider myself pretty financially illiterate, as you will come to see in my below post.

Essentially I got caught out early last year with some car issues. I got super overwhelmed in the process of hunting for a suitable replacement / influenced by a great dealer and ended up financing. My contract was a 36 month loan, fixed at 9.83%

Initially I paid 33% down-payment and currently 17 months in (19 months to go.)

I'm in a position now where I'd like to smash out extra payments and potentially wipe the loan before the 36 month term length. What I dont understand is regulation 9 of the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Regulation act.

'Calculation of reasonable estimate of creditor’s loss if interest rate fixed for whole term'

The formulas and math's in this clause goes far beyond my understanding and math abilities.

So essentially I'm here to ask, to anyone whom has encountered these type of loans. Is it set up in a way where it is benifical to pay it off early - or do the undisclosed fees and 'creditors loss' end up bringing this balance to essentially what is specified in the original contract terms of 36 months. At 9.83% im looking at it now as an expensive lesson in finance, where my savings are only returning 1-2%.

I appreciate any advice you can offer,

I have funds from a previous house sale following a separation and I'm torn on what to do. Should I sink nearly all of it into the best house I can afford, or lower my expectations, buy something $150k cheaper, and invest the rest in shares so I have freedom for travel and hobbies?

​My goal is to remain mortgage-free, so I'll be strictly cash-buying within budget. My kids are grown and independent, so I’m thinking of getting a flatmate to cover bills, maintenance, and rates, while my job covers everything else. Any advice on this is appreciated.

Santana minerals is making their final decisions on their next big gold project early 2027, would I be stupid to wait til the decision is made or should I get in now?

I am paying $900 per fortnight towards my mortgage. I'm reducing the outstanding amount by about $1000 per month ($12000 a year). My balance is about $200,000. Should I be expecting better than this?

I thought my mortgage was set up that I would pay it off faster and I have increased my fortnightly payments substantially.

I'm not well versed with finances but I thought some smart people here would know more.

I’m looking for opinions for what someone would do in my situation? I want to make my money work for me the best I can but I’m really only experienced in one area, property.

We, m28 and f27, no dependants. We are planing to move over to Aus very soon, next handful of months, and we have a good amount of funds in the bank which we are unsure where would be best to use it. We still will be working in Aus; approx income will be combined 200k.
We have no need for the money any time soon, we are happy to invest this money and forget about it.

Our financials are as follows..
- 3 investment properties, 1.2m with 660k of debt.
-80k in shares, majority just on efts, most being voo
-400k cash in bank account
-no debts other than investment properties

We have not long sold our owner occupied to move overseas, and had originally planned to buy another investment property with this, but I do want to consider other options..

Thanks in advanced

Hey all, I built a calculator over the past year to solve a problem I kept running into myself: how much should you actually put in revolving credit vs fixed when structuring your mortgage?
Most calculators don't touch this, or just give generic advice. This one runs the actual numbers for your situation (loan size, income, rates, etc) and works out the revolving credit amount that minimises total interest, compared against keeping everything fixed.

Some things worth knowing:

It only really works if you can actually stick to a budget and won't let the revolving portion blow out. If that's not you, a straightforward fixed loan probably suits better

It's free to use

Doesn't save or collect any of your info, unless you choose to connect with a mortgage adviser through the site: that's also how the website stays running (referral fee), wanted to be upfront about that

Link: https://revnovate.co.nz/

Not a financial adviser myself, i just got frustrated not being able to find this calculation anywhere and built it myself. Happy to answer questions on how it works or take feedback if something looks off.

I've built up roughly six months of expenses in a savings account and it feels good knowing it's there. The problem is that every time I look at the balance, I wonder whether I'm being too conservative. The money is earning something, but nowhere near what it could potentially do elsewhere. At the same time, I remember how hard it was to save it in the first place. How do you decide when your emergency fund is big enough?

Are there anyone still alive? What type of discussion you want to see more here? Write comments, and read them & approve/remove. I am planning to turn off restriction soon, I think

Hi.

I’m interested in investing in index funds for the long term. Of course the best ones are in the US, VTSAX specifically. Looks like I would be able to invest in something very close to this through Hatch.

From what I’ve read, Hatch takes care of tax in the US.

However a couple of pitfalls seem to be obvious to me.

The first being the limited amount of liability cover, with your Hatch account being insured only up to $500,000.

The second being estate tax. As NZ has no estate tax agreement with the US tax would be 40%. Yikes!

Has anyone looked into this further? And other ideas about a long term index fund investment?

Thanks very much.

Personally, I’m against it. I feel it’s the first step towards fully digital currency and removal of (physical) asset backed currency.

Moreover, the proposal states clearly that it is 1:1 dollar backed with NZD (eg if you have $50 stable coin, this is backed by $50 real dollars in a bank account - which is fine) HOWEVER, no returns are for the account holder/consumer, yet the issuer (eg bank) are allowed to pocket all returns - as if the banks don’t already have massively deep pockets and the end of their financial years, now they could be getting an extra little something something for nothing. That doesn’t sit right with me at all.

Additionally to the above, which is summarised to my biggest gripe, the FMA are proposing that this financial product (debt security) be removed from the financial product regime although.

Something seems off and I’m very surprised this is being proposed from a regulator in this format.

Keen to hear others thoughts on the matter...

Consultation paper FMI -
https://www.fma.govt.nz/business/focus-areas/consultation/consultation-proposed-class-designation-for-nzd-referenced-and-backed-stablecoins/

When researching I'm getting mixed information.

Any experience with non-NZ based global ETF funds (Acc type) that can be used for the 50k NZD FIF exemption? Any ETFs and NZ broker suggestions?

I recently got a pay rise and for the first time in a while I have a bit of breathing room in my monthly budget. My mortgage is manageable, but not small, and I already contribute enough to KiwiSaver to get the employer contribution. Part of me thinks every extra dollar should go toward the mortgage, especially with how much interest adds up over time. The other part thinks I should focus on long-term investing and leave the mortgage alone. Curious what others in NZ would do in this situation?

My partner and I have bought some land in the wairarapa, it is bare land and rural, the survayers and the vendors lawyer have submitted the paper to the council for 224 before it goes to the LIM. The 224 process is meant to be fairly short however we don't have any information about the LIM process. Is anyone that's been through this know anything about how long the LIM folks take?

Thank you