SAVINGS: The Key to Investing | Passive Income NZ (2024)

I think there is a real difference between being cheap and being frugal. The difference might be small, but it’s there. I don’t mind being called frugal- but I wouldn’t say I like being called cheap. And believe me- I have been called cheap many times. “You can afford it, don’t be so cheap- live a little- just put it…

At the beginning of each year, a lot of people make resolutions. You might think it’s silly, but there is some basis for it. Even though it is just the start of another year, the New Year is a way to trick our brains. It’s an anchor in time. Anchoring is a cognitive bias where you depend too heavily on…

So let’s imagine its 12 am on a weekday. You’ve got work tomorrow and your still awake on the couch, staring bleary-eyed at the TV. Why? You don’t really know why. Well, it’s Inertia. Inertia simply makes it easier for you to stay sitting there and keep watching rather than getting up and go to bed. So, you keep watching….

I want you to do a quick exercise. I want you to work out how much money you have earnt for your entire life. Adding your income for the last year, back to what you earned when you were 14 years old. Add it all together. (You can log onto IRD to get a summary of earnings for the last…

When we talk about spending money it’s usually in absolutes. There’s good spending and bad spending. Spending money that you have budgeted for on healthy food is good and spending money on daily coffee is bad. Impulsive purchasing of consumer items and clothing is going to kill you in your sleep. That’s bad spending. But is it really this simple…

Are Bonus bonds better than buying Lotto tickets? Probably… In a previous post, I tried to visualise the odds of winning the Lotto’s Powerball– and how it doesn’t really make sense to buy lotto tickets at all. The odds are so small that almost anything is more likely to happen than you winning Lotto. And yet- I still purchase the…

I buy lotto tickets- there, I said it. Not all the time, just occasionally. I usually buy them when the jackpot gets really high- like the recent $32 million Powerball- for some reason, I have convinced myself to only buy tickets once the Powerball jackpot goes beyond $20 million. Because you know- anything below 20 million just isn’t worth my…

Generally us humans don’t like intimidating things, and we don’t like things that give us a different answer than we are looking for. It’s typical for us to ignore these things completely. It’s kind of like that for money. If you really look at your finances for the first time it might be intimidating. You might find that you really…

It takes time to get your personal finances sorted. And often you don’t know where to start. And the thing is that no one can really show you how you should sort your personal finance, after all, personal finance is exactly that- Personal. However, there are several key stages in personal finance that you do need to get sorted. These…

Electric bikes are all the rage today- In fact, anything electric. Scooters, bikes, cars- There is a lot of hype around all of them. But should you buy one? Electric bikes make riding a bike effortless, at any speed, almost up any hill. You don’t even need to be an athlete to get all the glorious benefits of cycling. And…

Everyone might find themselves with a lot of time on their hands currently. So why not spend some time learning. I love learning. I’m a life-long learner. Ever since I can remember, I loved learning about things and ideas. I continued to learn as I grew. I went to university and then post-graduate degree, followed on with a 4-year registrar…

If you’re like me, then you have a dream to become financially independent- it’s an admirable goal. But why do so few people actually become financially independent in New Zealand? Financial independence doesn’t happen overnight- and that’s where the problem lies. It takes a detailed plan and years of willingness to commit to the plan before you financially become financially…

Recently I came across several posts and YouTube videos talking about the no spending challenge- and how you can use them to save money. They ranged from not spending money on certain days of the week or trying to not spend anything for 30 days. So what is the No Spend Challenge? The idea is that if you’ve been struggling…

It’s common to hear about the net worth of billionaires and famous people. Forbes calculates a list of the richest people in the world every year. Take the top 5 in 2019’s list; Jeff Bezos– $113.0 billion Bill Gates– $107.1 billion Bernard Arnault– $106.6 billion Warren Buffet -$86.9 billion Mark Zuckerberg– $74.9 billion Those 5 people nearly have $500 billion…

Do you like to travel? We tend to travel abroad every few years to experience new cultures and visit amazing natural wonders. And I normally travel to Australia to attend conferences or training courses every year. I know, travel is counterproductive towards our goal of becoming financially independent. You might say that travel is our spending vice. Even though spending…

In the last few weeks, I’ve read a few posts about how much you should spend on a car. Specifically- the question goes like this- how much should I spend on a car given that my net-worth is x. Personally- I think this is an illogical question, more about that later Optimise your Car, Optimise your Life Lets go back…

One of the cornerstones of managing money is to focus on the big three. The three areas in your life that you spend the most money on. They are housing, transport, and food. If you optimise these three aspects you of your life, you can really speed up your journey towards financial independence. Note I deliberately didn’t say you need…

Whether or not you should go to university is a big question to ask of someone when they are 17 or 18 years of age. And I don’t think anyone can answer this question for you. It’s a personal decision. In recent years, the problem is that the price of university or higher education has been increasing year on year-…

In an earlier post, I talked about the difference between income and wealth. I claimed that an average person can retire early if they want to. Now I want to elaborate on that point I was trying to make. The point being, you don’t have to have a high salary to create wealth. In fact, you can earn an average…

If you don’t have debt, you need to recognize that you one of the fortunate few. Our whole society relies on fast credit and “buy now, pay later” loans to operate. It seems normal for everyone to be in some sort of debt. And once people stop taking on debt, often economies can be plunged into recession due to less…