94. Continuous Improvement

94. Continuous Improvement

Author: Ruth - Personal Finance Blogger August 14, 2024 Duration: 49:40
Ruby stumbled across The Happy Saver in October of 2022, prompting her to email me with a couple of questions. She’d recently signed up with Sharesies and was testing the waters by investing $20 a week, and had a few questions about where to start. Plus, she had a question about her KiwiSaver. While at home with two young tamariki, she had just realised that even when she was not in the paid workforce, she could voluntarily contribute money into her account, which she immediately started doing. Taking a moment to think about investing made her start digging around for more information about her money. From then on, her thirst for financial literacy grew, and she began to search for information that could teach her to be better with her pūtea. A year went by, and I heard from her again. She went into more detail, which led to me asking her to be on my podcast today. She is now 34, and her husband Tim is 38. They live in rural Canterbury with their two preschool children. I think their journey is typical of a lot of Kiwis, and what I particularly like is that they continue to adjust their financial course as new information comes to light.

Money conversations can feel awkward, but they don't have to be. On The Happy Saver Podcast-Personal Finance in New Zealand, host Ruth brings her perspective as a longtime personal finance blogger to break down that barrier. Each episode is built around real stories from everyday Kiwis, exploring the nuanced and often personal relationship people have with their finances. You'll hear frank discussions about how money influences life choices, for better or worse. The focus is on practical, grounded experiences within the New Zealand context-where people save, how they invest, and whether those strategies actually pan out over time. Ruth guides conversations that delve into both financial victories and those moments that feel like train wrecks, always with an eye toward learning. The underlying question is how to design a life rich in experience without spending a fortune to get there. This isn't about theoretical jargon; it's about the applied reality of making dollars and sense work together in Aotearoa. By listening to this podcast, you gain a collective wisdom from a community navigating the same economic landscape, from everyday budgeting to long-term investing goals. Ruth facilitates a space where money is simply a tool to be understood and mastered, one honest story at a time.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 100

The Happy Saver Podcast - Personal Finance in New Zealand
Podcast Episodes
44. Please can I buy a boat? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:21
When a former multisport athlete turns the same motivation, hard work and attention to detail that they used for their sport to their personal finances, great things can happen. Chris and his wife Megan were tired of it…
43. Help yourself first so you can then help others [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:28
There were many points during Ella’s 40 plus years that her gut instinct told her to make a few changes to the way her family handled money. Many of us can relate to this. 2020 has been a huge time of change with her rea…
42. Coming a long way in a short space of time. [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:45
In this final podcast of this series, I’m doing a recap of two people that I’ve spoken with earlier. Firstly there was Bret from episode #20, a guy who had gone from being a super consumer to someone who is finally, much…
41. Turbulent Times [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:00
This week I tell you all about Catherine and her husband Luke. Both of them had been enjoying successful careers and had been working to a financial plan that had them thinking years into the future. Life was sailing alo…
40. It's never too late to change. [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 58:06
This week I’m going to share the story of Linda, a woman in her early 50’s who has had a huge shift in mindset over the last ten months. Linda’s journey with money had just been trundling along year in year out for, oh I…
39. Battling the desire to just spend, spend, spend! [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:54
Becky described herself as a spender at heart who has to constantly battle against the desire to just spend, spend, spend. The spiral began with interest free debt in her first year of university and continued on from th…
38. Keep On Truckin [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:17
Aaron and his wife Shannon have a young son, just six months old and it’s what they did in the lead up to his birth that got my attention. They decided to work like crazy people, as many hours as they possibly could, in…
37. This is what Starting Young Looks Like [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 32:24
Often when I speak with people their one regret is that “they didn’t start saving and investing earlier”. Well today, you are going to hear about Nat and she DID manage to start investing early in life and the proof sure…
36. Divorced and Determined Budgeting Queen [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:19
When I think of Mandy, the word that keeps coming to my mind is ‘determined’. She was living the good life right up until she wasn’t. We pick up her story at the point of her divorce when she had two young children, a sm…
35. Rebalancing the Portfolio [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 5:34:02
Jo is a busy Mum of a two year old, they had just returned from an overseas trip and she is juggling parenting with a 30 hour work week, while her partner is working as well. We had a great chat where she told me how at…