All tagged Podcast

94. Continuous Improvement

94. Continuous Improvement

Ruth
Money Journey, Personal Finance, Podcast, PocketSmith

MONEY JOURNEY

Ruby first emailed me with a couple of questions in October 2022. She’d recently signed up with Sharesies and wondered where to start, and she had a question about her KiwiSaver. While at home with two young tamariki, she realised she could voluntarily contribute to her account even when not in paid work. Taking a moment to think about investing made her start digging around for more information about her money, leading her to seek more information. Now 34, with her husband Tim, 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.

Part 6: INVESTING

Part 6: INVESTING

Ruth
Personal Finance, Podcast, PocketSmith, FI SERIES, Financial Independence

FI SERIES

Investing can be incredibly complex, but I found a way to simplify it. I used to feel overwhelmed by the options available, but now I don't. I’m hoping to help you feel the same way. The Happy Saver was born out of my search for information about what I could invest our money in. It took me years to arrive at our current strategy. I don’t want you to take so long to settle on your own strategy. We had some margin in our budget, and I was looking for something to make us money. Ultimately, I finally found good information, which I want to share today.

Part 5: DEBT FREE

Part 5: DEBT FREE

Ruth
Personal Finance, Podcast, PocketSmith, FI SERIES, Financial Independence

FI SERIES

Get out of debt, and stay out of debt. I think of debt as a phase of life that I moved through. That period has passed, and I’ve moved on. Jonny and I have been entirely debt-free since our early 30s, and I encourage you to head down the debt-free path as well. Debt has always had an ‘ick’ factor for me, a feeling I am grateful for. There has never been a day that we regretted becoming permanently debt-free. We never have to seek the bank's opinion about our financial decisions again.

Part 4: KIWISAVER

Part 4: KIWISAVER

Ruth
Personal Finance, Podcast, PocketSmith, FI SERIES, Financial Independence

FI SERIES

Joining KiwiSaver is a no-brainer, and it still surprises me when I meet people who are not in it. I’m always looking ahead and doing my best to determine what I might need money for and how much I might need. I keep my ear to the ground about how affordable retirement is for New Zealanders. I talk to people over 65 and ask them what advice they would give me about financially preparing for retirement. Then I ask myself if, on my current trajectory, I’m heading in the right direction.

Part 3: EMERGENCY FUND

Part 3: EMERGENCY FUND

Ruth
Personal Finance, Podcast, PocketSmith, FI SERIES, Financial Independence

FI SERIES

The best thing I ever did was set some cash into a bank account, which we could instantly access in a financial emergency. It is an amount of money set aside in a specific bank account to be used for bailing myself out if something happens that I didn’t otherwise plan for, but I need money to pay for. Try as I might, I can’t think of everything. Your emergency fund covers the things you forgot despite your best intentions.

Part 2: BUDGET

Part 2: BUDGET

Ruth
Personal Finance, Podcast, PocketSmith, FI SERIES, Financial Independence

FI SERIES

In the first episode in this series of six, I quickly showed you how to calculate your net worth. Today, I want to explain why you need to keep an eye on how and where you earn and spend your money, i.e., budgeting. When you learn to budget, your net worth will begin to increase. Budgeting is simply making a plan for your pūtea (money). If you want to grow your wealth, you must do what wealthy people do. And they know how much they earn and spend. So, I’m sorry, there are no shortcuts here. Most will come to enjoy it as I do, simply because it gives me a feeling of control over my life and removes any anxiety around my pūtea. But for some of you, it will always be a chore. So be it! Do it anyway.

Part 1: NET WORTH

Part 1: NET WORTH

Ruth
Personal Finance, Podcast, PocketSmith, FI SERIES, Financial Independence

FI SERIES

Welcome to the first episode in a short six-part Financial Independence Series. Part 1 focuses on ‘Net Worth’. How much wealth do you have right now? If you added it all up and subtracted what you owe, what are you worth? This can be daunting if you’ve never thought about it. However, the objective is not to objectify wealth; it’s to create a level of wealth that makes you feel comfortable and in control of your present and future.

93. Revisit with Nic: In the process of making a financial U-turn!

93. Revisit with Nic: In the process of making a financial U-turn!

Ruth
Money Journey, Personal Finance, Podcast, PocketSmith

MONEY JOURNEY

Today, I have an update on Nic from Episode 78, released in March 2023. A year after we spoke, an update email arrived in my inbox. She said it's been an interesting 12-plus months, and they are slowly but surely getting ahead. It seems like a case of one step forward and then half a step back, as on occasions in the last year or so, it seemed her luck had deserted her. But even with some upheaval thrown into her life, plus some pretty ill-controlled budgets, she said they are still managing to pay down debt, lower their mortgage, and increase her KiwiSaver balance. I wanted to share her update because many of you listening will relate to her progress.

92. An adventurous 19-year-old

92. An adventurous 19-year-old

Ruth
Money Journey, Personal Finance, Podcast, PocketSmith

MONEY JOURNEY

I met 19-year-old Josephine in mid-2023 when she emailed me with some questions about money. She mentioned that her Mum had sparked an interest in personal finances in her, which had led her to do a lot of reflecting on her money skills. She had been out of school and working for a couple of years, managed to save up a solid chunk of money and was planning on heading into study in 2024. Her intention was to get through her study with no student loan. However, there was one small problem. She had caught the travel bug and she knew it had the potential to be pricey. Her question to me was how could she balance living in the now while planning for the future and how could she set herself and her pūtea up to do both.

91. With only $100 in the bank, something had to change.

91. With only $100 in the bank, something had to change.

Ruth
Money Journey, Personal Finance, Podcast, PocketSmith

MONEY JOURNEY

I was lucky enough to have a long chat with Grace, who is now in her late 20s. Her money journey did a sharp U-turn as she moved out of about $40,000 of consumer and education debt and onto a new path of saving up to buy a home by the age of 30. Listening to money stories on this very podcast gave her ideas of where to start because, for her, this whole ‘money thing’ was pretty overwhelming, so hearing from others has been imperative in helping her plot her path.

90. Revisit with Bradie and Paul: The First Year of Early Retirement

90. Revisit with Bradie and Paul: The First Year of Early Retirement

Ruth
Money Journey, Personal Finance, Podcast, PocketSmith, Retirement, Index Funds, Investing, KiwiSaver, Debt Free, Financial Independence, SmartShares

MONEY JOURNEYS

I’m particularly excited about today’s podcast because it is a revisit episode with Bradie and Paul. The elevator pitch for them is that they felt they were drowning in debt just seven short years ago, and now they have just completed their first year of early retirement! Today, I’m really happy to give you an update on a story that keeps getting better over time. 

89. Creative Planners Working Towards a Retirement of Plenty

89. Creative Planners Working Towards a Retirement of Plenty

Ruth
Money Journey, Personal Finance, Podcast, PocketSmith, Retirement

MONEY JOURNEYS

I chatted with Isobel and Sam for almost three hours on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Straight out of the gate, we were into the nuts and bolts of the financial lives of this 56 and 57-year-old deeply-in-love couple who are parents to three adult tamariki. Very handily, Sam had sent me a four page Vision Board, of their financial and life journey. To sum it up I’d say they are creative planners who work as a tight team towards their goal of creating a really strong financial footing by the age of 60.

88. Birds of a Feather Flock Together

88. Birds of a Feather Flock Together

Ruth
Money Journey, Personal Finance, Podcast, PocketSmith

MONEY JOURNEYS

In this episode, I’m going to be sharing the experiences of Scott and Jane. This couple are from completely different backgrounds and also from different countries. I want to share how they have melded their lives together and where they are headed from here. Birds of a feather do flock together, and although these two hail from completely different parts of the globe, they managed to connect with each other and build a life together.

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