Making Cents with Frances Cook

Tempted to switch KiwiSaver funds because yours hasn't performed lately? Hold that thought…

Susan Edmunds, money correspondent at RNZ, on why a great three months means very little - and how to actually compare funds properly.

Making Cents, new episode out now!

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 0

Making Cents with Frances Cook

Imagine you're doing everything right. You work hard to save up a house deposit. Finally get a house. Make repairs. Make some mortgage repayments.

Then after ten years, you realise buying that home made you WORSE off than if you'd simply dumped that deposit into the sharemarket, and kept renting instead.

Except that's exactly what happened to Janika ter Ellen. She's Stuff's Property Reporter, so she's not exactly anti-property.

But when she ran the numbers, she was truly surprised.

Worse off, for putting that money into buying her own home.

So what went wrong, and is buying your own home a bad idea?

We went through it on the latest Making Cents podcast, don't miss it.

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 1

Making Cents with Frances Cook

The number one thing people tell me they regret about money?

"I just wish I'd started earlier."

People say this to me whether they started focusing on money at 60, 40, or 20.

But I've finally met the one person who may not have this regret!

He's 17, and has already started four businesses, and invested into property.

Because Hamish Sutherland started when he was eight. He went around handing out CVs, and couldn't figure out why nobody would hire him. (Mildly illegal, probably?)

But no matter! He had a solution. He started his first business.

He even earned enough to invest into a property... then ran into problems when people refused to believe it was him buying, not his mum.

How Hamish built four businesses before he could legally drink, and what he's gearing up for as he gets ready to leave school, all on the latest Making Cents podcast.

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 1

Making Cents with Frances Cook

Could you get free power? Because just imagine. Imagine never opening another power bill with that little flinch.

Imagine the sun doing your washing, heating your water, running your heat pump, charging your car, all of it, for nothing.

Free power. Pretty much forever.

Now is that the true reality of solar power? No, let’s not be silly, because this isn’t a sales pitch.

However, 18 months ago I went solar, with an electric car, and I spent $89,000 to do so. And in the previous video I did on this, I said others could do it for a quarter of that price and get similar results.

Well that video went crazy, you guys flooded me with questions, and now I'm answering ALL of those questions.

Could solar power work for you - and how much would it cost to get a good result? How do you fund it, are there cheaper options, and what gives you the best bang for your buck?

And what are the solutions coming, that could mean even renters and people on low incomes can get free power from the sun?

Breaking it all down in the latest Making Cents podcast.

4 weeks ago | [YT] | 2

Making Cents with Frances Cook

Here's something you need to know to both stop self-sabotage, and to achieve the goals you actually want to achieve.

"Your brain doesn't care about what's true. It cares about what's repeated."

Once you know this, you'll see two things.

You can use this to stop the self-sabotage loops that are keeping you stuck. Stop repeating stories about yourself that are unhelpful.

And you can use it to achieve your goals. Find the evidence that you're successful enough to get there - and start repeating it.

This isn't just feel-good nonsense, it's what coach Sarah Robb has used to help clients move from burnout, to successfully balancing life AND ambitious goals.

Ambition without the burnout, on the latest Making Cents podcast.

4 weeks ago | [YT] | 1

Making Cents with Frances Cook

How do you turn $2 into $419,000? By stopping looking for the silver bullet.

There's a mentality that I see come up over and over again, that really sabotages people with their money.

It's hunting for the silver bullet, the one big change that becomes the gamechanger.

And while they're hunting for that, they miss the small changes that stack up so fast, and could actually be a gamechanger.

Like the dad putting away $2 a day into his 3-year-old's KiwiSaver, that will be $419,000 by the time she retires. $419,000 of today's money, inflation impact included.

Not bad.

It's the exact mentality that Mark White-Robinson has pulled on in creating Feijoa an app that rounds up your everyday purchases and tips the spare change into your KiwiSaver.

It's helping people build up bigger balances, faster, by using behavioural finance tricks to stop the analysis paralysis.

So I wanted to pick his brain on that behavioural finance, and what we can use as tactics everywhere with our money, to do the things we know we want to do.

It's out now on the Making Cents podcast.

1 month ago | [YT] | 1

Making Cents with Frances Cook

Glam businesses? Meh. The solid earners are the underrated ones.

Waste, recycling, wholesale, import distribution - boring on the surface, solid underneath.

Jeremy Pak, MD at Velocity Capital New Zealand, on the business models most people overlook and why simple and predictable often wins.

This episode is supported by Odoo because they're the smart way to make small business life easier.

Making Cents Podcast, new episode out now!

1 month ago | [YT] | 0

Making Cents with Frances Cook

Imagine being too nervous to talk to IRD… then getting back $15,000??

Baqir Hussain, chartered certified accountant and founder of Finex Accounting, on Working for Families, why so many people miss out on what they're entitled to, and why the tax man isn't as scary as we think.

Out now.

2 months ago | [YT] | 1

Making Cents with Frances Cook

AI isn't coming for every job… but it is coming for some of them first.

Christoph Schumacher, Professor of Innovation and Economics at Massey University - Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa, on which jobs are most exposed, which ones aren't - and why this isn't the first time we've been here.

New episode out now!

2 months ago | [YT] | 0

Making Cents with Frances Cook

This investing mistake cost me serious money. And it catches out most people, at some point.

Because while many people hold off starting to invest, worried they'll make a newbie mistake, that's NOT actually the danger period.

The danger period is after that.

When you're a couple of years in. Feeling confident. Feeling experienced. Feeling like you could do... more.

And that's when people start breaking the rules, and losing money.

Because overconfidence and just a little bit of experience is a KILLER for your money.

And hey, like I say, been there and done that.

Felt like I was clever because I was a financial journalist. I interview experts all day! Surely I can pick a couple of winners?

And then COVID hit, and my smart picks tanked.

Sure, COVID was a weird time. But there's always something unexpected.

A war in Ukraine, or Iran. A cost-of-living crisis.

It's life. But it can really hurt your money.

So I thought, time to talk about these investing mistakes, and the systems we can put in place to save us from ourselves!

And who better than Chris Walsh from MoneyHub.co.nz to talk this through with me?

It's all on the latest Making Cents podcast, out now.

2 months ago | [YT] | 1