Advertisement
New Zealand markets closed
  • NZX 50

    12,105.29
    +94.63 (+0.79%)
     
  • NZD/USD

    0.5975
    -0.0031 (-0.51%)
     
  • NZD/EUR

    0.5534
    -0.0009 (-0.15%)
     
  • ALL ORDS

    8,153.70
    +80.10 (+0.99%)
     
  • ASX 200

    7,896.90
    +77.30 (+0.99%)
     
  • OIL

    83.07
    +1.72 (+2.11%)
     
  • GOLD

    2,253.70
    +41.00 (+1.85%)
     
  • NASDAQ

    18,254.69
    -26.15 (-0.14%)
     
  • FTSE

    7,952.62
    +20.64 (+0.26%)
     
  • Dow Jones

    39,807.37
    +47.29 (+0.12%)
     
  • DAX

    18,492.49
    +15.40 (+0.08%)
     
  • Hang Seng

    16,541.42
    +148.58 (+0.91%)
     
  • NIKKEI 225

    40,168.07
    -594.66 (-1.46%)
     
  • NZD/JPY

    90.3670
    -0.4130 (-0.45%)
     

Frustrated with your finances?

Are you feeling frustrated that you are not making enough financial progress?You are not alone. We put such high expectations on ourselves and don’t find a way to reward our hard work and therefore often feel like we are on a treadmill. Part of the reason is that we do not take the time to evaluate how we are doing today compared to where we were at a few years ago.

Here is a brief overview of some people I’ve spoken with lately:

A couple in their 30s with two young children who had a 90% loan on their mortgage, $30k of personal debt and a combined income of around $100k. They were going backwards each month mainly through poor money management. They decided they had enough of feeling stressed about money and made some changes. Three years later they have paid off all of their personal debt, got their mortgage down to 65% of their house value. Their incomes had improved but most of the change came from a change in attitude, paying attention to their spending and being disciplined.

ADVERTISEMENT

A single professional women in her late 30s with $45,000 of personal debt and an income of $80,000. She had spent only slightly more than her income each year but had done it since her early 20s. She had buried her head in the sand and only paid what she had to and as a result her debt kept accumulating. She really wanted to buy her own home so she put a tight budget in place, became far more mindful of her spending and two years later had all of her debt paid off. Now she is saving for a house deposit.

 

This is an extreme example. A couple in their early 50s, net worth of approximately $5million, a very small mortgage and income of half a million dollars per year. Their financial goal is to retire at 65 with $100,000 of after tax income. They can retire today with that income but haven’t stopped long enough from their busy lives to understand the reality of their financial position. Now that they have they are re-evaluating their life with the view to making changes.

The common thread through these examples of clients of mine is that they weren’t paying much attention to their finances. When they did take stock of where they were at they started making much better decisions. As a result they all had an improvement in their financial situation.

Have you taken the time to see where you are at? How does it compare to where you were a few years ago?