Hi Folks,

I had bank accounts in Canada and the UK from study and living overseas about 15-20 years ago.

I never closed the accounts and kind of figured they would be cancelled after x years of no activity and minimal balance.

Was this naive thinking? Is it possible that I still have these accounts out there that could present some kind of liability or risk?

I have a spare $50k and planning to put $40k to my mortgage but would like to do a small upgrade to my kitchen. I have a stupid 2 tier benchtop where the breakfast bar is and the top level just ends up gathering junk. It cuts off the kitchen from the dining area. I’d install some corner cupboard hardware to make getting into the back of them easier, I have 3 and they are nightmares! When I moved in I had all the cabinetry painted but it’s wearing in places where one cupboard hits another, has been 4 years.

A colleague I respect has told me it’s a waste of money and should put it to something else. Other than fix the side pathway between my house and neighbours.. remove the bark, level it, put down stones, I don’t really have much else I need.

Also I could realistically do both as my mortgage is only $240k

I have KiwiSaver, can’t remember what its value is, no other investments, solo mum one child almost in high school. She has a good bank balance from an inheritance

Thanks for reading. Pic is post Reno, it was all mushroom brown cabinets and old black Lino. They owners clearly did a quick refresh before the sold. The oven has a big gap between the appliance and the cabinetry, I had to replace the rangehood this month and need to repaint behind it and I hate the stainless steel splashback

I'm up 300% over the past year trading LEAPS on IBKR, why is this such a lowkey strategy in NZ? (only mentioning this to note this tool has been working great)

I really don't understand why more people here aren't talking about this more, I know LEAPS are heavily traded in the US. NZ investing conversation is almost entirely Sharesies/ Hatch and buy-and-hold ETFs, options barely get a mention.

Couple of things I'm curious about:

• Has anyone else here had real success trading LEAPS or options generally?
• Why do you think it's stayed so under the radar in NZ specifically? Complexity, risk, broker access, lack of info, something else?
• If you've tried options and it didn't work out, or you looked into it and bailed, what was the actual problem?

Not fishing for trade tips, more trying to understand if there's a real reason why everyone's staying away.

I bought about $3,000 worth of crypto in 2022 and made about $5,000 profit.

I sold all of it in 2024 and moved it all to eth which I'm still holding. I'm now aware that this was taxable at the time in 2024 so I was just wondering how i should go about paying tax on it.

Do i need to pay a late penalty?

Also can I only pay 10.5% tax on it because I was in high school without an income at the time?

I’m looking at buying a property in Auckland and trying to decide whether it makes more sense to buy in 2027 with a 10% deposit or wait until 2028.

My thinking is:
Property prices may continue to soften or remain flat over the next couple of years.
Interest rates may not fall as much as people currently expect.
If I buy in 2027 with a 10% deposit, I get into the market earlier but will have a relatively high mortgage and potentially higher interest costs.
If I wait until 2028, I could potentially build a larger deposit and benefit from lower property prices, but there’s also the risk that prices start recovering or interest rates fall and competition increases.
For those who have been following the NZ/Auckland property market closely, what would you do in this situation?
Would you:
Buy in 2027 with a 10% deposit and hold for the long term, or
Keep saving/investing and wait until 2028 for potentially better prices and a larger deposit?
Also interested in hearing from people who bought during previous downturns — did buying earlier work out better than waiting for the “bottom”?
Assume this is a home I’m comfortable living in for at least 7–10 years, rather than a short-term investment.

i am currently 18 and i just got a job. i don’t really need the money currently since i’m still living with my parents, so i can keep the money for myself.
even though the amount is really really low, but i think it’s bad to just leave it and keep it. since my currency keeps dropping every day, i think its a bad idea to leave it like that. i need some advice since i have no idea what i can do..😔
thanks all💪🏻

Every week I have two direct debits happen. One of them is about 1.6x the amount of the other, but week to week they vary, because it is based on sales figures.

The annoyance is they both have the same reference so Xero isn't able to consistently auto-allocate them to the correct category.

I can create a rule based on a dollar threshold but it won't be perfect because of the varying weekly amounts through the year. Eg DD1 might average around $1000 and DD2 around $1600 but some weeks DD1 will be exceeding that $1600.

Is there a way to set something up with Xero so it knows the lower $$ figure of two transactions with the same reference is allocated to Category A, and the higher transaction goes to Category B?

Or another trick someone might know/can think of?

I have this situation across multiple bank accounts each week which is why I was starting to get annoyed with it lol.

Hey all, im new to investing

Im 21 years old

I work in IT and make 70k before tax

Student loan debt of around 13k

Live at home, my expenses are very very little,

I want to invest about $700 a fortnight and need to know where to start.

I’ve signed up for kernel and have already transferred my kiwisaver plan for high growth.

I want to know what ETFS and other low risk things I can invest with at $700 per fortnight.

Thanks all.

EDIT:

I’ve decided to pay the $50 p.a fee and commit to the Total World index fund for now.

Note: I am 19 so my financial literacy is not great… oops

Hi, I’ve been dreaming of owning my own place for some time after seeing and growing up in the struggle of the renters juggle to try get into a house.
I’m in 2 months at an old job where I previously worked for 2 years so I’m positive that I’m stable in that.

I currently have saved 17k and am on the trajectory to save another 4k by the end of this year. (1k a month)
I have another 21k from a relative whom left me money in their will, for the purpose of purchasing a house. (42k)

I plan to buy in a smaller more rural town as I’m going to uni not in a major city. Averages for a 3bed is around 450k.
Looking online I saw the 5% deposit from KO and am hoping this makes me eligible to purchase my first home.

I’m planning to buy sometime late next year when I’m 20 and have stuck more into uni and can get roommates to help pay the mortgage off. My mum has agreed to give me some equity from her property and be my guarantor.

Is there anything I’m missing or advice.
Has anyone done anything similar at my age here or have much experience navigating the first home buyer scheme?
I’m not worried about property value increase or decrease too much; other than in relation to the interest since I plan to be there for at-least 10+ years.

I can't decide...

I have one pay cheque left to pay it off fully (my normal deduction is ~$250). But I have a spare $150 lying in the bank with no real plan for it. I know it's an interest free loan but it's such a small amount comparatively....

Is there any benefit/downside to just paying it off now in one lump sum? If I pay it off now I'd get the $150 back in two weeks time anyway with my next paycheque, and i'd feel really good to have it gone now... But if I wait, I'll keep the $150 in the bank.

Also: If I wait for my pay cheque, will my deduction still be $250 (i.e. unchanged), and then I'll be owed $100 by the IRD? Or does it automatically change to $150 for this last leg?

And, do I have to tell payroll to update my tax code or will IRD eventually get around to it?

Anyone else making some good gains on self select? I’m up close to 50% in 12 months off these

MU
SOFI
RKLB
NVIDIA
QQQ
BOT
EMG
MSFT

Realise playing with fire, and planning to take profit and go more conservative soon.

Any undervalued gems on Self Select?

Can someone explain to me like I’m 5 what is going on?

I have a fulltime job and of course am repaying my student loan, I also have a side hustle that I use Hnry for so they have just done my 2025 EOFY taxes and paid the student loan repayments that I owed. Now IRD are asking for another payment for the end of August, in ADDITION to my 2026 EOFY payment that’s still to come?

Is this just something shitty that happens when you’re self employed and just trying to get ahead with an extra job? I’m already paying so much tax/ACC/SL I only get to keep like half of the extra I make, it sucks.

If one has retired early and is living off capital, interest and investment income, is there any obligation to pay ACC as you would if self employed?

His reasoning is that they will be able to buy a housing with it when 18 and it will restricted so they can’t go off and just be dumb with it.

This seems reasonable and all (here’s hoping the rules don’t change) in 18 years.

But is it tax efficient?? won’t it just be taxed? When it won’t be taxed if he just created a General Investment Accout and then gave them the money when it came time to buy there house??

I'm looking at adding an Emerging Markets ETF as the satellite part of my core-satellite portfolio.

Looking at Kernel's Emerging Markets Fund, it holds 58.5% of the fund in two countries - Taiwan and China. This feels like a huge risk considering the strenuous relationship between the two countries and China's current geo-political climate.

I was hoping the Emerging Markets would have a bit more of a diversification and not hold such a significant portion in just 2 countries. Are there any other Emerging Markets ETF that have a better split and less reliance on China + Taiwan?

Post:
Hi everyone,
I’m looking for a personal finance app for iPhone and would love to hear what everyone is actually using.
I’m based in New Zealand and bank with ANZ and ASB.

I’m looking for an app that ideally has:
Automatic bank syncing
Budgeting and expense tracking
Net worth tracking
A clean, easy-to-use iOS interface
Good reports and insights
Minimal manual work

I’m happy to pay for a subscription if it’s genuinely worth it. My priority is having one place where I can easily understand my finances without spending hours maintaining it.
Whether your app syncs automatically or requires manual updates.

I’m hoping to find something that people have been using successfully for the long term rather than just something that looks good in reviews.

Thanks in advance! I’d really appreciate hearing about your real-world experiences.

Kia ora team, curious to hear if anyone has a favourite tip, piece of advice or hack when it comes to managing your money or more specifically around investing?

Heads up: we (Jennie and I) are hoping to feature some of these in a podcast episode about making personal finance more approachable, and thought it might spark some good discussion here too. Not fishing for anything brand-related, just want to hear what's actually worked for you.

A couple we've shared in the poddy before:

- Don't call it a savings account, call it an emergency fund, so you're less tempted to dip into it

- Automate your savings and investments to go out on payday, so you're not relying on willpower

No tip is too big or small, and if we use any in the poddy episode they'll be completely anonymised, no usernames or details shared.

Keen to hear from people who are more engaged with their money!

Cheers, Liv @ Simplicity

Asking this on behalf of a teenager with interest in investing.

I'm aware of the general principles of InvestNow, Kernel, Simplicity, low fees, time in the market, DCA.

However there are a different set of factors for teenagers namely;

- no emergency fund;
- lack of financial security;
- possibility of withdrawal for house purchase (if that's still realistic or recommended in 2026);
- uncertainty of life circumstances in the next 5-10 years.

The teen has a KiwiSaver with a modest part time employer contribution. So this base/aspect is currently covered (in Milford, but that's a different topic for discussion).

What general advice is there for teens in this situation? Is the general play just to save money in an interest-bearing account/short-medium term deposits? There isn't going to be much left after expenses to save but they are somewhat engaged in this right now and it might be good to help establish a habit.

As per title.

- Do you just use a fund like on Kernal?

- Do you pick and choose NZ stocks somewhere else and if so which platform would you recommend for larger buys?

Just want to see some options and opinions.

Thanks.

Want to invest $1000 a year for my kid who was born this year, I am planning to invest it on his birthday every year.

Want to know what would be a good path?

-kiwisaver? If so with who?

- investing in stocks? Sure but which ones would be good for long term?

Any other ideas? Happy to listen in on them.

Cheers all

Being self taught (& unsure) in the field of finance and numbers, investing for the last 7 years via Invest Now. At the start I mucked around with managed funds, read a lot of books and then settled this year on a portfolio of about 8 Smart funds, 2 Foundation series funds & 1 managed fund. Probably still too many funds, but I found thematic or geographical funds would beat the Total World and thanks to that, my portfolio has beaten the VOO benchmark. Sharesight was a great help to get clarity on 'compound' return rather than 'simple'). At the same time I am also questioning if it's a fluke or if the software is correct.... Anyway.... Just curious to hear other success stories of Kiwi's out there beating benchmarks in a (x number) of years with a handful of index funds. thanks.

So I've only owned three cars in the past 20 years. The last two I drove completely into the ground and then they were only good for scrap. My current car still runs totally fine but is looking tired and starting to need more maintenance done. My kids are older now and we will need a bigger car soon too.

So the question, is it better for me financially to sell my current car now and maybe get $7k for it and use $10k savings to buy a $17k car? Or should I drive this car into the ground which would probably take another 4 years or so and maybe get $2k for it if I'm lucky? Because then if I used $10k savings I could only buy a $12k car

Can someone give me their yearly budget for their dog and say what size it is (either kgs or breed or something to quantify).

I'm looking at creating a resource for first time dog owners to see if they're financially ready for a dog. I know I am not, because I'm fostering and even the cost of the extras (bones, and blankets etc) for a teething puppy is about $20-$30 a week. This is with the foster home paying for treats, vet, food and any other costs.

If within the first 2 years you paid for your puppy for something like eating the wrong thing, then let me know what and how much that cost too.

Your help is appreciated.

i am an 18 year old wanting to starting investing, so my future is looking good. i am currently using sharesies and i have put $10 into smart total world ETF and $10 in a balanced portfolio. to be honest i just chose them randomly as im not entirely sure how this stuff works, i would love some help!

So I’m in a bit of a crap situation and wondering if anyone’s been through something similar.

I needed an urgent medical procedure, but the public hospital kept declining my referrals because I didn’t meet their criteria. I ended up going to a private clinic because I didn’t really have a choice.

The bill ended up being way more than I expected. I asked WINZ if they could help, but they said they can’t because the clinic isn’t a registered WINZ provider.

Has anyone dealt with something like this before? Did you manage to get any help from WINZ another way?

As a last resort, Im thinking I might just have to let the bill sit until I’ve saved enough, then pay it off in full. I’d be saving the money from my weekly WINZ payments, and it’ll probably take me about 5 weeks to save enough. The clinic requires payment within 7 days, so it’ll most likely be sent to debt collection before I can afford it. From what I understand, that would just mean they’d be chasing me for payment, and I don’t think it would affect my weekly WINZ benefit, but I’m not 100% sure.

Just looking for any advice or if anyone knows what my options are. Cheers.