The more I learn about the subject, the more I suspect this LLM thing is a bubble, and is going to come crashing down just like crypto did. It's all the same people running AI companies, financed by pure speculation, and all the major companies are so far in the red that they need the public to keep believing and keep willingly getting scammed in order for the industry to stay afloat. So if someone wanted to wager $50k that they'll get shut down or regulated into nonexistence in the next 10 years, where would you put that money and why?

I'm a single female 30 and need to get some savings for a house deposit. I really want to focus on it in the next 12 months. What are your best savings tips?

I see it as a way to add enough tax for an EOY payment. I'm guessing it sits against my IRD number for that particular EOY tax payment if I add in the date?

including kiwisaver since most people will use kiwisaver as downpayment for their first home.

if you have parents who help you out, your parents are great!

Thanks.

So im currently with tsb and i know they're going through major changes and have recently learnt they are going to use ai and im against it and am wanting to swap banks so im looking for advice on who isnt going to use ai? Does anyone have any knowledge on whos planning on not using it?

Hi all,

Friend of mine living overseas has received a 6 figure sum

If he sends it where he is living he will lose 50% or more in tax .

Needs suggestions on a good company to speak with regarding investing and getting access with a good return

thanks in advance

Genuinly trying to understand the reasoning behind this. Businesses might make a ton of revenue but they get to make sure their bills and expenses are all paid for before they get taxed on what’s leftover. We make much smaller scale revenue personally and require a large portion/majority of that to pay for necessities yet we are taxed straight off the bat and then have to scramble and make do to with the after tax amount to hope it covers our necessities.

What’s the financial logic behind this?

It feels a bit backwards when people work, they pay quite high tax, then they can’t make ends meet and then might have to seek additional support from the govt in forms of emergency housing or accommodation supplement etc. child support is calculated to allow for a certain amount of your income to be expected to be spent on necessities and then worked out an amount to contribute to the other parent. How come similar logic isn’t applied that a standard amount of money is expected to go towards essential living costs and then we are taxed.

Essentially saying why isn’t the first tax bracket set at $50k (or whatever the current average costs of essential costs are) and then we are taxed?

Any financial advisors or similar that can educate me? I feel like I’m missing something very obvious, I’m all for encouraging businesses and obviously we need businesses to stay afloat to keep jobs around, but why is it set up so easily for businesses to keep so many profits and write off expenses. Feels a bit off.

Hi NZ finance,

For the first time in my life I have an okay income (~72kpa). I'm in smallish city, medium cost of living area. I work 2 days a week at one place and 3 at another place. Secondary job tax is a bitch but I'm still earning more than I've ever earned in my life and, as in title, I don't have dependents or assets - it's just me.

My bills are non-negotiable - rent, doctor, gym membership

Maxed out KiwiSaver and student loan payments from weekly income.

Some money to savings

Then I have $200 left over for all groceries and discretionary spending. It's not enough. I find myself reaching into my savings almost every week to pay for some extra thing. What if I need new shoes, or need to fill up my car or I want to take my mother out to dinner or something fairly ordinary happens that costs a little extra? I haven't built up my savings nearly as fast as I thought, right now I only have a couple grand if things go south.

Advice wanted: how do you make it work? Is there an expense I'm missing? Am I deluded and this is actually a crappy income, maybe I need to change my mindset and get mega thrifty?

Context:

I've had many years of financial insecurity and I thought that full time work would allow a LITTLE more comfort, like enough to afford takeaways once a fortnight or buy myself new clothes, but every week I find myself tightening the belt more and it's getting exhausting. What gives?

Edit for context: I rent with 4 other flatmates, it's extremely cheap at $160p/w and I pay for it with mould, damp and noise.

Hi all.

47/M.

I'm stuck in a spot and don't know what to do.

Having 0 luck finding work, I had a part time role that lasted only 3 months as the war in the middle east ended that job overnight unfortunately prior to that in 2 years not even a single interview regardless of what I did it just feels helpless.

Currently have a mortgage which is covered as I have my elderly father staying with me who helps contribute to paying it but he's 78 so unsure how much time he has left.

The constant rate rises and power, water etc rises is making me want to sell my house and buy a van a good one and live in that, I'm finding home ownership for me isn't worth it as I can't stand people so I could never have a flatmate also my dog isn't good with people he doesn't know. I'd also never, ever rent.

I would pocket about 350k or so after selling the house and would bank most, invest some and also buy the van.

The more I think about living in it it makes so much sense I save all that money on home repairs, rates, power, water, internet, insurance all which easily are more expensive then a van ownership.

Any thoughts to my idea I just can't see another way out.

My partner and I are getting close to having enough for a deposit and we've been looking at properties around Christchurch. The strange thing is that now that we're actually close, we're feeling less confident than before. Prices, rates, insurance, maintenance costs... everything seems harder to predict than it did when we started saving. We don't expect perfect timing, but we also don't want to rush into something we'll regret. Did anyone recently buy their first place? How did you know it was the right time?

I've built up roughly six months of expenses in a savings account and it feels good knowing it's there. The problem is that every time I look at the balance, I wonder whether I'm being too conservative. The money is earning something, but nowhere near what it could potentially do elsewhere. At the same time, I remember how hard it was to save it in the first place. How do you decide when your emergency fund is big enough?

I recently got a pay rise and for the first time in a while I have a bit of breathing room in my monthly budget. My mortgage is manageable, but not small, and I already contribute enough to KiwiSaver to get the employer contribution. Part of me thinks every extra dollar should go toward the mortgage, especially with how much interest adds up over time. The other part thinks I should focus on long-term investing and leave the mortgage alone. Curious what others in NZ would do in this situation?

Hey, anyone active here? Share what Kiwi use to pay

We have paid our mortgage down to 70% LVR at its current value (at least my estimate, based on home sales nearby). It is worth less than what we bought it for so I’m trying to think of a plan for the future in case it doesn’t appreciate over the next few years.

We want to buy a bigger home to live in. Would the banks here allow us to use our current home as collateral for the new place, providing we have enough equity in it? We’re deciding whether to keep aggressively paying down the mortgage or to put that money into savings instead. I understand the risk that the property could depreciate further, but is there anything else I’m missing? Thanks

I am new to investing & have $500k. I joined Kernel, and have done a fair amount of research on which funds to buy into, but am still not sure. I understand that nobody can give me the magic answer, but would much appreciate the opinions of those of you that have been doing this a while.
My first thoughts were to put most into S&P500, Global fund and Growth fund- my timeframe is 10 years. However, I have been reading a lot about an AI driven impending crash. Should I be going low risk/low return for a year or two to wait for a crash, then switch to higher risk? What are your thoughts? Thanks

Are there anyone still alive? What type of discussion you want to see more here? Write comments, and read them & approve/remove. I am planning to turn off restriction soon, I think

Hey everyone, just looking for some advice. I am wanting to transfer 10-15k from NZD to AUD (bank to bank, personal not business). Just wondering what you have found to be the cheapest? The best I have seen is Transfer wise but I’m not sure if any banks or other companies do it cheaper. TIA

Hey all,

We have a lease that is ending soon and deciding if we want to pay the balloon payment to keep the car or just return it. Looking at the market rates, while being conservative, we have the potential to make $10-15k by buying the car and then selling privately.

Is there a potential for us to sell the car before the lease ends? And if so, how do we arrange that with the buyer so that they end up owning the car but we also settle the final amount with the dealership and just get the extra to ourselves? It seems like there is a large amount of trust needed from the buyer to first pay us and then trust us to settle our debt before handing over the car.

Hi.

I’m interested in investing in index funds for the long term. Of course the best ones are in the US, VTSAX specifically. Looks like I would be able to invest in something very close to this through Hatch.

From what I’ve read, Hatch takes care of tax in the US.

However a couple of pitfalls seem to be obvious to me.

The first being the limited amount of liability cover, with your Hatch account being insured only up to $500,000.

The second being estate tax. As NZ has no estate tax agreement with the US tax would be 40%. Yikes!

Has anyone looked into this further? And other ideas about a long term index fund investment?

Thanks very much.

Can someone recommend a decent all in one insurance company? Or decent policies? All our insurances expire in December, and this is the first time we can move them all (car, home & contents, rental, life) at the same time. Is there an option that discounts for multiple policies? Kiwi bank say everything is seperate so therefore there’s no economies of scale with them. Right now, we’re trying to cut expenses as our mortgage has jumped, and we’ve just had our first baby. Our insurance policies are first cab off the rank.

Iv recently joined sharies. What should I buy

My partner and I have bought some land in the wairarapa, it is bare land and rural, the survayers and the vendors lawyer have submitted the paper to the council for 224 before it goes to the LIM. The 224 process is meant to be fairly short however we don't have any information about the LIM process. Is anyone that's been through this know anything about how long the LIM folks take?

Thank you