Keep The Change

Well here we are again. More volatility + vulnerability and a sense of not knowing how long this could go on. I am not going to explore that too deeply, but I do want you to reflect on 2025. Because if you want to invest, you have to accept risk and therefore understand that risk is not a bug in investing, it’s part of the process. Markets are constantly reacting to something.

Hey thanks for listening! Please take some form of action from this content, don’t just be a consumer, become a producer! Make sure you’re subscribed to Money Mail via Keepthechange.co.nz to receive our weekly lesson on money and financial literacy. Stay close to us on social media and share this with someone that you think this content will help. Together we can collectively improve the financial literacy of New Zealand - let’s get on with it.

Find us here:
@keepthechange_nz
https://www.keepthechange.co.nz/
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Most people misallocate their time worrying about share platform fees when they should be asking their boss for a raise. They're trying to optimise $3 in fees instead of increasing their income by $10,000.

Luke and Mikey break down the hierarchy: time allocation first, income allocation second, capital allocation third. We cover why when you're young, time is your capital, and when you're older, capital buys your time back.

You can get more money, but you can't get more time. Yet most people waste hours researching investments instead of spending that hour asking for a pay rise.

We cover why misallocating time is worse than misallocating money, the needle-moving activities that actually matter, and why successful people do boring things consistently. Stop looking for magic solutions in chapter 8 when you haven't finished chapter 1.

Time is your most valuable asset. Are you treating it that way?

Find Mikey:
https://guardiansmith.co.nz/
https://instagram.com/officialmikeysmith

Amy from http://Levridge.co.nz has come on as a sponsor of Keep The Change to help people with their financial planning.

Stuck? Find Amy : [email protected]
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amy.levridge
Website: https://www.levridge.co.nz

Generate are supporting my vision to improve the financial literacy of 100,000 kiwis by sponsoring Keep The Change. Cheers Generate. Head to https://www.generatewealth.co.nz/change/ to find out more.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Let’s run the numbers on someone earning $35 an hour trying to “get ahead” in NZ.

Full-time is roughly $72,800.
After tax, ACC, KiwiSaver (3%), you’re left with roughly $55k take-home.

Here are the real costs one person shared (good starting point: 29, single, no kids, flatting):

Rent: $350/week
Food: $150/week
Fuel: $45/week
Insurance (car, contents, health): $60/week
Gym (CrossFit): $50/week
Power: $60/week

That totals about $715/week, or $37,200/year.

So on paper:
Take-home: $55,000
Core living costs: -$37,200
Leftover: $17,800/year

That suggests they could be lucky to save around $15k per year.
I think there are some missing costs from this budget:

Dentist / medical. Car repairs + servicing + tyres. Registration + WOF. Clothing, gifts, travel, weddings. Subscriptions, eating out, entertainment.

That $17.8k surplus becomes something like: $12k–$15k per year saved.

That’s still solid! BUT let’s be honest about NZ.

ISSUE 1: You can’t afford emergencies… and you really can’t afford house prices running away
If you’re saving $12k–$15k a year,

A major car problem can wipe out a big chunk of your progress or a job interruption hurts.
AND you definitely don’t want house prices rising quickly while you’re trying to stack a deposit.

If a $600,000 house increases by 5%, that’s $30,000 of price movement in a year. (You will get blasted by multiple media articles monthly about how possible this is and how predicted it is).

So while someone is proudly saving $15k, the goalposts could move by $30k.

With the cost of living increasing and tax rates not being indexed to inflation, keeping your saving rate in line with house increases becomes very hard. Fortunately house prices have been flat in SOME regions.ISSUE 2: People WITH $$$$ are experiencing the opposite

The sharemarket returned a solid 15% in 2025 for many S&P500 investors. $100k invested and you have $115k at the end of the year (loose math). You didn’t have to work a year to gain $15k. You had to risk $100k.
(The market doesn’t always act like this but it did in 2025, and in 2024 and in 2023).

Even “Risk-averse Randy” with $400,000 in a term deposit at 6% received roughly $16,080 after tax in interest for risking his $400k.

So of course younger people (or anyone without capital) get frustrated watching others make money “easily” like this, while they grind for the same result.

When the math looks like this, it’s not hard to see why so many are choosing to try their luck somewhere else.

We all know deep down that our income earning ability is our single biggest asset.If you were 25–30 right now, what would you do?

SOLUTIONS??

Bluntly, people in this position face a choice:

- Earn more (overtime, upskilling, better industry, commission-based roles, side income)
- Change housing structure (flatting vs living alone)
- Stay home with parents (if it’s viable)
- Reduce big recurring costs (or just do less for a season)
- Invest in assets where possible (even small, consistent amounts)
- Speculate (high risk, usually punished)
- Move to Australia (which has been very popular)

The importance of KiwiSaver to get the employer match. When saving for the first home not many financial advisors would suggest exposing the deposit to too much risk so some may not have seen the gains of those investing for different purposes (more long term).
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In accounting, one of the most important reports is a ‘profit and loss’. This report shows you the total sales, less the expenses, which equates to profit. In a world of ‘I do a million a year’ they typically mean they have sold $1million worth of something. ‘How I made $1million in 2025’ was probably $1mil of sales. There are always expenses to create the sales. Sales - expenses = profit.

Hey thanks for listening! Please take some form of action from this content, don’t just be a consumer, become a producer! Make sure you’re subscribed to Money Mail via Keepthechange.co.nz to receive our weekly lesson on money and financial literacy. Stay close to us on social media and share this with someone that you think this content will help. Together we can collectively improve the financial literacy of New Zealand - let’s get on with it.

Find us here:
@keepthechange_nz
https://www.keepthechange.co.nz/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cameron Ward runs 62 Anytime Fitness gyms across New Zealand and has seen what separates successful franchises from failures. The stats are brutal: 1 in 20 gym franchises fail within 2 years, but 1 in 5 independent gyms don't make it.

Cam breaks down what it really takes to succeed in franchising: follow the systems religiously, have proper capital (not just for setup, but working capital too), and understand you're investing in proven processes, not buying passive income.

The most successful franchises follow the systems. The ones that struggle think they know better than the proven model.

We cover the journey from employee to franchise owner, why some people own multiple sites, and the reality check every potential franchisee needs: if you think franchising is easy money, you're going to come unstuck pretty quick.

Franchising isn't plug and play, it's investing in a system that works if you work it.

More information on Anytime Fitness: https://www.anytimefitness.co.nz/

Amy from http://Levridge.co.nz has come on as a sponsor of Keep The Change to help people with their financial planning.

Stuck? Find Amy : [email protected]
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amy.levridge
Website: https://www.levridge.co.nz

Generate are supporting my vision to improve the financial literacy of 100,000 kiwis by sponsoring Keep The Change. Cheers Generate. Head to https://www.generatewealth.co.nz/change/ to find out more.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.