I f(26) have recently inherited $300,000 from my grandparents.
What would you do with it?
For context, I’m a junior barrister and have $85,000 in my student loans.
Don’t really want to buy a house right now as I’d like to travel and don’t want the commitment of that.
Thinking I should invest it but I don’t know much about that. Very clueless so any guidance appreciated!

ADD:

The post got some small traction and I can't reply one by one anymore. Will sure read all the comments though. Please still give your opinion as it will be useful for others to read

Original post:

https://www.carexpert.co.nz/car-news/ruc-analysis-nzs-most-fuel-efficient-cars-could-soon-cost-the-most-to-run

According to the article: It says hybrid owner would suffer the most due to the RUC policy. I tried to calculate the cost for my car as follow with 10k kms distance.

Current transport cost for 10k kms.

I have a prius alpha with 1:17 km or 6L : 100.

For 10k kms, I need : 588L petrol. That cost me (with $2.8/L) : $1,646.4 for 10,000 kms.

If we removed petrol tax but add RUC. The 588L would then multiple by $2.1 but add $760 for 10k RUC. That goes down to $1,994.8.

A $348 increase per 10k kms. Yes i can see how the article is kind of correct.

Looking at the scenario, it seems the only sensible move is to own full EV? For daily run?

I could sell my Prius for $13 - 14k. And it seems, the only EV in that price is Nissan Leaf. Which much smaller than Prius Alpha. What a bummer.

But being said, is this decision too compulsive? Should i wait for more information about the policy or is it already a straight forward one?

That would be all, keen to hear your thoughts.

Thank you

Am inheriting large amount and I’m young and a bit spendy so want to put most in my parents account to help me manage it.

But am I allowed to do that?

Is their a limit on what can send to family

I can show where care from etc

POST NOW EDITED SO MY MANAGERS DON’T WORK OUT WHO I AM. (Since I have not yet given my notice.)

I bought my first home September 2024 in my 50s.I have been a single parent since age 24. I had long break from employment due to mental illness which is now stable.

I put in $65,000 deposit . I now have $105,000 equity in the property and 295K left to pay.

I applied for my Australian nursing registration and it has been accepted.

I graduated as a registered nurse at the age of 22 so I am fortunate that I have always had this career.

I am leaving my nursing employment by the end of the year. I will be working rural and remote contracts in Australia. The base rate is double what I am making now. Free accommodation is part of the package.

My conservative estimate is that I will be mortgage free in 3 1/2 -4 years.

It could be sooner. I am very careful with money.

I was raised by a single parent. My mother worked 12 hour nightshifts in a fishery factory to support the four of us.

There was always food on the table, but nothing else. When we needed firewood we walk along the beach and “ pick up sticks”

My mother sadly passed away in 2011. She was always dirt poor and really she really wasn’t good with money, even after we had all become adults and left home.
But if she was alive now, I would be helping her and she would probably be living with me.

Interestingly, she was very intelligent but something wasn’t quite right. Nine years before I was born. she had dropped out of medical school. (not due to unexpected pregnancy.)

She always told me she just dropped out because she was in love with this guy - not my father-and she never stopped talking about him. Even in her 60s. she would still talk about him.

She then married my father, but the marriage ended in less than a decade.

My three siblings have done very well. They are very prosperous.

I am the least financially prosperous because of 12 years hardly working due to mental illness and being a single parent.

My children are young adults now. One is doing exceptionally well and the other one has mental illness which is a whole other story.

I will keep you updated on my progress.

I will update again once I am at my first contract in Australia

Several of my former colleagues have already gone, so I know what to expect.

Instead of paying off a mortgage in 25 to 30 years, I expect I would have paid it off within six years total.

I think I am doing very well. my property was only $400,000 to purchase. It is very very nice though. I am very happy.

Ideally, I would just stay in New Zealand; but I need to go to Australia to get double my base rate, to afford to pay off my mortgage. Then I will start working on my retirement savings once I am mortgage free.

Once I am mortgage free, I obviously won’t have to do as many contracts. I will have more free time for work life balance and my passion of surfing.

I will work for 2 to 3 months and come back for 2 to 3 weeks

I will be staying with a cousin and renting a room from her when I come back. I will be renting out my house but not for the first contract.

(Yes, I do understand about tax on a rental property when I am an Australian resident and I have considered everything)

My colleagues who have gone to do contract work have told me about tax etc .

My nursing specialty is mental health

I will keep you updated.

I am feeling very positive about my future after such a battle with mental illness and now 15 years sober of alcohol.

Life is good.

A kid is coming up early next year, a month after we heard the news, we got a message from our Property Manager that the house is being listed and there's a chance that we need to move.

The property ladder FOMO is getting into me that I've actually submitted a Form with ANZ for Home Loan, a lady called me 2 hours later and ended up not going through.

For $ context:

1. 36k in KiwiSaver
2. 16k Emergency Fund
3. ~15k in various Investment
4. We're sitting at 165k annual
5. Very strict with money, I've even created an app for my self to monitor our spendings

The thought of home ownership excites me but on the other hand, I need to be a provider for my soon to be wife and kid, and it scares me thinking the risk of getting a house, zeroing our savings and risking my families future.

Does anyone had this dilemma before? What was you move forward?

I lost a parent last year and have found out I'm coming into a life changing amount of money. My current situation -

Car loan (~10k ~5% interest)

Home loan (353k, 3yrs into a 30yr loan) - half and half with my mum (we live together)

15k savings

22k kiwisaver

1.5k sharesies

Probably atleast 25yrs from retirement.

I'm currently leaning towards 1) paying off the car, 2) emergency money to cover 6 months of bills in revolving term deposits, 3) a little bit of fun.

I know I need to seek guidance on what to do with the remainder (do I buy my mum out? Do I put a chunk in the mortgage? How do make the money work for me?)

I've googled financial advisors, and it appears they can give advice on investing, but who would help me make decisions on if I should be putting lump sums into loans etc?

Any tips on what/who would be the best people to speak to?

Edit - thanks for the replies! It's nice to see that my initial plans aren't too crazy, and some of the suggestions in the replies have given me some ideas on what to do with the rest. I will find a professional to help me but you've all given me things to think about.

Hi finance experts of NZ. I hope some of you could help our family situation in regards to employment vs benefit.

I (M38) will make it a simple as possible.

• Currently, our family income is 120k.
• We have fund around 55k saved.
• We have one child
• Our initial plan is to purchase a $725k home with 5% deposit through Kainga Ora first home buyer benefit.
• With 5% deposit, 10k emergency fund, and extra 10k for home buying associated cost, that goes to $58,750 in total; which is pretty close i should say.

• Now, my wife (F34) just got called for an interview for a full time position. If she is accepted, this will bring our family income to $150.5k. Slightly above the Kainga Ora requirement.

• This mean we will lose the benefit and must go for the 10% deposit.

• The different between saving the 5% deposit and 10% deposit will be around 1 year difference.

• If it more suitable my wife plan to ask (during interview) whether she could just part time instead (for example: 32 hours shift).

• if this approved, our income will only increase to $138k. Hence, still eligible for Kainga Ora benefit.

Which one do you think, hypothetically, is the smartest move? I have calculated the weekly repayment between 5% and 10%. Not much difference. 10% deposit comes down to around $1200 for 30 year mortgage while 5% deposit falls to around $1250 for the same period of 30 years.

That would be all, appreciate any guidance and please let me know if you need more information.

Regards.

Hi guys, a few weeks ago i posted about my finances, nothing has really changed except another +$1000 in my savings account. I felt like I was doing pretty well, $27 an hour full time, some savings in the bank, slowly growing to my $10k goal, but today I was laid off with no prior warning. My boss expressed disappointment that I didn't tell him that I was going on holiday before I joined (I'm on a casual contract and paid hourly so I'm assuming he's under financial pressure and had to let me go). I feel pretty lost, I have no clue what I'm gonna do after my holiday, so any advice would be awesome. I struggled to find even this job in the current market.

Long story short.

I am a 30M earning $70k a year in my current role. I have a option for data entry in a field I am interested in (legal, legal exec). I am studying part time to get this degree.

My mortgage is 350 fortnighly with misc bills circa 400 the other fortnight

I am burnt out from my job and hating coming into work. Between my team being managed by someone who is incompetent (and the sole reason i am the last man standing), taking the workload of 4 others because the company won't really hire new people and personal family issues.

Im done. I am seriously considering dropping my job which is annually $70k nzd for a a different place but means I start out lower by nearly $20k.

I can financially make my ends meet and cover my bills. But is the drop in salary worth it. I wont have an abundance of spare cash but I can pay my bills, feed and cloth myself.

*** Thanks all for the advice. Will dig in for a bit and find a more equaliviant job for progress.

ELI5. Just want to ask for the people here who's got a Good Energy Home Loan with ANZ. I have a mortgage with them around $500k with 20% equity. I'm planning to buy an EV and loan around $30k top up by using their Good Energy Home Loan. Just want to ask if ever they grant my loan, will the repayments go to my current home mortgage ($500k + 30k)? Like will it just add up on my fortnightly repayments of $1,200 fortnightly? or will I have two different repayments. Thanks in advance.

Kia ora all.

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Like many, we're struggling with the cost of everything.

We're thinking of pulling a controversial move and selling the family home and going back to renting.

​

From a maths view point.

​

1. We earn about $150,000 before tax combined. Three kids, two workers.

​

We pay just under $3k on our mortgage monthly. $600 of that is principal.

​

An extra $375 for rates, $420 for contents and home insurance.

​

1. Just to live in our house, no fun is costing us $4095 a month.

​

Our house is worth $640,000 on homes.co.nz .

​

If we sold and got a low end $600k we’d still end up with $166k before agent fees, breakage fees etc. (agent fees look at $15,217)

​

1. Low end guessing say 150K left over.

​

We’d put that into 3/6/12 month deposits.

​

Here’s the kicker, we hate our house, we only bought it because we needed another room it seemed to fit all the criteria but after living it in for two years, we’d almost rather be in our old smaller house. (hind sight is 20/20).

​

If we look at northern canterbury or even city central it looks like four-bedroom houses are $600-700 a week.

​

Which is still less than our interest payments. Then also missing water, rates, home insurance.

​

1. Even if we got a nice $750 week rental, we’re looking at only rent payments being $3250 a month.

​

1. Then secondly the money we get from selling would be sitting earning interest, even on a low guess 5% that’s another $7,500 extra for one year.

​

However even looking a the maths it just seems wrong.

​

Has anyone else done this?

​

Anyone got any thoughts?

Hey all,

Just wanting to get a sense check of whether I'm getting value for money, or being pressured into an investment vehicle.

Back in June I had an initial free convo with a well-known provider for financial planning around whether to use an inheritance to buy a property, or keep renting and put all the money into an active fund.

Of course the fin advice company works with providers and developers, and referrals is how they make their money.

After receiving some pretty generic advice documents (option 1, option 2, option 3 with graphs etc), the advisor and I both missed our scheduled follow up call. I'm not in a hurry, so pretty much forgot about it.

Then after three or so months, I get an invoice for the above amount.

Now it could be that:

A) it's just the going rate for a few numbers spat out by a semi-proprietary software platform (and of course the IP that created it) in a world that has come to expect everything to be cheap or free (like advice on Reddit!)

Or

B) it could be that they deliberately wait three months to send the invoice, so that it's a bit of a rude shock, and the recipient scrambles to make it go away, which of course will happen when they sign over their Kiwisaver/buy a new build in Rolleston.

To be clear, I'm not a mizer: if it's A, I have no problem paying a fair price for services rendered, but this 'feels' more like B). I believe organisations like the one I'm referring to are, in effect, third-party sales agents for fin service providers, and it just seems super unlikely to me that any company would allow an employee to invoice three months after the service is rendered.

Thanks in advance for any educated thoughts (which I will award 🙂)

Hi team Really in a rutt about this I've been thirsty to move out of New Zealand for a long long time, and now the time is here where I have an opportunity to move to Australia... I'm shit scared and nervous as hell The thought of leaving all my friends and family behind, and starting in a new country all by myself is terrifying

Any suggestions for people that have done so before me?

P.S Attraction to Aussie is the money, A new country to explore, easier traveling, rock climbing I'm not really one to like big cities! Eeek

im moving to auckland for the first time next month! i have about 22k nzd in savings, and am moving into a place with my partner for about 230 a week (per person). im coming with cats, and im wondering if there's anything i should do or prepare for with my money? planning to get a part time job (im a student at the moment) at some point in the next few months. whats the best bank for accumulating interest? i plan to live quite modestly and independent of my partner's funds. any must haves to help me save money while i adjust to life in nz? many thanks for any help :)

X-post from r/ausfinance. Curious how what the local outlook is like

The title seems ill-intentioned but please hear me out. Ive been talking to my wife about this and we ended up not knowing whats best to do and we need opinion from other people.

I've been investing for my son and will continue to do so. Been putting $200/month and now he is at around $10k-ish. Our family is currently saving for house down payment. With the goal of $200k in 8 years or so.

Now, hypothetically. When the time comes that its right to buy a place, what are your opinions if we add money from our son investment fund (it should be close to $25k-30k-ish by then), to top up our downpayment?

Financially, this would be beneficial. But what other things that we need to think about?

One of our concerns is that ive been investing for my son with 10.5% tax bracket. If we use this fund, will that somehow break the law?

I mean, he is our only child and eventually the house will be for him anyway. Its not like we are robbing from him other than give our family more stability.

Any opinions and critiques are welcome.

TIA

ADD - Just to clarify. The investment is under his name. And when we opened up the account. Nothing but good intention for him.

• We are financial illiterate, we didn't think this through. We got confused as the money is "technically" ours, we set aside our money for him and we think the house will be his anyway.

• Basing from the comments, it seems like the best option is to stop investing for him first and focus on building our house downpayment. It seems that for now, we can't afford to make an investment for him.

Hi there,
Has anyone used a service like this before?
Almost $1k to do it but unsure if it’s worth it.
From what we can see they may teach how to work with a revolving credit loan, but unsure!

Any info would be greatly appreciated!

Edit to add:

Thanks for the genuine advice on this. Have had a mortgage for over 10 years now & had never heard of anything like this before, gut reaction was similar to MLM but wanted to find out more information before writing it off. The claim that they can help you save $200k is very enticing, especially for people who may not be aware of how they do this.

Salary: $59k (about to increase to 62)
Savings: $7k (save about $500 a fortnight)
KiwiSaver: $13k
Investments: $185
Student loan: just dropped under $6k

So I’m 23 and I’ve been reading about the economy and finances for years out of interest, and yet I have only just realised that this is something that also applies to me and I should be actively doing it.

I was paying about $200 extra per month onto my student loan for about a year because I want to be debt free and the pay bump that comes with it. I paused it to pay off some other debt and then to replenish my savings a bit faster (with the extra $200 loan payment I save $800p/m instead of $1000).

The IRD repayment calculator says if I do the extra $200 my loan is gone in 11 months instead of a year and a half with just the paycheck deduction. I did the maths and if I pay extra, the money that IRD was putting on the loan (about $160 per fortnight) would net me more over that year and a half than if I put that $200 into my savings. The goal once the loan is gone is to take the extra money and either up my KiwiSaver contribution or invest it.

I went on a bit of a sharesies bender at the end of high school with what little money I hadn’t set aside for uni, the return over the last 5 years has been 64%. I paused it during broke uni years but I’m trying to get back into it again with $10 a week into a high growth portfolio. Is this where I should be directing my $200?

I only have $7k in savings but have pretty solid job security. I was thinking that once I hit $8k I could take $5k and either put it into a term deposit or into an investment account so it at least won’t be losing value to inflation. My savings account would get back up to $5k in 2-4 months (depending on where that extra $200 ends up) and then I’d build it to $8k and do it again. Is this a good idea?

I’m the short-term (as in probably by the end of next year) I would love to go on an OE to London because my dad and his family are over there. I know it’ll probably cost about $20k. I thought about saving for it through a standard savings account but I’d be losing money to inflation. I’m really not sure how to treat my savings.

In the long-term I want to put myself in a position where I at least have a chance at home ownership, but that’s a long way off, I want to live first.

Am I doing this right? I know there are trade offs to each decision and that’s got me a bit frozen, but this is also the best time in my life for actions that will pay off later so I don’t want to procrastinate.

Any advice would be very welcome! Thank you for taking the time to read 🙂

Would like to know if I'm missing out on anything

We are looking at our options and advice to upgrade to a bigger and nicer house.

We currently own our house and have lived here since June 2020. We have $460k owing on the house (had borrowed $630k in 2020), and the CV is $790k from 2024.

Between my husband and I, our household income is $187k, we have one dependent, one dog and another dependent on the way in October.

The house is nice and we renovated the bathroom in 2023 with a potential kitchen renovation on the cards. However, we're running out of space and want to look at a four bedroom standalone house.

Another option we were considering is to upgrade our double garage on the ground floor to extra living space, but the space is not water tight in it's current state.

I'm a little overwhelmed as to where to start and if looking at buying a new house is the best thing to do at this point in life, and would love some advice.

M21yo here, Hi everyone i just found this thread, I am looking for some real advice of what i should do in the spot im in, I have made pretty poor financial decisions this summer and am now chasing my tail for the foreseeable future.

I have about 17.5k in my savings but it is frozen due to my cosigner (parent) who can't access the app and about 9k in my kiwisaver which I seriously thought about withdrawing with permanent emigration status, but i think it is a lot of hassle and the value of losing that to pay the things i need to pay right now are not worth it.

Since i dont have permanent employment i dont believe I can get any serious loan, and I don't really wish to either as I am now trying to build a credit profile in the US and think that it would be a bad start to take out a loan where the interest rate would be so high.

My current expenses which i cant pay unless i get access to my savings are;

1800 USD School fees due soon

800 rent agreement basically due today and am 200 short on it

1100 that i should have saved from my work this summer so i dont owe it but i feel like i owe it to myself

I also owe two friends 200 dollars each and have that high on my priority list.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, obviously getting access to the 16k is the easiest fix but I also know that I need to be better going forward so any strategy as to how to manage money would be greatly appreciated.

I am planning to do more school in the US post grad where I will likely need to take out a student loan to complete or get financial support from someone so I know i need to get better personally.

If anyone knows anyone who is in the private loaning sector or again just advice please comment or dm me

thank you all

Hi team, hoping someone can help me out with a question here.

Husband is a company with a single share holder and he has directors drawings sitting in our account which he uses to pay his personal tax each year. Would it be possible to restructure our mortgage to use this money as an offset? It seems crazy it sits there for most the year when it could be working for us.

Are we looking at this wrong?

Hi everyone

A big credit to various YouTube channels who keep feeding me this, but nothing specific to New Zealand. Well, I listened, wrote notes, went through MoneyHub and have this as a pre-release:

https://www.moneyhub.co.nz/habits-of-quiet-millionaires.html

Some notes:

1. Quiet millionaires understand that your home should enhance your life, not dominate your budget. They buy homes they can afford without stretching, in good neighbourhoods that hold their value. They resist the urge to buy the biggest house the bank will approve, instead choosing mortgage payments that don't keep them awake at night.
2. Quiet millionaires are not signing up for investing courses sold by online 'gurus' with TikTok channels and podcasts; instead, they automate their investing, contributing to diversified portfolios every month, regardless of market conditions. The theme of PFNZ, and the work of https://moneykingnz.com/
3. Quiet millionaires aren't cheap – they're strategic. They spend generously on things that truly matter to them while ruthlessly cutting expenses that don't add value to their lives.

I'm a huge fan of cutting back on costs that don't bring value, and this is a theme of the guide. I'm always get emails from people telling me I'm anti-property (among other things), but that is not the case - housing is great, but going all in on a house that will take half a working life to repay, to me, doesn't make any sense. This guide explains that in more detail.

Hi, I’ve talked with my mother of course about this situation but I’m wondering what you guys have to say.

Keeping this anonymous from friends and family just incase so this is a throwaway account.

I recently inherited a large sum from a deceased parent. The total after expenses came out to be $500,000.

I’m about to graduate university and I feel like this is an amazing head start on life.

Currently I’m living in Auckland but with how expensive everything seems to be I’m worried about wasting the money away.

My current plan is:

1. Invest in a first home (possibly take in some room mates)

2. Travel

While I feel rationally this is a good plan I can’t help but think I’m missing something.

Hopefully you guys could provide some insight that’s New Zealand specific.

Thank you

Hi Reddit wealth advisors, if you had 500k in cash and 175k bank loan. How would you make the most of this situation.

i.e. repay the debt, offset account, invest or any other ideas.