What is your net worth? $1,900,000
Are you filling this out as an individual or a couple? Couple
At what age(s) did you become a net worth millionaire? 38-40
What region of New Zealand do you live in? Horowhenua/Wellington
How did you accumulate your net worth, what are you invested in? Being careful with money and monthly tracking of our dollars. Property initially, and now just starting to diversify with shares. Purchased my first house at 20 years old and my first rental at 34 years old.
What was your highest average household WEEKLY income after tax? $3,850
What is your career? Stay-at-home parent
Do you have children? YES
Do you have a tertiary qualification? NO
Did you inherit any of your money? YES
If YES, how much did you inherit? $280,000
What's the approximate value of your house? $1,050,000
Are you debt free now? NO
If NO, how much debt do you have and what is it for? $520,000 for a rental
Are you in KiwiSaver? YES
Were you taught about money? NO
What is the most enjoyable thing you do with money? Family travel
Do you use your money or your time to help others? NO
What is your greatest financial win? Selling a rental when we needed to upgrade to a larger house. We had just six months earlier paid off the mortgage on own home and didn't want to get a mortgage for our own home again, so sold a rental property and the profit from that paid the difference for our larger home, so we could continue to have no mortgage on own home.
What is your worst financial mistake? Buying a business. We were young and didn't know the industry and it was a bad buy, it set us back a few years financially.
What advice do you have for others? Just get started. You'll most likely make mistakes, it’s not the end of the world, just learn from them.
What is the point of having a net worth above $1,000,000. What does it mean to you? Financial security for our family and for our retirement.
Finish these sentences:
If you want to build wealth do this… Budget. Track your daily expenditure and your income. Even if you give a few dollars to a busker on the street, track it. Make sure you have a monthly surplus, even if it means getting a second job or being really tight with your budget - even for a short period, like a week out of each month being tight to get that surplus.
If you want to build wealth avoid doing this… Avoid doing nothing. And be careful what debt you take on.
If these questions don’t adequately tell your story, feel free to briefly elaborate here: Saw a financial advisor at 20 years old for one session which was the best thing. I learned to track expenditure and income and have done so monthly now for 26 years. When buying a new house at 25 years old, the bank gave us pre-approval for $550,000 house but we brought a house for $320,000. Not taking on that extra debt was a cornerstone decision and when it came time to have a family years later, not having that extra larger debt meant it gave us choices about whether or not I had to go back to work when our child was a baby. We could have grown wealth faster but we chose for me to be a stay-at-home parent for the last 16 years - some of this time earning very part-time money and other times none. We have always put sweat equity into every property we have owned (own homes and rentals). We are starting to get older and tired of that now, so are now selling down rentals and moving into shares for more hands off simpler investment.