What is your net worth? 1,606,000
Are you filling this out as an individual or a couple? Couple
At what age(s) did you become a net worth millionaire? 35 and 36 (our current ages)
What region of New Zealand do you live in? Canterbury
How did you accumulate your net worth, what are you invested in? Education, small business, low cost index funds, KiwiSaver, Rocket Lab, teeny amount of Bitcoin, and personal property (owner occupied home).
What was your highest average household WEEKLY income after tax? $6,900 (pre-tax)
What is your career? Small Business and other.
Do you have children? NO
Do you have a tertiary qualification? YES
Did you inherit any of your money? NO
What's the approximate value of your house? $690,000
Are you debt free now? YES
Are you in KiwiSaver? YES
Were you taught about money?:YES
If YES, how were you taught? Was told to read Rich Dad Poor Dad and only have a credit card if I was to pay it off in full each month.
What is the most enjoyable thing you do with money? Invest it, watch it grow, use it for hobbies, use it to build memories, travel, freedom to choose.
Do you use your money or your time to help others? NO
If YES, can you please elaborate. No yet, but I plan to.
What is your greatest financial win? Stumbling across Mr Money Mustache at age 23 or so. Buying a small house below our means and paying it off in full. Buying our small business. Investing in ETFs and a single stock that has done well so far.
What is your worst financial mistake? Blowing a significant tax return when I was a uni student to buy extravagant clothing rather than using it as an emergency fund. My car then died and I couldn't afford to fix it so I had it scrapped, but then had to buy a new car with a bank overdraft which took under a year to clear. Thankfully I didn't have to pay interest as it was a special loan for new grads.
What advice do you have for others?
Educate yourself. Start with an old blog called Mr Money Mustache. It's really good! Try The Barefoot Investor audiobook (you can listen free on audible and then cancel the subscription before you get charged).
Track your spending for a time period. Maybe a week or a month. Evaluate each purchase based on your values. Are you spending loads of money on something that you don't really value? Then stop doing that. Spend money on necessities and things that you value. Read the book "Minimalism, live a meaningful life" to help you figure out what you value (get it out of the library).
Set yourself a yearly budget based on your needs and also your values. I used to freak out spending money on my car, but I found it extremely freeing having $1,000 earmarked at the start of the year for car maintenance, because when I needed to fix my car, it was already factored in. It's strange how freeing this felt. I literally had a notebook and recorded this with pen and paper. I did this for a year, and only for a year at the start of my personal finance journey. After that I didn't need to track every dollar, because I learnt what I needed to learn from it. So I stopped strictly tracking.
My next step was having a savings goal. My biggest most memorable goal from my early 20s was the year that I wanted to save $20,000. I divided $20,000 by 26 (I was paid fortnightly) and had an automatic transfer set up so that as soon as my pay hit my bank account, it transferred that dollar amount to a different savings account that I couldn't access as easily. Many people call this 'paying yourself first'. This was a ridiculously easy way of saving $20,000. You'll be able to work out a savings target for yourself based on what kind of travel you want to do and what kind of spending you need to do to live.
Focus on stuff that's free! Build healthy habits around activities that also help you save money. Join the library and read library books, meet friends for walks/exercise instead of a cocktail, learn how to cook (you have to feed yourself anyway), have a buddy that you workout with from home with an app, get the same buzz from opshopping that you would get from buying new clothes. Connect with people in creative ways that don't cost loads of money. I saved so much when I stopped drinking as much! But it was hard because so much of my uni culture revolved around drinking and I was still pretty immersed in that in my early 20s.
Avoid lifestyle creep. When you get a pay rise, pretend you didn't and add that difference in pay to your savings.
Give yourself permission to stop giving a f**k about what people think of you and also stop comparing yourself to others. This will potentially help you save money, but also helps you live your most authentic life. This is the whole stop trying to 'keep up with the Joneses' situation where people spend money they don't have trying to keep up with the people around them. Most rich people don't outwardly look super wealthy.
Avoid paying interest on credit cards. If you have a credit card, pay it off in full each month. Speaking of interest, learn about compounding interest.
Invest each pay packet, no matter what the market is doing (up or down) into low cost index funds. We do Foundation Series Total World Fund on the InvestNow platform.
KiwiSaver change to a better option.
Enjoy the journey too, don't focus everything on the future.
What is the point of having a net worth above $1,000,000. What does it mean to you? Freedom and not having to live hand-to-mouth.
Finish these sentences:
If you want to build wealth do this… Start with a crash course in financial education.
If you want to build wealth avoid doing this… Avoid being unintentional with your money.