Should you consider an interest only loan?
Few of us are fortunate enough to be able to afford buying a house without taking a home loan. For the rest of us, there are a number of decisions that need to be...
PocketWise Blog
Don’t get a credit card before you figure this out
On average, each month Kiwis rack up about $4.2 billion in credit card transactions – either on shopping locally or using their card for shopping overseas. With the silly season just a few weeks...
Three things you should know about your bank term deposit
Kiwi households have over $160 billion invested in term deposits issued by financial institutions, such as banks. This has doubled in amount from just 10 years ago. Suffice to say term deposits are a...
Two ways to get wise about taking a personal loan
Planning on buying a car, or booking that long awaited holiday, and not enough money in the bank? You are not alone – but being wise about it can save you thousands of dollars....
Mortgage rates as cheap as chips at under 4% – to fix, or not to fix?
Last week we looked at how changes in headline interest rates in New Zealand versus other countries can affect your overseas travel plans. But, such changes in interest rates will impact on your other...
The Best Time To Buy Your Travel Money
Booked your travel overseas? You have sorted your accommodation and your flight plans. Now….how about travel money? Should you exchange your New Zealand dollars right away or should you wait until it’s closer to...
Money Week – Your personal financial journey
As part of our Money Week series of articles we have already looked at smart ways to use your credit cards and the importance of being cashflow rich (not just asset rich). Your personal...
Money Week – How to manage long term debts
In keeping with the theme of Money Week, being ‘financial resilience’, we looked at smart ways to use your credit cards in the first part of this series. The concept of resilience is relevant...
Money Week – How to be smart with credit cards
This week is Money Week – the theme for this year being ‘financial resilience’. At PocketWise, building a financially resilient community is our mission. Of course there are many approaches to being financially resilient....
Have the cheapest KiwiSaver funds been producing the highest returns?
Background The KiwiSaver retirement savings initiative commenced in July 2007. Over the last 10 years and a bit since then, about 2.8 million Kiwis have opened KiwiSaver accounts and in aggregate accumulated close to...
Big changes to Kiwisaver – How do they affect you?
The short version is that: You can now contribute 6% or 10% of your salary as your regular contribution to your KiwiSaver account; If you take a contribution holiday, you now only have one...