Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talks.
Speaker 2: It'd be.
Speaker 3: I'll never even good missus so to death will be
Speaker 3: freezing vocal season so good, it's dear listen.
Speaker 2: They'll have sometimes.
Speaker 3: Guess it's just the North arning he'll have way this
Speaker 3: don't go to your nice Christmas baby.
Speaker 2: My soul man, and welcome back to the Weekend Collective.
Speaker 2: Apparently this is a Christmas song as well, my producer
Speaker 2: Tyra is telling me, but I'm not see you know
Speaker 2: how you can tell a Christmas song usually in the
Speaker 2: background the band of put some sleigh bells in. In fact,
Speaker 2: you can turn any song into a Christmas song just
Speaker 2: by having sleigh bells going ching ching, ching ching in
Speaker 2: the background. Um anyway, but thanks thanks my producer Tire
Speaker 2: for providing the musical choices this afternoon. Right now, there's
Speaker 2: time for smart money. By the way, if you've missed
Speaker 2: any of the previous hours, and we had a very
Speaker 2: busy politics hour with an interview with Ashley Bloomfield and
Speaker 2: also Chris Hopkins and Thomas Coglan from The Herald just
Speaker 2: about the COVID report and subsequently the news the labor
Speaker 2: parties AGM. You can go and check that out online,
Speaker 2: go to iHeartRadio or the news storks he'd be website
Speaker 2: and also Alex Flint there just with getting into exercise
Speaker 2: and personal trainers and terrible exercise equipment. So that was
Speaker 2: that was that, But this is now and it's smart money.
Speaker 2: My guest is she's a personal finance coach, author, writer,
Speaker 2: she's a friend of the show. Really, Amanda Morale, how
Speaker 2: are you going? Amanda? How are you?
Speaker 4: I was going to say Top of the Morning, but
Speaker 4: it's not morning.
Speaker 2: We are you going to say Top of the Money?
Speaker 4: You sense of your very Christmas? I'm just looking at
Speaker 4: this festive studio here. It definitely is feeling a little
Speaker 4: bit like Christmas. You just need a tree and that'll cap.
Speaker 2: And a little bit of tinsel, isn't it, which we've
Speaker 2: got now for those if you haven't seen our studio,
Speaker 2: we have a bunch of TV screens which all have
Speaker 2: different images from our New Zealand and to Christmas fire,
Speaker 2: Christmas a fire they have. They basically just added a
Speaker 2: string of tinsel to it and it's quite effective.
Speaker 4: Tinsel, isn't it like an environmental hazard? Now?
Speaker 2: Probably? Well, this is digital tinsel anyway safe on that
Speaker 2: front as well. They also shove Christmas hats on our
Speaker 2: profile photos all of a sudden about December. The first
Speaker 2: you turn around and you see a photo yourself and
Speaker 2: you think, I don't remember posing in a Santa hat.
Speaker 2: There we go. Hey, now we've got to talk about
Speaker 2: with Christmas approaching. And it ties into this a little bit.
Speaker 2: Spending tracking apps And I actually had connected with a
Speaker 2: tracking app at some stage and then I just suddenly
Speaker 2: didn't anymore, and I've forgotten even what its name was.
Speaker 2: But they're not a bad way. But the thing is,
Speaker 2: you've got to keep updating your often. And I don't know,
Speaker 2: are they some good spinning apps?
Speaker 4: I think they're only as good as you engage to
Speaker 4: use them, right, And I heard some shocking statistic about
Speaker 4: the number of apps that actually get used on people's phones,
Speaker 4: And so you can probably think of the ones that
Speaker 4: are on your phone and think of the top four
Speaker 4: that you use routinely. Yeah, I think of it myself.
Speaker 4: My banking app is right at the top of the list.
Speaker 4: So the one that is most practical for me on
Speaker 4: this occasion is when it is tied to my bank,
Speaker 4: which gives me automatic feeds. So I like my spending
Speaker 4: app through it's.
Speaker 2: Called cash nev oh, I've got that.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So sometimes I think maybe why you suggesting it's
Speaker 4: disappeared is that there's an option when you're logging in
Speaker 4: to keep it. You don't have to like manually log on,
Speaker 4: so it'll be giving you notifications and staying live continuously,
Speaker 4: but you can kind of put a dormant and then
Speaker 4: you forget about it. So I would recommend if there's
Speaker 4: nothing too sensitive and people you know you don't have.
Speaker 2: I've just other two hundred apps on my phone too.
Speaker 4: Ever, since you mentioned it, I know, get rid of
Speaker 4: some of those apps because but yes, so, I mean
Speaker 4: there are many, many separate apps outside of the banking apps,
Speaker 4: but that's a good place to start if you're over apped,
Speaker 4: I would say is look at the ones that are
Speaker 4: associated with your bank, so you're more likely to engage
Speaker 4: with them.
Speaker 2: And because the reason that that spending apps are, you
Speaker 2: could even though I'm a hypocrite for saying this, but
Speaker 2: they sort of should be essential because a lot of
Speaker 2: the times on smart Mate, when we've talked about the
Speaker 2: way we spend money in the old days. Of course,
Speaker 2: the old days. Goodness may have done know what that was.
Speaker 2: But you know, back in the days of cash twenty
Speaker 2: years ago, and we still use cash from time to time,
Speaker 2: I guess, but you were often handing cash over all
Speaker 2: the time, or you were writing out a check which
Speaker 2: you were reconciling as you write it out, and I
Speaker 2: write a check out for ninety dollars. Today, you were
Speaker 2: much more aware emotionally. I think I would agree with
Speaker 2: that the mental trend was more substantial as opposed to bloop.
Speaker 4: Tap tap tap. Yeah, and absolutely, because you'd be more conscious.
Speaker 4: So tonight, I'm going out to get out one hundred dollars.
Speaker 4: One hundred dollars is gone, time to go home, right,
Speaker 4: Whereas when you've got access, well I.
Speaker 1: Just made an easy round number there.
Speaker 4: But you know, I I and here's a good example,
Speaker 4: because I've got a soon to be twenty one year old,
Speaker 4: you know, on a weekend there you know boom like
Speaker 4: paycheck and paycheck out, and you know, I lecture this
Speaker 4: kid incessantly, which is maybe the problem because he doesn't listen.
Speaker 4: But that's the danger is that you can just you
Speaker 4: basically go to you're denied, and then you go home.
Speaker 4: But so there's no sort of built in you know,
Speaker 4: you know, rail guards against overspending. It's just if you
Speaker 4: if you don't have that conscious control and you're not mindful.
Speaker 4: And some people are like that just comes down to
Speaker 4: their habits with money and they just you know, go go, go,
Speaker 4: go go.
Speaker 2: I'll just realize something that if I go to the
Speaker 2: shops and I know I have to get certain items,
Speaker 2: there's probably times I don't even look at what the
Speaker 2: title is, and I might I might go paying us
Speaker 2: O I forgot to look what the title was? How
Speaker 2: much was that? And it's not because because I don't
Speaker 2: consider themsself wealthy by any stretch. But if my wife
Speaker 2: has said, can you go to get X, Y and
Speaker 2: Z down at the shops, and I go and get it,
Speaker 2: sometimes I don't even notice. So that's how transit treats become.
Speaker 4: For mat it's an absolute danger, and I agree with
Speaker 4: your earlier point. It should be kind of an essential
Speaker 4: built in to all these days. But you know, in
Speaker 4: many cases it's not in bank's best interest for you
Speaker 4: to be aware of your spending, just because of course,
Speaker 4: you know, they wouldn't want you to be fast tracking
Speaker 4: your mortgage repayment or you know, not spending you know,
Speaker 4: to the maximum of your credit card. It's very much
Speaker 4: a built into their interest to sort of you know,
Speaker 4: put a veil over that business.
Speaker 2: That's why they probably don't have the automatic notification. Hey,
Speaker 2: by the way, if you pay your bill off, your
Speaker 2: credit card bill off in the next few days, there's
Speaker 2: no interest because of course, if you pay your credit
Speaker 2: card off every month, you avoid the interest, which is
Speaker 2: a major that's in fact, I diary it. I have
Speaker 2: these alarms that go off, bing bing and the other thing.
Speaker 2: Actually funny enough, now that you mentioned kash Nev, I
Speaker 2: remember why I stopped using it was because my wife
Speaker 2: and I we don't we share the same account. We
Speaker 2: have a card each, but when one of you is
Speaker 2: used the Kashnev account, it logs the other one off
Speaker 2: and I got just got sick of logging on and
Speaker 2: off all the time. Yeah, and so, yeah, and that
Speaker 2: was something I thought they could have rectified.
Speaker 4: They have done.
Speaker 2: Maybe they have. They used it.
Speaker 4: Upgrades recently, so it might have changed. But yeah, they
Speaker 4: should be far more onto it than they are. So
Speaker 4: outside of the banking ecosphere they do. There are some
Speaker 4: good apps for individuals. But again, they're only as good
Speaker 4: as they are that you engage with them. So I
Speaker 4: personally don't see the point in getting those unless you're
Speaker 4: going to be paying closer attention and then logging in
Speaker 4: and getting notifications and reform behavior apps. It depends. Some
Speaker 4: are free, some are not. Those paid versions. It's kind
Speaker 4: of like Spotify free, Spotify premium. Pocket Wise is another
Speaker 4: really good one, But the free version it's a bit.
Speaker 4: It's a bit uh requires some manual labor because you
Speaker 4: have to upmanually upload your statements, which can be a bit.
Speaker 4: You know, if you're not like good with spreadsheets and
Speaker 4: CSV files and this and that, you can get a
Speaker 4: little bit it just turned off of that, you know
Speaker 4: immediately if that's going to work for you or not.
Speaker 4: If they've got automatic feeds, then that's and that's the
Speaker 4: paid version where you're not having to do uploads. There
Speaker 4: just there for you. But even even so, say you're
Speaker 4: paying fifteen dollars a month for this, but you're still
Speaker 4: not checking and engaging, then you know, what's the point
Speaker 4: You're going to have to consider there's maybe a different
Speaker 4: pathway for me to try to get, you know, a
Speaker 4: handle of my finances.
Speaker 2: I was always I think I'm still kind of I
Speaker 2: go along with it because through my account we use
Speaker 2: there's a hook up with Zero that have obviously in
Speaker 2: Zero have access to my bank accounts, not to do anything,
Speaker 2: but just to see what's in there. And I did
Speaker 2: take me a while to mentally get my head around
Speaker 2: a separate piece of accounting software having the ability to
Speaker 2: see what money I had in my accounts. And so
Speaker 2: obviously that's a company everyone knows, and there there will
Speaker 2: be other software that does that. But the issue of
Speaker 2: trust as well as and safety. The trust is probably
Speaker 2: the secondary issue the safe the reality of how safe
Speaker 2: it is to enable those spinnings to have access, because
Speaker 2: I would imagine there are some shark infested waters out
Speaker 2: there as well.
Speaker 4: One hundred percent so because we haven't quite got to
Speaker 4: where they are in other countries with open banking, where
Speaker 4: you can hook up of your different banking devices for example,
Speaker 4: you know, centralize your insurances, your retirement savings, investments, Kibi,
Speaker 4: siber and have it all in when centralized place. We're
Speaker 4: not there yet in New Zealand. We're kind of lagging
Speaker 4: behind where a lot of other countries are. But there
Speaker 4: are some areas. There's a tech startup called Acohu that
Speaker 4: is doing some pretty nifty integrations. But in a lot
Speaker 4: of instances you have to give permissions and they will
Speaker 4: assure you. It's easier to break into Fort Knox than
Speaker 4: to you know, for their systems to get scammed. But
Speaker 4: I agree with you, you have to be, you know, mentally
Speaker 4: assured that that everything's going to be okay. There was
Speaker 4: another tracking app that was supposed to track your ear
Speaker 4: and your environmental footprint. Uh and and that was another
Speaker 4: one where you had to you know, kind of overcome
Speaker 4: that issue. Well what about this happening and stuff?
Speaker 2: So oh I couldn't see that. Imagine being lectured every time, yes,
Speaker 2: something something, Well, you contributed to the youthstomized by another
Speaker 2: zero points, zeros are one, whatever the unit would be.
Speaker 4: I know, but some people like to measure those strength
Speaker 4: recently and you know maybe all people like us not
Speaker 4: so much.
Speaker 2: Say old you are spring Chicken, Amanda Morale, what's going on?
Speaker 1: Okay, I'll revise down.
Speaker 2: Look, we want to hear from you. O eight one
Speaker 2: hundred eighty ten eighty Do you use a tracking app?
Speaker 2: And if not, how are you? How do you keep
Speaker 2: track of and I don't mean just keeping track in
Speaker 2: a budgetary sense, but how do you keep track of
Speaker 2: what you're spending day to day in a sense that
Speaker 2: really helps you understand how much money you are spending.
Speaker 2: And if you've got a particular app that you love,
Speaker 2: that you that you trust and you want to share
Speaker 2: it with us, or we've got some questions about it,
Speaker 2: Not that we're technical experts, but Amanda might know a
Speaker 2: few things about a few apps. Give us a call.
Speaker 2: Because it's Christmas time and you know what's so easy
Speaker 2: to just go zips aapp. It's not even zips app.
Speaker 2: That's the manual thing, isn't it. That's the bit of paper.
Speaker 4: I think there's a long since gone the an African
Speaker 4: nations somewhere, but even there I think they're more high tech.
Speaker 2: Well the old days of visa when they would stick
Speaker 2: the thing and.
Speaker 4: Shouldn't sho they're quite neat. They might have those somewhere.
Speaker 2: Still wonder how many years since I did that? Think
Speaker 2: you have to be ten or fifteen? Easy, wouldn't it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Listen, I think when it comes to Christmas spending,
Speaker 4: just instead of your zip zap and tap tap, you know,
Speaker 4: just get take take take the cash out, you know,
Speaker 4: to go go old school, take the cash out that
Speaker 4: you want to spend on Christmas gifts, and that's it.
Speaker 4: When the money's gone, the money's gone, because I'll move
Speaker 4: it into one of your accounts if you had a
Speaker 4: separate account, and just use all your Christmas shopping on
Speaker 4: that account, and when it's gone, it's gone, and it'll
Speaker 4: force you to stick within your budget unless you go start,
Speaker 4: you know, playing that shell game and moving things out
Speaker 4: of over your secret Seemings account.
Speaker 2: Then you know, I've got a text to you saying
Speaker 2: that's actually really common for people in their twenties, that
Speaker 2: plenty of people do it, and heaps of influencers recommend
Speaker 2: it in terms of the I think in terms of
Speaker 2: the spending app that texture is referring to that they're
Speaker 2: actually quite common for younger people.
Speaker 4: Is that your Yeah, so my one of my other kids.
Speaker 4: They students who particularly those who are flatting, have there's
Speaker 4: a good app called split wise and and so they
Speaker 4: you know that that helps them to manage division of
Speaker 4: all the household finances and stuff. That's very popular. Pocket
Speaker 4: Smith is another one. There's a few key we saver
Speaker 4: providers who've created budgeting apps as a sort of an
Speaker 4: attractive tool to join their schemes. So yeah, absolutely there's
Speaker 4: lots of Metagain, even with the twenty year olds, there's
Speaker 4: going to be you know, some who actually are paying
Speaker 4: attention to it, and you know, those who are very
Speaker 4: golden and probably saving for a home deposit, et cetera.
Speaker 4: Others not so much because they have a different attitude.
Speaker 4: And I think it's more it's less about the apps,
Speaker 4: it's more about your your attitude and your habits. So
Speaker 4: that's the meat of.
Speaker 2: The I must read that text actually, because that was
Speaker 2: the second text they'd sent. This is what they'd sent
Speaker 2: for and so they were talking about what's common. It
Speaker 2: says I have about eighteen different accounts under my one
Speaker 2: band account. The morning after payday, I have automatic payments
Speaker 2: into every account. This is hyper organized, so there's a
Speaker 2: groceries account, gas pets, et cetera. So every time I
Speaker 2: go to spend money, I have to manually take it
Speaker 2: out of the right account. Obviously can still have a spend,
Speaker 2: but it gives a moment of pause for me to
Speaker 2: reconsider before mindlessly swiping. I have eighteen different accounts, How
Speaker 2: on earth would you transact?
Speaker 4: Well, well, that's a lot of accounts. I would hope
Speaker 4: that that person is not spending too much on fees
Speaker 4: because they're you know, the fees aren't too bad on
Speaker 4: some accounts, but if you're overfeed, then you know, as there,
Speaker 4: you know, you have to consider it as a you know, cost.
Speaker 2: I don't know how you do that, and I'm trying
Speaker 2: to work that out actually, and I have eighteen different accounts.
Speaker 2: Apparently it's under be and Z you can have up
Speaker 2: to fifty different free accounts. But when you go spending
Speaker 2: is this with it?
Speaker 4: It seems a bit complicated, But you know, if it
Speaker 4: works for that person's who's to say, who's to knock it?
Speaker 4: So that's what that's my point is that everybody is
Speaker 4: a bit different and there's strategies, so you know, come
Speaker 4: up with a plan that you know that you can
Speaker 4: that it works for you, and you're accountable to that plan.
Speaker 4: Don't adopt somebody else's plan, like the eighteen account plan. Mats.
Speaker 2: This must be for online transactions, because you couldn't have
Speaker 2: a bank card where you stick it in the machine
Speaker 2: and go which account do you want? Watch my a team.
Speaker 4: Well, I think there's with my bank anyhow, receivings you're checking,
Speaker 4: you know, maybe your credit card and you know bonus.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 4: Eighteen seems quite excessive. I've got about four and four
Speaker 4: is excessive, So.
Speaker 2: Does seem quite a lot? Wait, text update us on
Speaker 2: that on that strategy, please, because it sounds complex. But
Speaker 2: also we want to hear from you. Do you have
Speaker 2: a way of tracking your spending that actually helps you
Speaker 2: realize how much you've blown on Christmas presents this year?
Speaker 2: I'm sure it's a shame I can't get one from
Speaker 2: my daughters because they keep on saying to me, oh, Daddy,
Speaker 2: we're doing a secret center for my netball team. We're
Speaker 2: doing a secret center for my hockey team, doing a
Speaker 2: secret sound for my and it's like we're up to
Speaker 2: the budgets are just going nuts?
Speaker 4: Well they aren't.
Speaker 1: They're not.
Speaker 4: But I tell yeah, you know, I'm not to encourage consumerism,
Speaker 4: but now is the time to be buying Christmas presents
Speaker 4: because days Friday. I thought it used to be one
Speaker 4: or two days, but it's been a long window. And
Speaker 4: I understand for most shops it's closed on Wednesday, but
Speaker 4: these sales. I've sent parts arguably better than what you're
Speaker 4: going to get at boxing day because retailers are very
Speaker 4: they've had a very tough year and they are a
Speaker 4: keen to siller. So yeah, I would get organized and
Speaker 4: get yourself down there, because you save yourself a lot
Speaker 4: of money.
Speaker 2: We might dig into that a little bit, but yeah,
Speaker 2: in terms of managing your spending, give us a call
Speaker 2: if you've got a particular way that helps you keep
Speaker 2: track of it in a meaningful way that you actually
Speaker 2: know how much you're blowing on whatever. Eight hundred eighty
Speaker 2: ten and eighty text nine to nine two. It's twenty
Speaker 2: three past five newstalks you'd be We're talking about spending
Speaker 2: apps and tracking the money you are s the age
Speaker 2: of simply hold your card over the machine and bingo.
Speaker 2: It's all done magic. And my guest is financial personal
Speaker 2: finance coach and author Amanda Morale. Let's take some calls harmon, Hello, Hi, how.
Speaker 5: Are you doing today?
Speaker 2: Good?
Speaker 5: Thanks? God? Good? So about there's eighteen apps that that
Speaker 5: the one guy texted us. I've got about six apps
Speaker 5: or six bank accounts from A and Z. Part of
Speaker 5: them are three one of their long long con savings
Speaker 5: and one is my everyday's account. And if you do
Speaker 5: your budgets correctly and you get automatic drafts soon you
Speaker 5: don't have to every day manage your account. And if
Speaker 5: you've got a one account that you're spending account, as
Speaker 5: soon as you put money into it, you just withdraw
Speaker 5: the money and able to cash. It stops the spending
Speaker 5: so much. I've saved so much in the line four
Speaker 5: months just doing that.
Speaker 2: So you've just been doing that for the last four months,
Speaker 2: and how traumdica differences it made.
Speaker 5: It's made a massive difference. I was able to save
Speaker 5: about thousand, five hundred and just four months fifteen hundred bucks.
Speaker 5: Fifteen hundred Yeah, and that month.
Speaker 4: That's because you apportioned your spending amount and then you
Speaker 4: put more into savings and then you stop spending when
Speaker 4: you money the money ran out.
Speaker 5: So every time you know, go to fast food, oh
Speaker 5: it's just fifteen dollars year, it's just fifteen dollars thee
Speaker 5: or you know, I've just there, And as soon as
Speaker 5: you've got the money in your pocket, that suddenly you realize, oh,
Speaker 5: it's not just fifteen dollars, that's is fifteen dollars that
Speaker 5: I need for this or that, and it just it
Speaker 5: could have the spending habit quite a bit. The card
Speaker 5: is just too easy. So out of my out of
Speaker 5: my father account, only one account has got a card,
Speaker 5: and that card is for my spending. So my bulls
Speaker 5: is automatic, A payments goes out, my mortgage is automatic,
Speaker 5: payment goes out, long term savings, no pavements goes out
Speaker 5: of there. Then I've got my insurance takes that out.
Speaker 5: And then the other one is for gifts and unplanned expenses.
Speaker 5: And again that one doesn't have a card, but that
Speaker 5: can just easily be moved into spending we needed.
Speaker 2: Hey, what did you notice you stopped spending money on
Speaker 2: the most food?
Speaker 5: Fast food? Fast food was the biggest Yes about that.
Speaker 5: Fast food was my biggest outcome. I would spend around
Speaker 5: about three hundred fortnights on fast food after I've done shopping.
Speaker 4: Wow, okay, so you've probably last a little bit of
Speaker 4: weight too, know if saving that money, yeah, good on.
Speaker 5: You, yep, absolutely, but yeah no, So having cash in
Speaker 5: hand is just it. It's a saver. It is a
Speaker 5: harness saver.
Speaker 4: It's a good tip.
Speaker 2: And I love the South African accent with the words
Speaker 2: fast food.
Speaker 1: You know that actually sounds how here, thankst you, thank you.
Speaker 2: I love a good South African accent. The fast food. Actually,
Speaker 2: that is one I would say the simplest way to
Speaker 2: start saving money for getting spending apps. But you know,
Speaker 2: obviously that's what we're talking about, is it's it's unfortunately
Speaker 2: for hospitality and all that, but if you just cook
Speaker 2: your own meals, you save a fortune. God, I hate
Speaker 2: to think when I was living in Australia in my
Speaker 2: musical theater days, the amount of money I blew on
Speaker 2: bacon and eggs down at the local cafe. I hate
Speaker 2: when I I hate to think it sounds like I'm
Speaker 2: saying it as a throwaway line. I really hate to
Speaker 2: think how much I spent.
Speaker 4: You know, just do you still eat bacon and eggs
Speaker 4: or yes.
Speaker 2: But it's a genuine treat rather than something I developed
Speaker 2: and not listen to a habit. But learning to cook
Speaker 2: your own meals.
Speaker 4: Yeah, one hundred percent, no, and they're better for you
Speaker 4: and you know, but a lot of it comes down
Speaker 4: to just gain self awareness and organization. And obviously for Hermann,
Speaker 4: you know, the switch flecked at some stage that he
Speaker 4: auto payments, just allocate myself a certain amount.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 4: Money runs out, and so it's discipline as well underlying
Speaker 4: all those. Again, it's easy to think, oh, i'll download
Speaker 4: this app, I'll be a fifteen Maybe you don't have
Speaker 4: the fifteen bucks a month to use that, but then
Speaker 4: you ignore it. You know, it's showing you the things
Speaker 4: that you intuitively know that you've overspent in certain areas.
Speaker 4: So you have to be able to control your behavior.
Speaker 4: And if you can't control your baby, you do what
Speaker 4: he's suggesting, which is like pay yourself in cash. Cash
Speaker 4: is out. That's it.
Speaker 2: Well, you always fiscally aware because you know, obviously you're
Speaker 2: financial author and things like that. But sometimes I think
Speaker 2: also that people who specialists in a particular area, they
Speaker 2: might be there because they've learned the hard way. Was
Speaker 2: there a time for you?
Speaker 4: No, I can't say that I ever made any big mistakes,
Speaker 4: but you know, no, no, but I I but you know,
Speaker 4: I went through a divorce that was probably caused because
Speaker 4: one party was horrible with money, and you know, tried
Speaker 4: to fix the situation. And you know, I think I've
Speaker 4: said this many times on the show, but financial you know,
Speaker 4: strain and issues are more toxic in a relationship than
Speaker 4: cheating and cause more damage. So you never underestimate how
Speaker 4: how money is stressful, incredibly stressful, especially because you know,
Speaker 4: you got you know, people with gambling habits or you
Speaker 4: know they are overspending. Then you go to mortgage particular,
Speaker 4: people will be feeling a heat now more than ever.
Speaker 4: And the Kiwi saber Hardship you know, story shows that
Speaker 4: so under strain. And unfortunately some people understrain you know,
Speaker 4: like they can overeat or they overspend for emotional reasons too.
Speaker 4: So it's fairly important to understand the psychology of money
Speaker 4: because then you can control or help to reform your
Speaker 4: patterns too. And so that place feeds into the story
Speaker 4: you know really strong.
Speaker 2: Well finally enough that you should mention financial habits. But
Speaker 2: that is something else I wanted to that we wanted
Speaker 2: to talk about, because it's one of the things that's
Speaker 2: always struck me that we can talk about. You know this,
Speaker 2: it's like a previous guest Alex Flint talking about exercise
Speaker 2: and how we talk about changing our exercise habits and
Speaker 2: our well being. And I'm not sure whether that's an
Speaker 2: easier thing to do with your own physical health, but
Speaker 2: with your financial health, and we can talk about I
Speaker 2: need to do this and have this spending app. But
Speaker 2: I wonder how hard it is for people to change
Speaker 2: financial habits of a lifetime, which accentuates probably the importance
Speaker 2: of setting your kids up with good financial habits, being
Speaker 2: aware of what a dollar is worth. But when it
Speaker 2: comes to genuinely changing financial habits, I have the sense
Speaker 2: that that's actually pretty tricky.
Speaker 5: For me.
Speaker 2: I probably changed my spending financial habits when I got
Speaker 2: a mortgage. Actually that is well, it's like you know
Speaker 2: you've got suddenly you've got the hammer and anvilin app.
Speaker 2: Really you're really pummeling yourself into because you've got some
Speaker 2: serious financial commitments. But up until that time, I sort
Speaker 2: of felt that it was easier to breeze by and
Speaker 2: in the more transient spending habits.
Speaker 4: I think that's not uncommon because it's an age and
Speaker 4: stage thing where if you can drift going paycheck to
Speaker 4: paycheck and your lifestyle is quite comfortable, that's when. But
Speaker 4: then you pump the brakes when you're again looking for
Speaker 4: a mortgage, you have a child, or you've got a.
Speaker 2: Kids and a mortgage boomf.
Speaker 4: So that that really just causes you to pause and
Speaker 4: do things differently, because otherwise there'll be lots of arguments
Speaker 4: and strain that you don't need.
Speaker 2: So I'm not sure we can really advocate that if
Speaker 2: you have some prolific spending habits that just have a
Speaker 2: baby or buy a house, But probably if you haven't
Speaker 2: got a house and you are wasteful with your money,
Speaker 2: maybe there is a sort of I'm being fickle a
Speaker 2: little bit.
Speaker 4: I think the human mind needs to be you know,
Speaker 4: it's just the human condition rather to to you know,
Speaker 4: do things you enjoy right so or you know, got
Speaker 4: an a version to the things you hate doing right.
Speaker 2: So that's just it.
Speaker 4: So you kind of have to track the mind to
Speaker 4: some degree, and you know, setting up some systems in
Speaker 4: place to protect yourself, but equally having incentives in place
Speaker 4: where there's you're rewarded for the habits that you're changing,
Speaker 4: because changing habits is tough. And so again, if you
Speaker 4: have little goals for yourself, well when I do this
Speaker 4: and I achieve this level of season and reward myself
Speaker 4: with this, and same thing goes for health. I always
Speaker 4: find that health and finance are very similar pathways.
Speaker 2: Actually, would it be a legitimate thing on a financial
Speaker 2: habits say, and I think probably the thing I had
Speaker 2: as a younger man of you know, just going to
Speaker 2: cafes more often than I should have if I had said, okay,
Speaker 2: tell you what, I'm not going to do that, but
Speaker 2: on Friday night, I'm going out for dinner with friends,
Speaker 2: and I'm not going to worry about the bills so
Speaker 2: much because I've saved a fortune by not doing it
Speaker 2: three or four days a week, is it. I mean
Speaker 2: that's sort of a sacrifice and reward type of thing. Well, well,
Speaker 2: hopefully you don't go out and blow it at all.
Speaker 4: Exactly exactly, because you can also deceive yourself that you say, hey,
Speaker 4: I saved five bucks a week, you know, a day
Speaker 4: by not buying my coffee, and then you go out
Speaker 4: on the weekend and you spend one hundred or whatever
Speaker 4: it is is you know.
Speaker 2: That that's we've worked out. That's your magic.
Speaker 1: It's just an easy, easy round number.
Speaker 4: But you know what I'm saying, So you have to
Speaker 4: it has to have some sort of common sense behind
Speaker 4: it and just awareness. So if I don't want to
Speaker 4: knock the apps, because if it gives you a sense
Speaker 4: of awareness, then it helps you to pump the brakes. Great. Equally,
Speaker 4: if cash and the envelope is a strategy that you
Speaker 4: know keeps you on the path and you know, alerts
Speaker 4: you to the fact that, hey, look, I've lost ten
Speaker 4: pounds and save three hundred dollars a week by not
Speaker 4: going to KFC or McDonalds. So what have you great?
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm looking forward to the day when my
Speaker 4: kid is out on his own he has to pay rent,
Speaker 4: and then that restrains all this ridiculous money at the bars,
Speaker 4: et cetera. He's going to have a bit of a
Speaker 4: wake up moment. But you know that's going to be
Speaker 4: a teachable moment for him if he can't make his
Speaker 4: rent payment, you know, so that for him that that's
Speaker 4: the learn of you know, having a mortgage, is paying
Speaker 4: your rent right other thise your move back in with
Speaker 4: your nagging mother.
Speaker 2: You're throwing up other topics here because I was about
Speaker 2: to ask whether it's a good idea for parents to
Speaker 2: charge their kids rent to prepare them for that reason.
Speaker 4: Yes, I do think it is. I mean I am
Speaker 4: a bit of a softy wells of course were the students,
Speaker 4: you know, But equally, I think that teaches them that,
Speaker 4: you know, not getting everything for free, right, particularly when
Speaker 4: when they reach a certain age.
Speaker 2: So it's yeah, that will save that to another day.
Speaker 2: That that is a good one though. And also we
Speaker 2: have talked about it a bit because there was a
Speaker 2: lovely anecdotal story that somebody shared with us of their
Speaker 2: parents charging them rent while they were at home for
Speaker 2: a while and or bored, and then when they left home,
Speaker 2: the parents returned it all with interest to help them
Speaker 2: by their first half, and I thought, I thought that
Speaker 2: was awesome story as well. Let's take some calls Janet, Hello, Hi,
Speaker 2: how are you good? Thanks? How are you doing? Yeah?
Speaker 6: Good? I guess i'd share a system. I've been new
Speaker 6: things for quite a while now. The first thing is
Speaker 6: don't have a credit card because you lose track of
Speaker 6: what you're spending. There's nothing more depressing than to a
Speaker 6: worked hard all month and get your pay and it
Speaker 6: all goes on the credit card.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, I agree.
Speaker 6: So you want to get your money and go, oh good,
Speaker 6: what am I going to spend it on? So I
Speaker 6: have one account that money goes, it's transferred into for
Speaker 6: spending including bills, and I have a budget. So I
Speaker 6: guess tomate how much my bills are going to be
Speaker 6: each month, so power, water, que, irregular ones, and things
Speaker 6: like insurance, I pro rider over the year, so I'd
Speaker 6: divide it by twelve, so you're contributing each month towards that,
Speaker 6: And so you get a total, a subtotal of what
Speaker 6: you think you're going to spend for the money on
Speaker 6: just the basics and food and whatever, and then what
Speaker 6: your left with is your slash money for the one
Speaker 6: off and the fun and all the rest of it.
Speaker 6: And I also have a little calculation on my spreadsheet
Speaker 6: where I can enter the number of days left in
Speaker 6: the month. So if you've got three hundred dollars left,
Speaker 6: and at the start of the month, you've got ten
Speaker 6: dollars a day to spend. If it's the last day
Speaker 6: of the month, you've got three hundred dollars left, you've
Speaker 6: got three hundred dollars left for the day. So you
Speaker 6: can kind of reward yourself later in the month if
Speaker 6: you've been good earlier in the month, or you can
Speaker 6: take what's left and assign it to an expense for
Speaker 6: the next month and get yourself ahead.
Speaker 2: Sure you are organized, What what made you? Did you
Speaker 2: do this? Because you saw the error of your ways
Speaker 2: and you were reforming yourself or have you always been
Speaker 2: quite for skilly sort of alert and responis.
Speaker 6: Oh, look, I left a job and I had to budget,
Speaker 6: and I've been doing this for ten past years. And
Speaker 6: then you can, once you've done it for a year,
Speaker 6: you can just copy your history down so you've got
Speaker 6: more of an idea of what you're doing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, sounds like a great system. And your earliest point too,
Speaker 4: I hundred said. That's one thing that I can say
Speaker 4: my kids haven't done, and I hope that doesn't change.
Speaker 4: Is not getting a credit card because that prevents you
Speaker 4: from spending money you don't have. And then once you're
Speaker 4: once people get on that treadmill because it's also easy
Speaker 4: to do. They're forever trying to dig themselves out of
Speaker 4: the hole and complaining I can never get ahead financially
Speaker 4: because they're paying money on money owed. So I think
Speaker 4: that's a very smart, smart decision.
Speaker 2: Thanks for you, cool, Janet. I confess that I I
Speaker 2: just we stick everything through the credit card because I
Speaker 2: love the points.
Speaker 4: For the points. Yeah, it works for something as.
Speaker 2: Long as you can play it off, though, and if
Speaker 2: you missed that date, you're ah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well you just set it up on
Speaker 4: as an auto payment, right, so it gets sucked out
Speaker 4: of your p.
Speaker 2: I have an alarm on my phone that goes off.
Speaker 2: Is pay credit card? Do it manually? I don't know.
Speaker 2: There's something that's just a control freaky thing.
Speaker 4: I'm not sure you can set it up for another
Speaker 4: payment though.
Speaker 2: I'll have to have a look at that one. We'll
Speaker 2: talk about that one in the break, but we'll be
Speaker 2: back in just a moment. When to take your calls
Speaker 2: on how are you tracking your spending? And is there
Speaker 2: a particular app that you swear by because you can
Speaker 2: share that with us too on eight hundred eighty ten eighty.
Speaker 2: But also if you have changed your financial habits, what
Speaker 2: was it that motivated it? Because I think it's one
Speaker 2: of those things. It's like getting fit and healthy. You
Speaker 2: can talk about it till the cows come home, but
Speaker 2: when are you going to make the meaningful change? And
Speaker 2: I'm sure when it comes to financial health, that's just
Speaker 2: as big a challenge to give us a call eight
Speaker 2: hundred eighty ten and eighty eighteen minutes two six News Talks.
Speaker 2: It'd be My producer Tyra is so happy right now
Speaker 2: because she loves Christmas and if you missed the show
Speaker 2: on the first of November, she started playing Christmas music
Speaker 2: and I was like, what the hell are you doing.
Speaker 2: She's like, it's November, I can play Christmas music, not
Speaker 2: on news talks. He'd be it's gonna be like two
Speaker 2: months of Christmas.
Speaker 1: Were more happy people in the world.
Speaker 2: She's so happy right now. That is definitely one for
Speaker 2: your playlist though. But anyway, this is smart Money, and
Speaker 2: my guest is Amanda Morale talking about budgeting and how
Speaker 2: you do it.
Speaker 7: Calvin Giday, Good Athene, Tim and good Athenoon to your guest, Amanda, Amanda,
Speaker 7: there must be tens of thousands, could even be hundreds
Speaker 7: of thousands of people like me who a lot of
Speaker 7: the things you previously mentioned. I would know anything about
Speaker 7: apps and all this sort of carry on. But I
Speaker 7: do confess to having some automatic payments, you know, electricity,
Speaker 7: newspaper account, phone account that's done automatically through the bank
Speaker 7: as such. But I'm one of these people who I
Speaker 7: love cash and when I go to the supermarket I
Speaker 7: always come out normally with more money than what I
Speaker 7: went in with. As such, You when I go to
Speaker 7: the supermarket, I come out with more cash than what I.
Speaker 5: Went in with.
Speaker 2: Why how does that work? Pocketing?
Speaker 7: Well, it's because you keep away from apps and all
Speaker 7: those different things which you two have been mentioning different.
Speaker 7: It's a different lifestyle altogether out here.
Speaker 2: And for a lot of people, maybe you're going to
Speaker 2: the supermarket and busking.
Speaker 7: Well inadvertently rating the till as such. But anyway, so
Speaker 7: I in my lifetime, I've never ever had a credit card.
Speaker 7: I wouldn't know what one was.
Speaker 4: Know.
Speaker 7: I use f POS which is f post card, which
Speaker 7: is code really for cash.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well you don't see it happen either. That can
Speaker 2: go bling as well, can't because but as.
Speaker 7: I say, but I do have the legal tender in
Speaker 7: my hand hand more off than not when I go
Speaker 7: and buy petrol and things like that and go to
Speaker 7: the movies and a few other bits and pieces. But
Speaker 7: so I was going to say that the app, the
Speaker 7: app situation for me, it's a much easier lifestyle.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 7: I fully realize a lot of people don't like cash.
Speaker 7: Oh no, no, no, don't like cash.
Speaker 4: Me.
Speaker 7: I love cash. The more cache I have, the happier
Speaker 7: I am cash.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we hear you altogether, now, Yeah, Hey, thanks Calvin.
Speaker 2: He's completely made me forget what I was going to
Speaker 2: ask you.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 2: Yes, So we have obliquely took talked about apps when
Speaker 2: it comes to spending apps. But do you have particular
Speaker 2: ones where and you're not giving specific financial advice and
Speaker 2: things that would be worth people checking out if their
Speaker 2: interested in and tracking their spending.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I think it depends on your situation. So
Speaker 4: what I would recommend there's about eight that are quite
Speaker 4: well reviewed on money hub dot coded and said if
Speaker 4: you look up got a moneyhub dot cod in and said,
Speaker 4: look up their reviews on spending apps. Because well, again,
Speaker 4: if you're looking for ones for your kids, for example,
Speaker 4: to try to train them up on money, there's a
Speaker 4: one called Square one split wise for students and flatmates
Speaker 4: for multi accounts and customizations spend ye. Again, there's ones
Speaker 4: that the banks have, so there's numerous ones, but it
Speaker 4: really depends what you're looking for for your situation. So
Speaker 4: again that's a good place to start is just looking
Speaker 4: up that central Spinster Ali money hub review center for
Speaker 4: for whatever it is you're looking money. So it's just
Speaker 4: called money hub dot codin and is it and they
Speaker 4: review everything under the sky, including spending habits. But what
Speaker 4: they'll do is they'll go in and tell you why
Speaker 4: each one is different from the other and how it's superior. Again,
Speaker 4: because everybody's situation is different. As the last gentleman caller said,
Speaker 4: but had no idea, and my situation is different. Again,
Speaker 4: you might have somebody, a younger person who really wants
Speaker 4: to heavily micromanage and funnel their accounts. They're you know,
Speaker 4: banking out, might be you know, the the be's knees
Speaker 4: in that regard. So it really depends what it is
Speaker 4: you're looking for. One thing will I remember on the
Speaker 4: budgeting side of things, is it's a free app and
Speaker 4: it works holistically with a bunch of other things. Is
Speaker 4: sort of dot org dead and dead I. I can't
Speaker 4: say enough good things. And that's a free government. And
Speaker 4: you can tie in like your whole situation too, including
Speaker 4: where you're on track with your kiwisaver and how much
Speaker 4: you're going to you know, potentially have for retirement. So
Speaker 4: it's not just your day to day spending, but it's
Speaker 4: more of a holistic picture. So for those individuals who
Speaker 4: you know can't afford a good financial advisor, you can
Speaker 4: DIY a lot of this stuff yourself, and that sort
Speaker 4: of is a great place to start. You could plug
Speaker 4: in all these inputs, change them. That's what I'm trying
Speaker 4: to train my kids on doing so they can see
Speaker 4: big picture of what's going on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the journey I've got to go on
Speaker 2: with my kids is that they they quite conscious of
Speaker 2: the money that they've gotten, how they want to spend it,
Speaker 2: but it cost to other things they've gotten. No, I
Speaker 2: think they think Mum and Dad are the bottomless the
Speaker 2: bottomless pit, and that's that's probably I'm not sure how
Speaker 2: to imbue them with a sense of with the understanding
Speaker 2: of that Mum and Dad are not bottomless money pets either,
Speaker 2: but maybe saying.
Speaker 1: Just no money.
Speaker 4: It really depends how old they are and where they're
Speaker 4: at for understanding that. It's you know, then I think this,
Speaker 4: it's never too early to start. Well, obviously not where
Speaker 4: they are in now peace, I don't think. But you know,
Speaker 4: the sooner you get them started, the better. But then
Speaker 4: you'll find your teenagers will come to a stage where
Speaker 4: they want to start getting their hair colored or something
Speaker 4: like that. Oh no, you know, then, yeah, prepare for
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 2: What I'm going to teach myself how to I'm going
Speaker 2: to look I do the ballet buns. It can't be
Speaker 2: that much difficult.
Speaker 4: Different to the cost of those things is a watering,
Speaker 4: So hopefully they're far away from that, or you make
Speaker 4: them save for those kind of things.
Speaker 2: Well, luckily we have one with striking read here, which
Speaker 2: she quite likes, and she's that's she just celebrates it
Speaker 2: every day. You're spared fingers crossed on that one. Yeah. Absolutely,
Speaker 2: we're going to take a moment back and a ticket's
Speaker 2: eight minutes to six news talks. He'd be yes, welcome
Speaker 2: back to the weekend collective. Gosh, smart money. That time
Speaker 2: has flown, Amanda, marn I know what time is, excel reading.
Speaker 2: Time flies when you're having fun. As they say, I've
Speaker 2: got a good question for you here, though a quick one.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure if we can get a quick answer
Speaker 2: to this, Amanda. I've never had a credit card, but
Speaker 2: my parents think I should get one so I can
Speaker 2: build a credit score. So there's a couple of things.
Speaker 2: Is there anything I can do the internet set It
Speaker 2: might apply to the US, but not here in New Zealand.
Speaker 2: Don't know, there's not enough information in that, but getting
Speaker 2: a credit score or fixing your credit score, how do
Speaker 2: you build that?
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, so a if you want to find out
Speaker 4: what your credit score is currently, but it sounds like
Speaker 4: this fellow or gal doesn't think they have one, but
Speaker 4: you can find them up. There's a couple of different
Speaker 4: credit reading agencies. But that's a quick Google search.
Speaker 2: How do you get a credit score? I think was question?
Speaker 4: But yeah, and so once you start, you know, the
Speaker 4: typical consumer behavior, everything starts getting tracked. And that's everything
Speaker 4: from you know, paying your rent on time, paying your
Speaker 4: or your bills on time. Anything where you've been required
Speaker 4: to pay things on time will all start to get tracked,
Speaker 4: and then that builds in towards your credit score. Where
Speaker 4: you start to get a bad credit score is missed payments,
Speaker 4: et cetera. So it tracks all your financial behaviors. So
Speaker 4: you know, it won't just be it depends what stage
Speaker 4: of life this individual is at, because if they've got
Speaker 4: no other if they're not paying rent or any bills
Speaker 4: or anything like that, then yes, if they're buying things,
Speaker 4: they may want to start building.
Speaker 2: The trap is it's like you don't want a credit cab,
Speaker 2: but you still need to build a credit score.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but at the time in which, again you're paying
Speaker 4: your mobile phone bill or your any sort of any bills,
Speaker 4: And as soon as you start missing those, your credit
Speaker 4: scores goes down. If you want to try to build
Speaker 4: it up. If you failed, then you got to just
Speaker 4: pay on time.
Speaker 2: Guess what times up? Thanks for listen. Check out the
Speaker 2: podcast news it Be website iHeartRadio. Thanks my producer Tira
Speaker 2: and Sunday at six is Neck For more from the
Speaker 2: weekend collective. Listen live to news Talks it'd Be weekends
Speaker 2: from three pm, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio