This photo is of the most amazing group of people, who recently completed my class.  Some of them have come onto a "graduate" class in order to keep refining their skills in finance. This week one of them saved over $1,000,000  let me share with you what we did in order for that to happen. They had two mortgages, one on their home and one on their rental, they also had their own business and earned wages as well, working every moment God gave them.  They had a long time left to pay on their mortgage. Their mortgage was with, what is called a Non-bank Mortgage Provider.  If you are with one, please do all you can to move away from them.  They often get you signed up to "interest only" deals in order to get you your first home.  For those who don't know what an "interest only" deal is, it is when you, literally, only pay the interest on your home loan, this results in your home loan never reducing!  Ever! These Non-bank Mortgage Providers, also have thei...

No matter how hard we try, we always have more to do.  I hear it all the time in my classes.  People feel overwhelmed so give up, or believe they can never do, so many things.  I am in Southland this week and I looked at this signpost at Bluff.  Have I been to all these places??  My answer ordinarily would be NO!  Imagine if I changed the answer to "Not Yet."  That way, I can keep all options open, no matter how old or broke or sick or busy I am. I remember as a young mother, I couldn't drive.  People would asked me, "can you drive?".  My answer was always NO.  I got to the point where, even though I had four kids, I was stuck, stuck in the belief I was a non-driver!  The change in my attitude by saying "not yet"  would have helped me immensely.  I was, I thought, happy in the knowledge I was a non-driver.  How ridiculous.  I never even attempted to rectify it, I was always too busy, scared or uninterested to do ...

  Most of my life I wondered what it would be like to buy a new car!  I never had one up until recently, I could never justify it, ever! Like most of you, my parents told me "If you buy a new car you have lost $20,000 just by driving it off the lot"  I believed it!  Not sure why, but I did.  Not even sure why they said it!  They had little or no experience with buying a new car so how on earth did they know?  They were the only person who I ever spoke to about buying one so I had nothing to compare their comment to. You all know by now, I am big on numbers.  Numbers don't lie, they have no emotion.   I also know that, like the picture above, when you buy a second hand car, you never know what is under the bonnet, in this case, a big tree!!!  I love this photo, if has a lot in it, the car even has an AA sticker on the window, I wondered what would happen if we rang the AA for a tow! Let's have a look at three different car buying opt...

  The importance of physical interaction with people, family, friends, strangers, just people as opposed to online!! Due to COVID and all sorts of other events, like cyclones and difficulties getting around on our roads, there have been a lot of cancellations and times where we haven't been able to interact with those we love.  Communities have been missing out on vital physical social interaction.  Sure, everyone is on social media and in contact through their phones and the internet, but not in the same room. It has been a tough last week in my local community.  I have had people in tears in my classes, over a very special young person taken way too soon.   As a community we gave him the most beautiful, sad, incredible send off, his friends and family were amazing.  Of a town of around 4000 people there were about 2000 people in attendance.  What a beautiful community, we needed to get together to grieve.  It made me think of the importance...

It is interesting that when we are children, unaffected by other things, we have the ability to keep on trying, no matter what gets in the way.  However, as adults we have all sorts of things in our way and the ability to keep on trying seems to wain. On the weekend I watched my granddaughters playing hockey.  Watching children play sports really gets you back into what is important in life.  They have no fear.  They don't have the same fear of failure, they are willing to try and then try again. All they want is that "player of the day" award so they can show it off with pride. If we put this attitude into our homelife and what we do with finance, we start to see how negatively we have been affected in life by a lot of different variables, people, experience, failures and influences. The truth is, all of us can be good with money.  All of us can make our money work for us.  All of us can improve our quality of life.  All of us can be rich.  We ju...

  Do you need life insurance in order to have a home loan?  How long do you need life insurance for?  Why get it?  Who needs to have it? I get it, life insurance is recommended to you by the bank when you buy a house.  They are responsible for making sure you don't get yourself into too much debt.  They have a duty to make sure you and your family will be ok should something terrible happen.  There are a few points I would like to make with regards to this. One of the main reasons that people get life insurance when they get the mortgage is, they don't want their family to be left with their mortgage.  Well, as a mother or four and grandmother of many more, I can tell you this for free:  My children will inherit my property, and the property will always be worth more than any debt against it.  They will end up with money if they sell everything up, a substantial amount of money. If they don't want to sell my property they have done nothi...

  Do you know enough to decide which products/insurances/payments are necessary to buy?  Do any of us? Today I have a couple of tips to help you.   I have spent a lot of my life being advised by people that are a long way from being impartial or intelligent about anything. In order to advise you on any financial product, the person advising MUST BE a Registered Financial Adviser.  I am a Registered Financial Adviser and my business is a Registered Financial Advice Provider.   This blog is not meant to be Individual Financial Advice but more to let you know some of the lessons I have learnt from a lifetime of experience.  A lifetime of being ripped off and led down all sorts of pathways that I should never have gone down. One of many little gems I have learnt is:  People who advise you are one of two things: Someone who has no idea, but doesn't want to admit to it.  (Friends, family, people at a barbeque or the pub just chatting) Someone ...

Do you worry about what will happen if you are suddenly removed from the picture?  Remember my blog about making a will?  If you haven't read it them please read it prior to going through this one, here is the link.   https://granniesarahssolutions.blogspot.com/2023/04/do-you-have-will-do-we-need-one-what-if.html   We often think about lots of things to protect ourselves, should something awful happen.  Remember all of these things are easier for your whanau to get if you have a will!  This whole blog is dependent on the fact you have a will, so please get one. Enough about that, let's compare a few options: ACC If you die at work, or on the sports ground or from some form of accident.  ACC will pay.  ACC will pay up to 80% of your wages for up to 5 years to your family. You are automatically paying ACC levies so there is no need for opting in or out. ACC premiums change according to the type of work you do and the danger involved. If you sto...

  How do we increase equity in our home?  What does it even mean and why should we?  Is there any advantage in having more equity?  Let's have a look at the effect it has on how we can get ahead. The houses above are houses we have owned.  Believe it or not, they are two pictures of the exact same home.  This house is a great example of how to increase equity.   When you buy your first home, look for homes that are less than perfect.   The amount of equity in your house is calculated using a very simple equation: VALUE OF YOUR HOME minus AMOUNT OF DEBT AGAINST YOUR HOME Normally when you purchase your first home, you are looking at between 5 and 20% deposit, that means you have between 5 and 20% equity. VALUE OF YOUR HOME ($500,000) minus the AMOUNT OF DEBT AGAINST YOUR HOME ($400,000).  This means if you have 20% equity or $100,000 equity.  It is important to understand that once you get to where you have 20% equity you need t...

  Often when you have been reading my blogs you will want to increase the repayments on your mortgage.  It should be an easy thing to do.  Not always. When you go to the bank to ask about increasing the repayments, they will often happily oblige and your mortgage will be repaid quicker.  Great news! No issue there.  However, often people in my classes find they have been allocating a lot of money to other places.  They now wish to allocate it to pay their mortgage off in order to decrease the term.  Decreasing the amount of interest they have to pay.  Great stuff! When you fix a mortgage, you have gone under contract with the bank and agree to pay a certain amount regularly to them.  Not rocket science I know.   As part of that contract, the bank has agreed to hold that interest rate for you for a certain period of time.  This works in your favour when interest rates are rising. If you choose to pay a lot more with each payment...