“Be curious, be open with children and reward yourself
Real people share their tips for family finances
To kick off our Sunday Star-Times money management series, in which we talk to everyday New Zealanders about how they handle their finances – and get their tips for success – we meet Auckland couple Tapere Hewett, 44, and her husband Shane, 48, who have put their personal partnership at the centre of their money matters. What’s your current financial goal, and how do you plan to get there?
Tapere: Until the Government announced sweeping changes to housing tax policy to try and reduce the number of housing in investor hands, by the time we got to retirement it was to keep building on our property portfolio and then selling whatever we needed to make sure the debt was paid off, and generate some passive income.
This has been our long-term strategy since our early 20s. I bought my first property on my own at 22, with another partner, then my husband Shane and I got together. He and I bought our first property together at 23.
Apart from acquiring property for investments, we live off one income, and we always have. One goes towards paying down mortgage debt, we don’t have any other debt. The other income is to help with the day-today bills. We’re used to living this way. When we initially started out as a couple, we knew very quickly we wanted to get into our own home together . . . that’s where it started: ‘OK, we’ll save your income, and we’ll use my income to pay for all the bills.’ That process has continued, [and] over time our incomes have increased.
Tell us approximately how you divvy up your paycheck
We’ve got KiwiSaver, and we’ve started investing in shares. I initially wasn’t comfortable with them, but now it’s important to look at other investments and diversify the portfolio. We started with Sharesies, now we’re with Craigs Investments, and we want to start regularly contributing. At the moment there’s $6000 in there. Now that we’re going to go to Craigs, we’re probably going to start off with maybe $10,000 and contribute a few hundred dollars a month.
Our incomes go into our bills account and anything – power, rates – goes out of that. Shane and I have our own spending accounts, so each week we’re allocated $150. That’s for no questions asked, anything we want. Our budget is tracked by a spreadsheet.
Your best financial tip?
Definitely pay down debt, but think about not running up debt. Even things like AfterPay and Laybuy, that’s still debt. If you don’t have the cash to pay for it, and if the item is going to depreciate in value, you should question if you really need it. The exception to the rule is a vehicle. Most people need a car and cars depreciate massively, but I understand people need to have a vehicle – but you don’t need the big flash car that costs $40,000. We’ve got an expensive car, but we didn’t back then. If you’ve got the money, just pay for it. It actually is a good stress relief as well.
Your biggest financial risk or financial mistake?
Buying a house and not seeing it. I got somebody else to do it for me, trusting that they knew what they were doing. It was in another area, and it ended up having some defects, which will cost us to have remedied. .
Your biggest financial win?
Investing in property. It’s enabled a lot of opportunities for us to purchase more, and to just provide for our children. It’s allowing us to be set for retirement.
Your money philosophy?
Making good decisions around money enables opportunity and a lot of options, and choice. It opens more doors.
How have you learned about personal finances?
A lot of people have helped me. My father, friends and family when I was younger assisted me to learn how to manage my money. I was very fortunate, but I was always very curious as well. I always wanted to know from a young age how people got ahead. Why did some friends pull up in flash cars and live in nice houses?
My dad was very open with money and that helped me a lot. I knew how much my parents earned at a young age, I knew what their mortgage was, and we’ve continued those behaviours. We’re open with our children about how much we earn, what our debts are and how we manage our money. Our son has the same behaviour around money. He has a shortterm emergency fund because that’s what we do. Our eldest daughter likes to spend, but equally she saves.
Your biggest money lesson? When we were younger, in our 20s, money was just so tight, we never had money freely available in our account. We couldn’t just come up with so many thousands of dollars, so my big lesson is to invest wisely, save, and invest your funds into something that’s going to grow.
Take the opportunity to connect with those who are really good in those spaces. If you want to be good with money, find people who are good with money and ask, how did they get there? Some people tend to sit back and say, well ‘they earn a lot of money’. We haven’t earned a lot until the last few years. We started off back in the day, $50,000 joint [income]. There are times when we have just let loose and been really crazy with our money, but that’s all been intentional, kind of, ‘we’ve achieved something, so let’s have a good time for a bit.’ Rewarding yourself is massive I think, and definitely having balance.
What did you learn about money/attitudes from your parents?
My dad has always said, ‘stand on your own two feet and save for a rainy day’.
What do you see as the biggest challenge when it comes to achieving your financial goals?
Government policy and changes – legislation. That would be the challenge, but that’s not to say (our goal) can’t be achieved, it’s just understanding what that means for us. Is it going to stop us investing in property? No, it’s not. But it will impact how much we purchase.