All in Debt
If there was ever any doubt about what an emergency might look like, well this is it, folks! I hope that each and every one of you is coping well and today I wanted to let you know what Jonny and I are doing, in the hope that you might gain a few pointers about what to do with whatever situation you may find yourselves in.
Have you noticed that I never really talk much about real estate? Except to say that I own the house I live in and I have never really gone too far down the path of writing about property as an investment. With the equity that we have in our house, the ‘obvious’ thing to many Kiwis would be to borrow against it and buy more property that I then rent out to other people. For many this has been a way to successfully grow their wealth. To many, it has not.
I’ve been interviewing people for my podcast and every time I do this I learn something new from each and every person I speak with. But a recent conversation really had me thinking because it presented a completely new and different view on how I could help my daughter (or you could help your child) through her tertiary study once she finishes school.
How important are credit ratings? A credit rating or a credit score is simply a rating of how well you manage DEBT. A high credit score is not a badge of honour, it's not an indicator of your net worth or your ability to earn money, it instead indicates how often you have taken on debt (and paid interest) and how well you have paid it down.
People tell me that they are investing quite large sums of money in order to get a return but at the same time they have a mortgage. My short and sweet response is typically that “in my humble opinion, you can’t make money while you owe money”. Once I’ve uttered my opinion the fireworks often start.
I met Ronnie when she reached out to me via email and we struck up a conversation. In this guest blog post, she shares how having a budget has helped to get her finances under control.
I had a chat with a retired couple recently and I was torn between being polite and not too nosey and outright wanting to ask them every nitty gritty detail about their lives. I settled on the middle ground but found myself left wanting.
In November 2016 I wrote about student debt and in that blog I spoke to a young woman who was about to begin a two and a half year course at a tertiary institution. Almost one year on I caught up with her for an update. She had just had a night on the turps so I fed her a high sugar, high fat breakfast as we spoke. Ok, so that part of being 18 still has not changed.
