Where's My Money Season 3, Episode 2
Thrive or Survive? How to Financially Get Ahead
Season Three of the multi-award-winning podcast Where’s My Money? is done and dusted, and here we bring you the hot tips shared by host Reagan White and his guests over the season.
enable.me partners with rova to bring this podcast to life and stimulate the conversation about finances with everyday Kiwis. Where’s My Money? follows the story of Reagan – a man chasing the Kiwi Dream but feeling stuck living month-to-month – and his discussions with the experts about what he may be doing wrong and how to fix it.
One man. One million dollars of debt. One podcast to find a way out.
In this episode, enable.me financial coaches Katie Wesney and Shelley Palman join Reagan to discuss how we can financially thrive in 2025.
Interest rates, tariffs, KiwiSaver; they cover a lot of ground. The coaches share that drawing a line in the sand and taking stock of your situation is the best way to leave 2024 in the past and smash the rest of 2025.
It’s not all an unfavourable outlook; there are opportunities to be taken that could get you ahead if you are brave enough to take the first step.
Interest rate relief – time to spend up large?
With a recent Official Cash Rate (OCR) announcement and interest rates trending down again, Katie and Shelley talk about what to do with the extra cash; whether to spend it, or to harness it into mortgage repayments.
TIP: It can be tempting to use freed-up cash in your budget to make more extravagant choices – but a few nights eating out or a weekend trip can take away the potential to get ahead with the freed-up cash flow.
Shelley mentions not getting complacent with the extra disposable income offered by a lower interest rate, making sure to “tap into the opportunities that creates to get us ahead,” and shares that this is an opportunity not to be taken lightly – there are productive ways to use the relief.
While it may feel like an “instant pay rise,” Shelley suggests before you use it, sit down with your partner or make time for yourself to look at your goals for the coming year and how you could build a strategy to best harness the ‘pay rise’ into gains that get you ahead faster.
Katie agrees, warning that most Kiwis will squander these opportunities. She lays the challenge to ensure you are not one of them – focus on your controllables, and get the basics set up and working in your favour.
The pair discuss how interest rate relief can be used as a tool to accelerate paying off the mortgage and being deliberate with the choices made around this. Crucially, it may not be as simple as fixing for a certain term, as there are different strategic pieces that you can use to get the best outcome for your situation.
If Kiwis could live well with the higher interest rate, they could consider living the same lifestyle and paying their mortgage principal off faster – potentially reducing the interest charges they would otherwise be paying straight to the bank.
The economy is on a positive trajectory for 2025
Brad Olsen, Chief Executive and Principal Economist at Infometrics, pops in to share a cautiously optimistic commentary of where the economy is heading now that we are officially out of a recession.
He shares there is a “momentum shift,” with less “doom and gloom,” than in 2024, but acknowledges a range of financial situations moving forward into this year; some people are feeling relief, and others are still stressed.
“For households, for businesses, for people thinking and going about their daily lives, the economy doesn’t shift quickly but I think there is an underlying vibe shift coming through,” Brad says.
One indicator is that grocery prices are starting to stabilise – in comparison to the last few years where the prices were seemingly increasing from one week to the next. He suggests that everyone needs to “think more seriously about financial literacy,” and prepare for the ups and downs before they ever come. Many people don’t look too hard at their spending until they hit the point where they find themselves going backwards – examine your spending and really understand what is going out vs coming in.
Conversations with your friends, family, coworkers or neighbours can help you share knowledge and information to support each other. Brad mentions an example of negotiating rent, where he shared a letter template with neighbours that he had sent to his landlord to receive a lower rental rate.
Just like with health, wealth is something you need to keep maintained, which helps prepare you for any shocks that may come your way.
How can you thrive in 2025? Listen to (and now, watch!) episode 2 of Where’s My Money? to find out.
Disclaimer: The Where’s My Money? podcast and the information shared by host Reagan White and his guests does not constitute individual financial advice. If you’re interested in receiving financial advice, you can book a consultation with an enable.me coach. Costs apply.