Kathryn and John have been working with us since 2019 and have recently become mortgage-free.
And while paying down their mortgage, they also seized the opportunity to create further wealth through a new-build investment property – and worked car upgrades into their financial plan for each of them. A Toyota hybrid for Kathryn and, more recently, a Nissan plug-in hybrid for John.
Now living in a mortgage-free home, with an investment property building wealth in the background and their sights set on future retirement and lifestyle goals, we caught up with Kathryn to talk about her experience working with enable.me.
Starting over
Kathryn and John are no strangers to starting over. They met and fell in love later in life – after each raising three children, and both having experienced separation and divorce. They now live in Rotorua, where Kathryn is a teacher, and have been recently managing the transition from parents to grandparents – with a total of seven grandchildren between them, with more to come.
Kathryn laughs and says, “I did everything around the wrong way.”
She had a family and kids young and built the home that she would go on to buy post-divorce and take the responsibility of the mortgage on herself. In this time, she also retrained as a teacher and headed off on her OE to live in London, flatting for the first time. After London, it was back in New Zealand for one year, and then off to teach in Rarotonga for two years, where she and John celebrated their wedding.
With a new marriage and combined goals for their lives spent together, Kathryn realised that she had a big mortgage, wanted to retire at 65-years-old from teaching, and she was feeling it creep closer and closer. She decided it was time to take action.
She equipped herself with financial knowledge in the form of enable.me founder Hannah McQueen’s book, Kill Your Mortgage and Sort Your Retirement, which led her to attend a roadshow seminar in Rotorua. There, she met enable.me financial coach Alisha Brady, from our Bay of Plenty location, and booked in for an initial financial consultation to take a deeper look at her finances.
Together with John, they showed up to put their financial situation under the microscope and clearly define their future.
From “big mortgage” to “in control”
Arriving at their initial consultation with a “big mortgage” on their family home and a shorter timeframe until their goal retirement age of 65-years-old, Kathryn says they weren’t sure what to expect. It can be daunting turning up to meet a financial adviser for the first time and to examine your finances more deeply.
There were some ‘quick wins’ that helped the couple take control of their finances – and with very little pain or pressure on their lives and happiness.
Insurances, bank account structure, mortgage repayment strategy – all parts of the financial puzzle that supported the two to reach their financial goals. And Kathryn was surprised at how little they had to give up to get their cashflow working in their favour.
“None of it was that hard. I love sewing – I can still go buy some fabric… We were allowed three things each that we could build into the budget and keep the things that make us happy,” she shares.
They also found it easy to monitor their spending with the moneyfit tracker app included in their programme, which provides real-time visibility over all income and expenses.
Kathryn says, “it was like being on a money diet. In a good way. Not too restrictive that you fell off it. As long as I did my moneyfit budget – I’d try and do that every week so I’d know where I was at – I could button off if something was out of sync.”
Seven years on, she says she feels in control of her finances and her future.
Pulling the investment property lever
As the couple found out, having a mortgage doesn’t lock you out of wealth creation – leveraging the equity you’re building through paying down your mortgage to buy an investment property can be a practical way to move towards mortgage freedom while using the bank’s money to help you make money.
Their coach Alisha Brady supported the couple to look at all of the options for investment property locations – Christchurch, Tauranga, Auckland – and finally landing on Palmerston North.
This city offered a lot of attractive qualities: close enough to their Rotorua home to visit without a plane ride, local business growth, a university town so always a need for rentals, inland – away from coastal erosion areas, not in a flood zone, a higher socioeconomic area. All things the couple took into account with the support of an enable.me coach and a property investment programme.
“Alisha was more involved in that process throughout that year to get it all done,” Kathryn shares. “It was good to hear from people who do it all the time and what they look for in a good rental property.”
While mortgage-free on their home, Kathryn says they have a mortgage on their investment property, which is almost self-sustaining and has been rented out ever since it was built.
It’s part of their financial plan to pay down their investment lending to keep building their net worth and move towards their future goals.
“We’re going to start eating away at the mortgage on the rental property, it’s almost self-sufficient but not totally, at the moment we top up a bit but not much.”
Their enable.me financial coach, Alisha Brady, acknowledges the impressive work Kathryn and John did over the long-term while aiming for their financial goals – and continuing to push themselves to achieve them.
Alisha says, “often people start a financial plan with vigour, think they are on the right track but then hit a curveball and fail to adjust or go alone without the accountability, or support and encouragement to recognise opportunities to grow wealth.”
“Financial planning is about the long-term and it’s a privilege to work with clients like Kathryn and John who stayed focused on their goals and the programme despite curveballs along the way.”
She emphasises, “this is not the end of the road for Kathryn and John, just the beginning.”
What does the future look like?
Kathryn and John haven’t stopped making goals and building towards their unique dream retirement.
John has familial ties to Rarotonga – they had their wedding over there when Kathryn was teaching on the island – and their dream is to put a house on some family land in Rarotonga and spend the summers in New Zealand, and the New Zealand winters over there. A balance of time with family between both countries, and chasing the sun.
With the confidence afforded to the pair by having a plan in place and targets to aim for, they feel the courage to dream big.
“I’m now feeling in control, hitting my financial goals, knowing my targets and goals. It’s more peaceful as I know I have my will in place, enable.me cover everything, so I feel a lot safer” Kathryn says.
When asked about what she’d say to her past self seven years ago, before starting an enable.me programme, Kathryn imparts her wisdom: “follow the plan, trust the process, and trust your finance person.”
“Ring the bell!”
At enable.me, we support you to pay off your mortgage faster and celebrate with you when you’re mortgage-free. “Ring the bell!” echoes out around our offices when a client pays off their mortgage and the account vanishes from their banking app.
With an enable.me financial coach in your corner, you can achieve your goals like Kathryn and John have – and make the space to create new ones and build the life you want to live.
Book an initial consultation with an enable.me financial coach today to take control of your finances and take the first step towards financial freedom.
