Making Cents

Frances Cook joins the TVNZ Breakfast team to explain the loyalty tax costing New Zealanders hundreds of dollars a year on power, insurance and banking, and the simple habit that can win it back without even switching providers.
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You're about to spend thousands getting your house ready to sell. Professional staging. A photographer. Maybe a lick of paint on the fence.

But in a buyer's market with interest rates climbing, how do you know what actually moves the needle for getting the house sold?

Vanessa Williams from http://realestate.co.nz is back in the hot seat with the actual data on what's working right now.

We get into whether professional staging shows up in the sale price, which presentation upgrades are genuinely worth it and which ones aren't, what http://realestate.co.nz sees in listing performance when photos are good versus average, and whether the ROI on all of this changes when buyers have more choice.

If you're about to list and wondering where to spend and where to save, this one's for you.

In this episode:
Does professional staging actually increase your property sale price?
Which house upgrades are worth it, and which aren't?
Does better photography get more home buyers through the door?
How to sell a house in a buyer's market
What sellers can do themselves vs where to spend the money
The mistakes sellers make that cost them thousands

If you have a letter you’d like us to answer, send it through to ask@francescook.co.nz and you might feature on our next episode!

Something’s off, and that something is the economy.

The latest drop of economic forecasting shows exactly what’s happening with the cost of living, your job, and your mortgage. It’s not looking great. But if we know what's coming, we can actually plan for it.

To help us make sense of it all, Massey University’s Christoph Schumacher is in the hot seat. He’s Professor of Innovation and Economics, Director of the Knowledge Exchange Hub, and more importantly, he can explain all of this like a real human being.

We cover:
Why your money is feeling so tiring right now
How much of this is the impact of the Iran war and fuel prices
What rising inflation means for your mortgage, your job, and your everyday costs
The NZ productivity problem, and which industries actually have a future here
What’s happening with AI, and how AI will change your job
When a real recovery might arrive, what it depends on, and what you can do to make life easier until then

This episode of Making Cents is proudly supported by Odoo. Go to http://odoo.com/r/hpl now and try it for free, for 15 days.

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Production and video editing by Lana Byrne
Audio engineering by Tash Chittock
Filmed by Fanaticals

As SpaceX hits the share market in one of the biggest IPOs ever, Frances Cook breaks down how IPOs actually work, why retail investors are getting an unusually large slice this time and whether that is as generous as it sounds.
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Retirement planning is stressful enough without governments constantly threatening to move the goalposts.

Means testing, wealth taxes, a rising retirement age; how much of it is real, and how much can you actually count on NZ Super?

Katie Wesney, National Coaching Lead at EnableMe, joins us in the hot seat to cut through the noise.

We get into whether the pension is a plan or just a foundation, what the actual numbers look like week to week in retirement, how KiwiSaver, property, and investments fit together, and why worrying about a wealth tax might be the most expensive mistake you make.

Plus: the one mindset shift that separates people who reach financial freedom from people who are still waiting for a politician to sort it out.

If retirement feels far away, close, or just confusing, this one's for you.

In this episode:
How much can you actually rely on NZ Super?
What does retirement actually cost week to week?
How KiwiSaver, property, and investments work together
Should you worry about means testing or a wealth tax?
How to build a retirement plan that doesn't depend on government settings staying the same

If you have a letter you’d like us to answer, please send it through to ask@francescook.co.nz and you might feature on our next episode!

Follow me everywhere!
Facebook / https://www.facebook.com/FrancesCookNZ
Instagram / https://www.instagram.com/francescooknz
TikTok / https://www.tiktok.com/@francescooknz

Join the Money Memo newsletter for a free weekly money tip in your inbox each week https://www.francescook.co.nz/subscribe
Become a confident sharemarket investor by signing up to the Market Memo newsletter https://www.francescook.co.nz/invest

#MakingCents #FrancesCook #MakingCentsPodcast #InvestingPodcast #MoneyPodcast #FinancialFreedom

Production and video editing by Lana Byrne
Audio engineering by Tash Chittock
Filmed by Fanaticals