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We have a bit of a “she’ll be right” belief here in Aotearoa, and for the most part that’s true. But sometimes we can find ourselves in situations where we can’t quite see a way out and that can feel a bit overwhelming – especially when it comes to money.
This is where making a pūtea plan as soon as possible when you start having some moni coming in is really important.
We live in a society where everything is geared to get us to spend moni on the latest and greatest thing. Got an event coming up? There’s a feeling like you need new gears to make sure you look good as.
And with things like buy now pay later loans or a kāri taurewa, the shops make it easy to buy whatever you want without really thinking about if you need it or if you’ll be able to pay for it.
Buy now pay later schemes like Afterpay, Laybuy, Zip or Humm are particularly tricky, because they actively encourage you to get the thing you really want now, even if you don’t have the money for it. They also start to charge you extra if you can’t pay back the additional money you owe when the time comes to pay them back in a week or so.
The danger with this is now the thing you wanted that was advertised as four easy $20 payments is actually $80 in total. If you don’t make a utu harangotengote on time, you get charged a default fee that was hidden somewhere in the fine print – which you probably didn’t read cause you were in the shop trying to buy the thing you wanted!
Here’s our guide to using buy now pay later to help you navigate it safely.
Then there are those subscriptions and memberships we’ve signed up to; Netflix, Spotify, the gym. None of these by themselves feel pricey, but over a year they really add up! The cheapest Netflix subscription still costs $156 a year.
You can get yourself into a situation where there is essentially a bad mark against your name, called a low credit rating. This acts a bit like a red traffic light for you when you want to borrow – but unlike stopping the flow of traffic it stops the flow of money.
Worse still, it can affect some of the decisions you might want to make in the future. For example, if at some stage you want to rent a house, or mino money to buy a house, lenders will want to check to see your history with money before you can progress.
So, before you buy that new pair of shoes, or head out for a night on the town, or click ‘buy’ online for another T-shirt, take a quick moment to ask yourself if this is something you really need. Do you have enough money already saved up for it? Here’s more about how credit scores work.
If you’re still really struggling and can’t find anybody you trust to speak to, we recommend you connect with some of the pretty helpful people at an organisation called MoneyTalks.
They run a free helpline to tautoko people and help to make pūtea plans.
Don’t know where to start? Our 6 steps will help you to take control of your money.
Head to the 6 steps
