What Makes Someone Good With Money And Other Money Questions

Have you seen the money related conversation starter cards circulating in the social media lately?

It is the Financial Service Council NZ teaming up with Hatch investment platform who brings us these downloadable cards that each have a money related question to answer.

I thought I’d do a post series of personally answering a few of these questions in each post and inviting you to share your own answer to the same question in the comments! You can download your own set here.

What would you change about your life if money wasn’t an object?

I believe we would build the sleep out we’re planning straight away and move into it to start demolishing our house and rebuilding.

As we don’t want to increase our mortgage we’re going to cashflow the build of the sleep out, but saving for it is a bit slow going.

After the sleep out is built we will need to start saving again to cashflow as much as we can of the new build, which means we plan to rent the sleep out out first for a few years in order to save more of our income to go towards the new build.

I’d rather not have a stranger living on our property as I enjoy our privacy but it will be an effective way to save extra money towards our dream house.

So if I could skip that step I totally would!

Otherwise I wouldn’t really change my life, except book a trip to go home straight away haha.

What do the words “financial freedom” mean to you?

Financial freedom means to me living without financial stress, having the freedom to do what I want with my time.

It doesn’t necessarily mean not working at all, but choosing when and what kind of work I’d do. And where from.

I came to New Zealand in 2014 leaving my whole family behind. It is incredibly important to me that my two daughters will know their family overseas and feel a connection to the country and culture their mother is from.

Financial freedom would mean being able to go over to Finland regularly and spend a few months at a time there.

Financial freedom would mean I didn’t need to worry about my pay check while I am travelling.

What makes someone good with money?

I think being good with money begins with being aware of it.

Aware of how much you spend, aware how much you need to live, aware how your income is compared to your spending.

People who are good with money can cover all their expenses, they don’t take on debt they can’t afford for unnecessary things, maybe they can also save and invest a little bit too at least.

And they have a plan B in case they suddenly find themselves without income.

Now this view probably sounds a bit privileged, because I suppose it is.

For those struggling with poverty I think being good with money shows as survival. Maybe not needing to take on debt for the everyday necessities.

I’d love to hear your answers to these questions in the comments below!