Keep The Change

Let’s run the numbers on someone earning $35 an hour trying to “get ahead” in NZ.

Full-time is roughly $72,800.

After tax, ACC, KiwiSaver (3%), you’re left with roughly $55k take-home.

Here are the real costs one person shared (good starting point: 29, single, no kids, flatting):

Rent: $350/week

Food: $150/week

Fuel: $45/week

Insurance (car, contents, health): $60/week

Gym (CrossFit): $50/week

Power: $60/week

That totals about $715/week, or $37,200/year.

So on paper:

Take-home: $55,000

Core living costs: -$37,200

Leftover: $17,800/year

That suggests they could be lucky to save around $15k per year.

I think there are some missing costs from this budget:

Dentist / medical. Car repairs + servicing + tyres. Registration + WOF. Clothing, gifts, travel, weddings. Subscriptions, eating out, entertainment.

That $17.8k surplus becomes something like: $12k–$15k per year saved.

That’s still solid! BUT let’s be honest about NZ.

ISSUE 1: You can’t afford emergencies… and you really can’t afford house prices running away

If you’re saving $12k–$15k a year,

A major car problem can wipe out a big chunk of your progress or a job interruption hurts.

AND you definitely don’t want house prices rising quickly while you’re trying to stack a deposit.

If a $600,000 house increases by 5%, that’s $30,000 of price movement in a year. (You will get blasted by multiple media articles monthly about how possible this is and how predicted it is).

So while someone is proudly saving $15k, the goalposts could move by $30k.

With the cost of living increasing and tax rates not being indexed to inflation, keeping your saving rate in line with house increases becomes very hard. Fortunately house prices have been flat in SOME regions.ISSUE 2: People WITH $$$$ are experiencing the opposite

The sharemarket returned a solid 15% in 2025 for many S&P500 investors. $100k invested and you have $115k at the end of the year (loose math). You didn’t have to work a year to gain $15k. You had to risk $100k.

(The market doesn’t always act like this but it did in 2025, and in 2024 and in 2023).

Even “Risk-averse Randy” with $400,000 in a term deposit at 6% received roughly $16,080 after tax in interest for risking his $400k.

So of course younger people (or anyone without capital) get frustrated watching others make money “easily” like this, while they grind for the same result.

When the math looks like this, it’s not hard to see why so many are choosing to try their luck somewhere else.

We all know deep down that our income earning ability is our single biggest asset.If you were 25–30 right now, what would you do?

SOLUTIONS??

Bluntly, people in this position face a choice:

- Earn more (overtime, upskilling, better industry, commission-based roles, side income)

- Change housing structure (flatting vs living alone)

- Stay home with parents (if it’s viable)

- Reduce big recurring costs (or just do less for a season)

- Invest in assets where possible (even small, consistent amounts)

- Speculate (high risk, usually punished)

- Move to Australia (which has been very popular)

The importance of KiwiSaver to get the employer match. When saving for the first home not many financial advisors would suggest exposing the deposit to too much risk so some may not have seen the gains of those investing for different purposes (more long term).