Top 10 findings about nzgirls & their money

1: What’s in our accounts?
Well, just 1% of us earned over $100,000, with the majority of us (56%) earning under $40,000. As for the rest of us, around 31% were earning between $40,000 and $59,999, 9% were pulling in between $60,000 and $79,999 and nearly 2% of us were sitting pretty on $80,000 to $99,999.
 

2: Sharing the load?
Out of all the women who took our survey, about 60% were in relationships or married - that’s a lot of loving!

All that pairing up means it’s more likely that you’ll be sharing the financial load with someone else, whether that means splitting the rent, halving a mortgage or just having someone else to pick up the tab every now and then.
 

3: Laden with loans?
When it came to having loans (including credit cards, store cards, hire purchases or personal loans) 54% of us had only one loan, most had two or three loans and 6% of women surveyed had four to five loans. Then the big spenders weighed in - around two percent of women surveyed had five to seven loans and just under one percent had seven or more loans. So we know we’re spending, but are we saving?
 

4: We’re spending, but are we saving?
Well, 64% of us are - but that means 36% of women surveyed aren’t saving at all, tsk tsk! So those who aren’t saving, must be putting their cash into something worthwhile right, like a mortgage?
 

5: Investments as strong as houses?
Well, kind of… 16% of us are currently chipping away at a mortgage, while 1.5% of us own our own homes mortgage-free (we’re jealous).
 

6: Budget or bust?
So with all those personal loans, credit cards, hire purchases, mortgages and store cards it seems like most of us are in a bit of debt. Only 19% of women surveyed said that they had a budget that they stuck to.
 

7: Helping hands
And what do we do when we need a bit of extra cash? Almost 64% of us turn to our savings to tide us over, 26% whip out the credit card (or apply for a new one), close to 30% ask someone for a loan (Hi Mum and Dad) and a few of us turn to other means like extending overdrafts or getting personal loans.
 

8: Bills, bills, bills. You paid them?
Getting more into debt seems to be a bit of a reigning theme, so it made sense to see just how we handled the debt that we got into. It turns out 56.5% of women surveyed like to tackle debts head on, setting aside money every day to cover their bills. Close to 33% of us keep a rough idea of the bill payments we can expect to be hit with and find that it usually works out. As for the rest of us, well, we’re stuck somewhere between paying our bills with credit cards or other loans, or dipping into our savings to handle our bills.

9: Interest free or interest fees?
The good news is that 61% of women surveyed were conscious of the interest they paid on debts and tried to clear debts as quickly as possible and 67% had given thought to reducing the interest they paid on debt. But that leaves 33% of women surveyed who hadn’t given a thought to all the extra money they might be paying out each month in interest!
 

10: Extra for soon-to-be experts…
Paying too much interest is a sure-fire way to shrink the amount of money you have in the hand each month. Feeling like you’re constantly struggling to stay afloat financially, adds needless stress to your life and can make you feel like you’re swamped in debt. If you’ve ever thought about getting a handle on your debt, or have decided that now’s the time to start, there are things you can do to reduce your interest and make paying back what you owe a little easier.