nzgirl Money Survey Results!

The results are in and it turns out us nzgirls are quite a mixed bunch when it comes to our spending. We’ve pulled all the results together so you can see how you’re doing, how everyone else is doing and where you need to make some improvements!

 

Most of us earn less than $40,000 and 75% of us say that our pay goes towards bills every month – that’s no fun! Rent is also a huge drain on our finances, as is paying back our credit card spending and loan and HP repayments. The good news is that most of us also make substantial deposits into our own personal fun fund every month too.

 

A handful of us own a house complete with mortgage repayments and a whopping 85% of us haven’t made any other sort of investments.

For the few on to it nzgirls that have got themselves some investments sorted, they’ve predominantly gone for owning shares. We’ve got  a great attitude though, with only 4% of us saying we need our loans to get by and to support ourselves. Good work ladies!

 

Just over 1% of us are able to say we have no loan at all while the rest of us are juggling student loans, credit card debt, overdrafts and other loans. 73% of nzgirls have a student loan and nearly half of us owe money on our credit cards. The rest of our loans are predominantly from banks or finance companies in the forms of overdrafts, personal loans and HP purchases and close to 2% of us have loans from our Mum or Dad. Most of us don’t adhere to a budget but a virtuous 44% of nzgirls do. However, most people describe their budget as having a basic idea of their expenses or as a budget that comes and goes. Hmmm. 11%
 of us describe ourselves as strict budgeters and 5% of us don’t give budgeting a thought!

 

More of us own a credit card than not, 63% of us in fact, and we predominantly got them when we were in our early twenties. A few of us got our credit cards because the bank sent them to us, or  as part of a bank start up package, and 21% of us got them so we could take our shopping online. Close to 10% of us got our credit cards before heading off overseas and nearly 5% of us got credit cards because we thought it was the cool thing to do.

We’ve mostly kept our credit card debt under $1000 but close to 5% of us are cruising at the $2000 mark and a minority of us has racked up debt of up to $60,000. Luckily the vast majority of us make regular repayments of lump sums, or of the exact amounts owing. We usually whip out the cards to book flights, shop online, for impulse and everyday purchases and in emergencies.

 

Most of us know what a debit card is but only 23.1% actually have one. 54% of us would like to have more info on investing and most of us would like to know how to analyse our spending habits. About half of us would also like to know how to upskill so we can earn more cash.

Overall it’s normal for nzgirls to have a bit of debt hanging over their heads but we’re tackling it head on, and are actively interested in increasing our wealth. Check back to see our guides for doing just that in the future!

Isla