A guide to surviving the upcoming recession

With the global economy due for another slowdown, coupled with major economic disruption caused by Covid-19, we’re standing on the precipice of what looks to be a long and hard global recession. So what can we do to protect ourselves? Accountant and financial blogger Sam Harith has some advice.  1. Identify your personal income stream(s) … Read more

Need to get your money sorted? Try these apps

Managing your money isn’t all about Excel sheets and financial diaries. Here are just a few apps we recommend to help you on your way.  Money Lover This probably sounds bizarre, but there’s something oddly therapeutic about monitoring your money with an expense tracking app. Not only does it help keep how much you’re spending … Read more

Mind over money: an extract from Tales from a Financial Hot Mess

In this chapter from journalist Frances Cook’s guide to getting your finances sorted, she finally comes to terms with her attitudes and behaviour around money.  They say the first step is accepting you have a problem. One of the first things I had to accept was that I was guilty of ‘lifestyle creep’. With each of … Read more

Announcing The Spinoff Money

After years of trying, The Spinoff today launches Money – its newest section, one aimed at demystifying and making accessible the world of money. For decades, the relationship between most New Zealanders and money was broadly stable, baked into a set of milestones it was assumed all aspired to and would achieve if they strived. … Read more

An honest conversation between two freelancers about money

In the first instalment in the Money Talks series, Alice Webb-Liddall and Henry Oliver face up to their finances.  As a culture, we’re not very good at talking about money. Financial literacy is hard enough as it is and it’s only made harder by our silence around money issues. We are afraid of discussing our … Read more

How to keep your family warm this winter

It’s getting cold and, errrr, winter is coming. As part of our budgeting series brought to you by the awesome folks at Flick Electric, here’s everything you need to know about keeping your family warm. These tips from New Zealand parents have been curated by Emily Writes, editor of The Spinoff Parents. It’s freezing. I … Read more

Budget tips for NZ families, from NZ families

Setting a budget and sticking to it is really hard and The Spinoff Parents regularly gets asked to pull together budget tips that real parents use. Here are the best crowd-sourced tips from parents in New Zealand. We’ve tried to split this series into parts – because we were sent so many tips. This week we’ve compiled … Read more