Rich Enough?
Updated for 2025. Read this one book, set up your money, and get on with your life!
“She gets it that many Kiwis suffer from financial anxiety disorder, or FAD. FAD drives us mad. Holm, sensible and compassionate, brings the tonic of sanity.”
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Why Do You Want to be Richer?
Step 1: Start now — it’s easy
- Three ways to get more savings
- Get going
- You don’t need a million
Step 2: Kill off high-interest debt
- Are you a lucky one?
- Setting a goal
- The psychology of spending
- What about the unlucky lucky ones?
- Be a credit card winner
- How do student loans fit into all this?
Step 3: Set up insurance — and a rainy day fund
- Shelter from the storm
- The emergency fund
Step 4: Join the best KiwiSaver fund for you
- Under 65 and not in KiwiSaver? No excuses!
- Why is KiwiSaver so good?
- Which fund for you?
- Are you on track with your KiwiSaver savings?
- Getting the best out of KiwiSaver
- Ethical funds
- KiwiSaver for kids
- Don’t delay joining
Step 5: Boost your saving painlessly — how and where
- Hot tips on how to become a big saver
- Where to save — short-term savings
- Where to save — longer-term savings
- Not just New Zealand
- Other investments — individual shares and rental property
- If you have a problem
- Steering clear of scams
Step 6: Stay cool
- Rule 1: spread your risk
- Rule 2: largely ignore past performance
- Rule 3: don’t try to time markets
- Rule 4: never be forced to sell
- Rule 5: sit back and relax
- Vive la difference — how men and women invest
Step 7: Head confidently towards retirement — and through it
- The big picture
- Setting a savings goal
- Making it easier
- Investing during retirement
Step ? (when it’s the right time for you — if ever): Buy a house, or sell one
- Not planning on home ownership
- Saving to buy a first home
- Making the purchase — of a first or subsequent home
- The mortgage maze
- Selling a home
One more thing: Do you need personal financial advice?
- How to find some possible advisers
- Questions to ask them
- Meet the candidates for the job of advising you
On happiness
Mary’s two most recent books can be read in either order. Rich Enough? gives readers eight steps to sort their money. In A Richer You, readers can learn by eavesdropping on the real financial stories of other New Zealanders.
A Richer You
How to Make the Most of Your Money
“If you read one book to help yourself financially this year, make it this one.”
— Jane Wrightson, Retirement Commissioner
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Why This Book?
PART ONE: THE BASICS – starting out on the right foot
- The savers
- The spenders
- Managing debt
- House prices – a favourite topic!
- Playing the mortgage game
- Deciding about insurance
PART TWO: INVESTMENTS – where to save
- Which KiwiSaver provider, and which fund?
- KiwiSavvy – getting the best from the scheme
- Shares and share funds – a revival?
- Rental properties – when do they work well?
- Of bonds and Bitcoin
PART THREE: HOW BEST TO INVEST – strategies
- Investing versus paying down the mortgage
- Spreading the risk
- Rules to invest by
- It’s about timing
PART FOUR: RETIREMENT – making those hard-earned savings work for you
- NZ Super – will it change and will it last?
- Will your KiwiSaver be enough?
- Investing in retirement – planning it and doing it
- Planning your retirement spending
- Making retirement easier
PART FIVE: PEOPLE STUFF – it’s not all about maximizing money
- Helping the children
- The young give back
- Other family issues
- ‘Can this marriage be saved?’!!
- Trust-worthy?
- How to get help that is actually helpful
- Do what you want!
- In the end
Listen to Mary discussing Rich Enough? with Mark Leishman on RNZ’s Afternoons programme in 2025:
Both A Richer You and Rich Enough? are published by HarperCollins
