Vet Students - smart money advice questions with Janet Natta - pt 2 of 2 - ep 045

 045 - Vet Student Smart Money Advice with Janet Natta

[00:00:00] Janet Natta: That was when I was studying for my diploma in financial planning at MSCI and did the investment paper at the time I was working for public trust and they introduced the puppet trust investment funds. And I got involved solved with the rollout of that, and we trialed the software and. And offering it as an investment at the branch that I was managing at the time.

[00:00:28] And I thought, wow, this is really interesting.

[00:00:37] Julie South: Welcome to episode 45 of paws, claws, and wet noses. The vet podcasts, celebrating all creatures great and small, and they're fantabulous professionals who look after them all. I'm your show host Julie south. And today I'm joined by Janet Netta of smart money advice. This [00:01:00] is the second of a two-part series.

[00:01:03] We're MSCI, VITs science grips, or students sent in their questions to answering today. We're talking about budgeting student loans, some what to do and what not to do when it comes to investing and where to start. Have you changed in the subject? Have you registered to go in the drawer to win one of the five lunch shots that vet staff is giving away during fitness awareness week 2021?

[00:01:34] Yeah. If you haven't stay tuned to the end where you're here, how to do that. As always all references made during today's show will be available on the episode. Page witches, episode 45 at paws claws wit noses dot F M. Now, as I mentioned back and. Episode 41, which was the first of these two [00:02:00] episodes, MSCI student that med students fit science students.

[00:02:04] This series has been in the making since may. So I'm super thrilled to actually get it to air back in may Cisco, Derek who's the 2021 president of the students. The student veterinary business society or the SVB, is it messy university and a messy vet science student herself asked on Facebook, whether there was anyone able to help her fellow students answered their financial questions.

[00:02:34] One conversation led to another end today. Here we are. I've known Janet Netter of smart money advice for coming up 10 years. She lives not far from me on a lifestyle blog and Tim Meherry and the white ghetto. Janet is the mother of a brand new grad herself. So she understands university life and also a high schooler Janet's family [00:03:00] is known and I'm air quoting now.

[00:03:02] To the local mixed animal vet, as they have a few stock, as well as a cat and a dog. Now just like a bitten Ariens need to be registered in order to work as a veterinarian. So to do people who provide financial financial advice to protect Janet, I need to let you know that the information she's providing in this episode is not financial advice.

[00:03:28] Her company. Tactical financial advice limited has a F S P number of 6 9 1 6 7 1. And she trades under the name of smart money. Advice holds a license issued by the financial markets or authority to provide financial advice. Janet's license number is if SP 6 7 5 4. Jen it's expertise is comprehensive.

[00:03:58] Financial planning, [00:04:00] retirement planning, and investment portfolio, construction and management for clients with more than $250,000 to invest. If you want more information about her or her company, please visit smart money advice.co dot India. If you'd like to receive copies of Jen, it's easy to understand newsletter and I mean, easy to understand it's all in plain English, you can sign up at smart money, advice.co.in Z.

[00:04:30] Scroll right to the bottom of her website to subscribe the.

[00:04:36] Bryan Gregor: An old vet told my father when he was a student in Glasgow. He said, if you want to be a success in veterinary practice, just keep the bowels open and just arrested. God. Nutrition is not an opinion. It's a science. They called me that weird herbal needle.

[00:04:52] That, and I, I just remember thinking. Well, I'm still going to do it cause I know it works and I've got the research to back it from [00:05:00] reminiscences of the real James Harriet son to Pete nutrition, to acupuncture the bit podcast, discusses current animal health issues from around the world. I'm visionary and Brian greeter from New Zealand, just search for the fit podcast, wherever you get your podcasts from.

[00:05:18] Julie South: Paws claws and wet noses is sponsored by vet staff. If you've never heard of it, staff it's new, Zealand's only full service recruitment agency. 100% dedicated to the veterinary sector fit staff has been around since 2015 and works nationwide from Kate Wrangler to the bluff and everywhere in between as well as helping Kiwis fits.

[00:05:43] Also helps overseas, qualified veterinarians find work and art hero and New Zealand fit staff.co dot indeed. Although today's episode specifically answers massive students' questions as [00:06:00] you'll hear the information that Janet shares is relevant to just about most people. Because her profession requires full disclosure, which you can read in its entirety at smart money, advice dot Coda in Zed.

[00:06:13] I'll just go over some of the top level stuff. Janet has a bachelor of business studies degree from MSCI university. She has a diploma in business endorsed in personal financial planning, also from MSCI university. And she's an authorized financial advisor. She's also a member of the Institute of financial advisors, the white cat or branch secretary, and former member of the national council at financial advice, New Zealand, she's a committee member and the Waikato bay of plenty.

[00:06:47] Yeah. And she's held roles on national investment advisory committees for the national partnership and advanced investment solutions. Janet owned her own business since [00:07:00] 2008. Before that she worked in it as a part-time employee for two years prior to purchasing it. So she knows what running a business is all about.

[00:07:09] She's also worked as a fire and general insurance underwriter for four years, a bank advisor for an investment and insurance for two years. And as a professional trustee for 12 and a half years with the public trust, let's join the conversation. Janet's answering my question about when she realized she wanted to be an investment advisor.

[00:07:34] Janet Natta: I guess that was when I was studying for my diploma in financial planning at MSCI and did the investment paper. At the time I was working for public trust and they introduced the private trust investment funds. And I got involved with the rollout of that and we trialed the software and. And [00:08:00] offering it as an investment at the branch that I was managing at the time.

[00:08:04] And I thought, wow, this is really interesting.

[00:08:08] Julie South: What made it interesting for you? 

[00:08:11] Janet Natta: The fact that it's very dynamic, the markets change every day. The macro economic inputs change every day. The geopolitics of the world changes every day. You've got to watch everything closely all the time and try and factor in what you can see coming and to what you're doing now with your clients.

[00:08:36] Julie South: So what, what does a typical day look like for you? How do you start your day 

[00:08:41] Janet Natta: at the top? 

[00:08:42] Julie South: I mean, what, okay, let me do, do you go. Do you check out wall street? Do you check out the FTSE? What do you go to the national program? How, where do you what's how do you make sure that you're current? 

[00:08:57] Janet Natta: We get emails overnight from [00:09:00] different organizations that we subscribed to talking.

[00:09:03] Yeah. Where the markets have closed overseas and productions about where the markets are going to open. We're one of the first markets in the world to open. So it's quite useful to see overnight where everyone else has finished the advice debt 

[00:09:20] Julie South: we're going to be talking about today as general 30,000 foot looking down.

[00:09:28] Only is that correct? It is not specific advice to individual people. 

[00:09:35] Janet Natta: Correct. 

[00:09:36] Julie South: First one is from anonymous. Who's asking what strategy would you recommend for repaying student loans? Should we be worried about how big our loaners. Do you have any tips for minimizing our loans or being smart about how we get our loans as in if I don't need to be getting living [00:10:00] costs, should I be getting it anyway and investing this as a way to make money?

[00:10:06] What advice do you have for starting an investment portfolio? I really want to get into the share market, but don't know where to start. Okay. 

[00:10:19] Janet Natta: So if we start with the student loan thing, I CLI, well, if you're a New Zealand citizen or resident, when you're at university, Download money in the form of student loan to cover your education costs and, and your living costs.

[00:10:37] And when you start working, the loan is required to be repaid. So working on the current roles as of September, 2021, The first $390 a week you earn before tax is exempt. And for every dollar you earn over that amount, you repay [00:11:00] 12% of that money to your student loan. That's the current requirement to repay and the loan is interest free while you remain in New Zealand.

[00:11:13] So if your long-term strategy is to stay in New Zealand, Uh, the money is interest free and it's not really going to be a problem for you until you potentially apply for a mortgage. When you go to apply for a mortgage, the, the two aspects they look at is. How much can you pay and to repay your debt, your debt servicing capabilities, and then they look at your net asset position, your assets, they should liability.

[00:11:49] So student loan comes into both of those equations. It's probably more of an issue on the debt servicing side. So if you have a very large student loan, [00:12:00] uh, and, uh, planning to buy a house, it would be in your best interest to try and reduce. The amount of your debt as quickly as you can so that it won't be a problem.

[00:12:12] When you go to buy a house in terms of getting a mortgage. If you're planning to leave New Zealand and work overseas, your deemed to be a non-resident when you've been overseas for 153 days. Off of that 184 day period. This is all on the IRD website. They've even got a little calculator where you can put in the date, you're going to be away.

[00:12:36] And it tells you the date on which you will become an overseas resident. And if you're overseas, the loan starts attracting and trust at 3% and you also have to make payments from overseas. So a 3% loan is still a very low interest rate loan, but yeah. Starts to rack up and accumulate. [00:13:00] And if you are overseas, it's a good strategy to try and keep sending money back, not just the minimum payment, but over and above to try and get the debt level down for when you come back to New Zealand, if you come back, uh, and what's game want to get into buying a house.

[00:13:17] So the question. Can you take the maximum amount of the loan and invest it. You could, that you would have to be very disciplined that you are taking the money, sitting at a side and vesting it, and then making a call at some point about whether you put that money back on the loan. So that is strategy that would work.

[00:13:40] Taking the money and using it to buy depreciating assets like cars. And McDonald's probably not the best strategy, but yeah, if you're, if you have a good, solid investment strategy that can work for you, that would be similar to, I think. 

[00:13:59] Julie South: And I'm [00:14:00] questioning you here to somebody having, is it a revolving credit mortgage where.

[00:14:08] The disciplined and they put all their, their income on this revolving credit, and then don't keep drawing on it. Is that a similar, 

[00:14:21] Janet Natta: no, it's kind of more looking at the best use of the dollar. Right? So if you've got a dollar and you are paying, for example, 3 cents to have it, which is the interest rate on student loan, if you're overseas, but you can take that dollar and invest it and make six sings after tax.

[00:14:43] You're your 3 cents. Better ahead by investing it for 6 cents rather than paying 3 cents. Not to have it. So it's kind of looking at, yeah, that's more of a strategy. If you're going over this money, it's got to make more. [00:15:00] What it's costing you to have any tips for minimizing our loans or being smart about how we get our loan.

[00:15:09] What's the getting the loan. It's very prescriptive in terms of what you can get and how much you can get and how long you can have it paying the loan back. Once the guy in it's this no right answer. It's about what is your strategy? Long-term strategy. As I said, if you're coming out of uni and you're looking at, I want to have a house within five years, it's a good idea to try.

[00:15:34] You can make lump sum repayments onto your student loan. It's a good idea to try and get it down because it will affect your ability to get a mortgage. But if you're, if you've got a longer time horizon, it's not such a big deal, but certainly it's a good idea to be smart. With your money, but the best advice I could give anyone coming out of uni.

[00:15:59] Is to [00:16:00] set up a really solid cash management plan. When you get your first job work through how much is coming in and, and where you're going to allocate that money to. So look at, you know, what is my rent? What are my transport costs? What is my food budget? What does my takeaways budget? What is my going out with my mates, budget, things like that.

[00:16:24] Bucket all your money. Yeah. And then work out how much you've got left and then set that money aside, as they say, pay yourself first, put that money away and live on what is left and that's going to get you ahead. So that's the best strategy rather than just live to what is your bank account actually be deliberate about what is left in your bank account and live to that.

[00:16:52] Julie South: Do you work with any students? Do you have students as clients, 

[00:16:58] apart from my daughter? I mean, I know [00:17:00] that your daughter is, is just out of the workforce as a, a new grad. 

[00:17:04] Janet Natta: Yeah, not really. I have talked to students and children of quiets and given them, you know, general advice, this one is from. As a new head visit, how would I get into investing and managing personal finance?

[00:17:25] Now I realized that you need to have a general answer to this based, uh, in this sprint when you starting out is to look at a KiwiSaver. So if you're on a salary position, You can contribute 3, 4, 6, 8, 10% of your salary and to your KiwiSaver and your employer is quite to contribute 3% less tax. And if you personally attributing more than $1,042 86 cents a year, [00:18:00] the government puts in a member tax credit of $521 43 a year.

[00:18:06] So it's a great investment where you can get some free money. KiwiSaver can be used towards buying your first home. So if you've never owned a house before, you can take most of the money out of your KiwiSaver to put down as posit for your first home. So it's a great way to save for a house deposit. So that's the, the first investment everybody should have if you want it.

[00:18:34] Invest is an put money away for longer than a three or four year period. There are other investments called managed funds, which are very similar to KV service, but they don't have any of the Lockton components. So it's kind of like a KiwiSaver on call and a lot of the KiwiSaver providers offer managed funds as well.

[00:18:59] [00:19:00] And they're really good for longer term. Savings. So the diverse, fully diversified funds, you're pulling your money with a lot of other people, which means that, you know, you drop your dollar in and you've instantly got 4,000 this month, rather than one. So it reduces risk. And having that, that bulk pool of money also gets investors access to stuff.

[00:19:24] They could never access as individually. Amy's question about managing personal finance, that would be for her to look at the different buckets of her money. Is it correct? Absolutely. There are some good tools available on the sorted website. So that's www.sorted.org dot INSEAD. It's run by, I think it's financial capability.

[00:19:48] Kamisha, there's some really good stuff on there to have a look at. There are lots of budget programs available online. Some of the banks offer them as well [00:20:00] as part of their internet banking. ex-US yeah. There's all sorts of tools available. It's just a matter of finding something that makes sense to you and doing that because of it doesn't make sense.

[00:20:14] You're not going to do it. I run my budget out of the 3d . Which most of my clients find highly amusing, but it works for me. I don't want a spreadsheet. I spend all day on spreadsheets with the notebook it's there and writing. I can refer back to it. I put my bills in the notebook when they come in, it totally works for me.

[00:20:36] So that's what I do. I automate as much of my bill paying and my saving as possible wages come in. Instantly money gone, money gone everywhere. And then what is left is leafed. And that sort of how we live. Sometimes I will say I put a little bit too much money away and we run short and I get growled, but you [00:21:00] know, it's about finding a system that, that works.

[00:21:03] Julie South: I remember when I was at the reserve bank, I. Worked with a woman I chose to get, this is in the days when you could get paid cash or automatic payment, she always chose to get a proportion of hers and cash. And she had this swag of envelopes with different labels on them. Yeah. H second Thursday, she would get her cash and divided up and it went and that was her.

[00:21:33] Yeah, she, she was very, very disciplined with her money. 

[00:21:36] Janet Natta: Well, the, the way to do that these days is to have different bank accounts. So instead of having envelopes, you have different bank accounts. So we've got a short-term bills bank account. So that's where the money goes. And for the power. And the monthly donations and money that goes up monthly into investments and stuff like that.

[00:21:57] That's all that money goes. And then we have a [00:22:00] longterm bills account, which is where the money goes for the rates. And our insurance is we pay all our insurance annually because it's cheap. So we put a certain amount of side, every payday for that. Then we've got the travel account. Then we've got the.

[00:22:15] They, um, money per account, which we've set up for restoring one of Gary's Holdens, which is called the money. Put, we have an account for my son's sporting phase, which he's a rower, so he's flipping expensive. We put money in there, every payday. So we've got it. All envelopes, if you like electronic envelopes where the money goes in and it just sits here and is used for whatever its purposes.

[00:22:40] Julie South: So, okay. At least to starting one of these multiple bank account systems, and let's say it's a long term bill, for example, insurance, and they start it partway through. The cycle, when [00:23:00] they get to two payment date, there's not going to be enough money. Where would they top, which account would they top that up from?

[00:23:10] Janet Natta: What I would do is work out what your insurance bill is going to be. So say for example, your insurance should, at the end of January, you've got five months before that to work out roughly what the bill is going to be. And divide it by five and that's how much you put in for the every month. And then when you get the bill in January, when you raise

[00:23:34] You put on a 12th every, every month. That's why you do what you do. And I do what I do. Yeah. Well, we've saved from mess of overseas trip, doing that. I worked at how much it was going to be divided up by 48 months and off we went. 

[00:23:49] Julie South: I was just thinking, when you said that you've gotten a, um, overseas travel account, that would be looking pretty healthy right now.

[00:23:55] Janet Natta: Yeah. Yeah. I know. It's kind of disappointing cause yeah. [00:24:00] Yeah, frothing at the mouth. 

[00:24:02] Julie South: This is a question from Jess is contributing and we probably answered this already. It's contributing a higher amount to KiwiSaver enough for an investment, or would you suggest having a separate investment? 

[00:24:18] Janet Natta: If you are planning to you, if you're saving solely for a fish time deposit, a KiwiSaver is a great way to save.

[00:24:29] If you are saving for anything else, like a trip, uh, or like, uh, no way or buying a new car in five years or anything, a QB saver won't work for you because you can only get your money out for first-time deposit or when you retire. You can get it off. You can prove you're living New Zealand permanently, or if you have less than 12 months to live, but it's really, really hard to get money out of a KiwiSaver.

[00:24:56] So if you've got an investment running alongside, it gives [00:25:00] you more flexibility because you can access that money. If there is a major drama, like if you get really crock and you can't work for three or four months, you can access your investment to help keep your rent. While you're not working, or if there's a family emergency and you need to Chuck some money at a sibling or help your parents or something, once again, you can access that money and then get it back later.

[00:25:27] So it's a much more flexible strategy to have a dollar each way, rather than just relying on QB saver 

[00:25:36] Julie South: that has just prompted two questions from me from what you see it we're predominantly right now talking to. Grids. Yeah. Like new grids people, your daughter's age, would you recommend that they look at health insurance and income protection insurance at the age?

[00:25:57] Or is that too personal? A question [00:26:00] and you need to do a whole portfolio analysis. 

[00:26:03] Janet Natta: Think it depends partly on. Where they're at and where they want to be. You absolutely need to get into the insurance stuff at point in time that you become a parent when you need to make sure you've got provision for your time.

[00:26:26] Or when you buy a house, a mortgage is a contractual obligation, right? So you've got to meet your mortgage payments. If you don't, you lose your house. That's where it's really important to look at income protection or mortgage installment protection or something, because you've got a grown-up commitment there and you need to ensure that no matter what happens, you can meet your financial commitments.

[00:26:49] So that's the point at which you really need to get sick. About insurance as fun as genie. Is it a good idea to pay off your student loan [00:27:00] fast? If it is interest free or pay the minimum requirements only once GYN depends on what your future plans are. If you're looking at getting a mortgage, definitely try and either set money aside.

[00:27:17] For the purpose of producing your loan, when you make your mortgage application or put extra into your line. Wallets interest free. And if you're not, or if you already have a mortgage, you've already got one, you don't need to worry too much about it is a debt that will need to be paid off at some point, just opinions on whether it's going to get in the way of where you want to go.

[00:27:40] Julie South: Veterinary student loans are tens and tens and tens of thousands of told us it 

[00:27:45] Janet Natta: probably more like hundreds of thousands of dollars midstream. Student lines to look at. Yeah. They're they're, they're almost, they're big. Yeah. Make your eyes water. Yeah. But having said that most medical type graduates get a reasonable [00:28:00] starting income and you can flog it.

[00:28:05] Julie South: This one is for, I hope I pronounce the name correctly. Deronn TSA. Gerontius. What are some of the available sheer investment platforms available to begin? Apps brokerage firms that are user-friendly or do not have complicated user interfaces or complex free structures. I have, I always wanted to dip my hands into the investing world to supercharge my savings for the future.

[00:28:34] Also what, sorry, those platforms allow one to invest in overseas markets. For example, the U S ma. 

[00:28:43] Janet Natta: There are a lot of new generation of ESOP platforms that have become available in the last couple of years. And I'm not recommending any of them by saying their names. The biggest one, of course, she is AEs and is [00:29:00] hatch.

[00:29:00] And in this now, All sorts of other little platforms that are springing up, they're called micro investing platforms. So the financial services council recently did a survey and their figures came back at 1.5. New Zealand is 1.5 million, sorry, new Zealanders either use the platforms or planning to use them.

[00:29:25] So that's a lot of people, I guess. Consumed with these platforms. I have two concerns. The first one is that a lot of people treat them as gambling and not on these things. You know, I've met people who've come in and they've got, you know, a hundred thousand sitting on a platform and they'll call just wanted some advice on this.

[00:29:48] So you get the lesson and you go, okay. So why did you, why did you put some money in that one? And they look at me a long ago, or I dunno, and I. Thought [00:30:00] there's no rationale behind why they've put the money in or even B what they've put the money in. You know? So if, if it's part of a reasoned, Parsis thought, you know, how much volatility you happy worth, what asset classes do you want to be in?

[00:30:18] How do you want to invest? You're going to go for a diversified fund or a single company. Have you researched any of us? You know, and if people can go, yes, yes, yes, yes. Oh good. But it's the people that don't have any thought process behind this. It's gambling, not investing and. The other question I would have is around motivation.

[00:30:39] Your Christian person has said they were looking for a long-term strategy, which is great. But for a lot of people they're doing this for the quick one they've been at Harvard and somebody dropped that they've oh, I've put some money on this and that's up 10% in a week. And they go, oh, and pile. And that's not a good rationale for investing.

[00:30:58] Let's call fear of missing out [00:31:00] and. Uh, but concern that I have for people doing this is if we get another significant market down tune and all their investments dropped by 35% and they bail, they've catalyzed a loss and potentially it'll make them more averse to investing in the future because this story will be, and this ones don't work and it's not true.

[00:31:24] And this ones do work, but gambling does. The other concern I have about some of these platforms as they're not regulated. So when you put money into a KiwiSaver or a managed fund, the person that's offering the service to you is regulated by a government department, whether it's reserve bank or the financial markets authority, or both, it's a regulated industry.

[00:31:48] The reason for that is consumer protection. None of these micro platforms, listing platforms that are regulated and all it's going to take us [00:32:00] for one of them to either get paid or to lose a whole lot of people's money. And it will really have a big impact on the trust around financial systems and New Zealand.

[00:32:13] So that's another concern that I have. Let's just talk a little bit about, you mentioned regulation. How does somebody find out using Dr. Google with, uh, something that they, a platform that they're considering an as regulated or not, or an investment that they're considering as regulated or not? None of the platforms are regular.

[00:32:43] And that includes all the cryptocurrency platforms and the ethics platforms that they're not actually gonna lie. Some of the ethics platforms are regulated. The New Zealand ones are anyway within an investment. If you're wanting to know whether [00:33:00] the actual investment is regulated, they will have an offer document or a product disclosure document available on the website.

[00:33:07] And that covers it. Information. They are legally required to provide the spot by law and also has an who their custodian is, who their trustee is and who their regulator as all KiwiSaver funds or New Zealand based managed funds have a product disclosure statement available in New Zealand to practice is.

[00:33:30] Julie South: A veterinarian needs to be registered with the New Zealand veterinary council. What is the equivalent of that for you? 

[00:33:38] Janet Natta: We are registered through the financial markets authority, so there is a register and what's it called? Oh goodness. Anyway, you can Google. On the financial markets authority for the register for every person who is a, uh, a [00:34:00] licensed financial advisor and New Zealand, I will put a link on the show notes page, and it also states which business you work for and the businesses all have to be licensed as well.

[00:34:14] Julie South: Can anybody be registered or licensed? What did you have to do in order to. 

[00:34:23] Janet Natta: To get that certification as an investment advisor, we had to have completed, uh, we have a minimum education standard, and we also had to go through prey, the slightest round of digitization and the authorized funding. Advisors that process no longer exists, but there is a minimum education standard now for all financial advice, just not for investment advisors only they have to have a level [00:35:00] five certificate and that's part of their registration process.

[00:35:04] Julie South: Now, can you explain the difference between a financial advisor and an investment advisor place? 

[00:35:12] Janet Natta: What's the new legislation there. Isn't one. We are all financial advisors, but we all have specialist areas. So you have financial advisor, mortgage, financial advisor insurance, you have financial advisor, investment or financial advisor, financial planning.

[00:35:33] And you're an investment. And financial planning, financial planning because of my two designations. I think you can only have two. Yeah. This Christian is from a non, when I start my first job, I wouldn't have money at all to invest, but what would be the safe things to invest in as I accumulate some savings.

[00:35:57] Julie South: Next question. Do you want me to go into the next [00:36:00] question or you want to answer that one? That one that's a good place to start. 

[00:36:03] Janet Natta: Okay. The first thing to do is set up a KiwiSaver my advice to you would not to go with a default KiwiSaver to actually make a conscious choice about which KiwiSaver fund manager you're going to use.

[00:36:19] And within that watch KiwiSaver fund, you're going to use once again, this quite a bit of information available on sorted to have a look at one thing I would say was sorted. They tend to give you the very short term. Performance figures KiwiSaver is a marathon, not a sprint. And if you wanting to compare a couple of Kiwi savers that really spin your wheels, I would advise you to look at the average five-year and ten-year returns for comparison, not one year.

[00:36:50] One year in a KB is nothing. You really need to look at how they're running the distance. So that's the first place to start. Second place to start [00:37:00] is to make sure you've got a cash buffer in the bank. So emergency savings. So the best thing to do is to set up a savings account within the, which you bank with and stop putting a little bit of money over every payday so that if you.

[00:37:18] Get to a point where you suddenly your car files a warrant, or you have a big Dean to spell or something like that. You've got some money that's set aside specifically for that purpose of emergency. And once you've got that up to 5, 6, 7 grand, then you could start looking at maybe dripping some money into some other long-term investments.

[00:37:43] What percentage of my earnings as a new grad general practitioner. So that would probably around the $65,000 Mack. Should I spend on living housing, saving [00:38:00] recreation it, cetera. It depends entirely on you. If you're a new grad. Living in Oakland, you're going to be spending a lot more on accommodation.

[00:38:14] Then a new grad who started in gray. Now this is where you create your cash management plan. Go through the essential. So I need to have some way to love. I need to pay for my transport. I need to pay for my phone or this or the cost. I need to load every fortnight and then go down to okay. Socializing is important to me.

[00:38:39] I'm going to have a $50 be a budget. I'm going to sit so much aside for other things that are important to me. It's about creating something that's meaningful for you and reflective of your life. There's no one size fits all. 

[00:38:54] So some saving plans are not accessible to them.

[00:38:59] But they [00:39:00] do plan to work here after graduation. So KiwiSaver is only available to New Zealand residents. So KiwiSaver might not be an option, but this is where you can use a managed fund. Managed funds are accessible. There's no reason agency requirement. What options are non, what options do I have with paying off my student loans?

[00:39:24] Uh, some of, are there some ways of which could be more beneficial than others? The only ways for paying off student loan, if your, a New Zealand is you have it deducted from you as say 12% of your income above 390 awake is automatically deducted from your pay. And you'll also have the option of making lump sums and regular internet banking payments and to your student loan.

[00:39:52] So those are the. Payment options available. So somebody couldn't opt say to pay [00:40:00] 15%? No, no, no. It's, it's a tax code basically. Whereas KiwiSaver, that's come up often. Is this something that you do me? Yes. No. Sorry, not do you, um, do you help people? I'm thinking, you know, listeners here, do you help people with QVC?

[00:40:21] Yes. If they have questions or would like you to, to work with them on the best strategy for them, then 

[00:40:30] Julie South: I will put link direct links for you on the website for this podcast, but you are Janet at smart money, advice.co dot. Indeed. Do you have any other tips, strategies hit? In science, having a, having a daughter who's a, a recent grade.

[00:40:55] Janet Natta: The biggest one is the biggest thing I would say is to get a good cash [00:41:00] management program in place and to get a handle on your money, what's coming in, where it's going in to make conscious choices about where it is going. That's the key thing, because this is how you're going to get it. Just how are you going to build your wealth and the best time to contact you is right now?

[00:41:16] Right? Well, there are so many online options available and that space for cash management, Justin, like I say, have a look around and find one that works for you. But if somebody is serious about, I mean, I,

[00:41:34] Julie South: I remember, you know, there's always, you've got forever and then all of a sudden you don't have for you.

[00:41:43] And forever just gets smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller. So for somebody, a student, a grad who's, who is thinking about their financial future and securing their financial future, it's better to do it sooner rather than later as [00:42:00] that career. Absolutely. Yep. 

[00:42:03] Janet Natta: Yep. The Merry home has written a couple of books, H O L M there with having a look at people, talk a lot about a book called the beef from Vista.

[00:42:13] It was running for Australians. So the first from memory chapters are absolutely fantastic and he talks a lot about cash management strategy, but then they get into. How to play Australian super and the different tax systems and the tax breaks. And he talks about, and this man options that aren't available in New Zealand and you're sitting there going, damn, I wish I was in Jose.

[00:42:41] That the first four or five chapters of fit book, a really, really good. So that's another option. If you can get that from a, you know, from a library or pack it up the barefoot and Vista, he is a question that you weren't expecting. And I don't know whether you'll be able to answer it or not. 

[00:42:59] Julie South: Have [00:43:00] you head any horror stories of investments or people trying to DIY.

[00:43:10] What they're doing and end up losing or making a total mess. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. It's yeah, it's not that hard to do. So what should people look out for 

[00:43:28] Janet Natta: if it looks to be good? If it looks too good to be true. And once again, do not put all your eggs in one basket. If you have a range of different, and this months, you're going to be far less likely to come a Cropper than having all of your money in one investment.

[00:43:49] And I just don't mean like one specific investment. I mean, if you've got all your money in New Zealand cheese and something happens at a sheer market falls by 20%. [00:44:00] You're slightly screwed. If you have all your money and one particular investment and something goes bad there you're screwed. It's about having a range of stuff.

[00:44:12] Ideally, that gives you that diversification. 

[00:44:15] Julie South: The key thing is quarter-acre home ownership is a long-term. Investment strategy or money protection strategy for people that may not be in a position to perhaps ever buy a house because of the way the property is going. Now, how would you suggest that they, they look at investing in the non quarter acre Kiwi section way.

[00:44:46] Janet Natta: They going to need to make some provision for more retirement savings. Then somebody who owns their own home because they will be renting when they're working, but they'll also be [00:45:00] renting when you retired national super at the moment is about $672 fortnight. Try and rent on that. Is that gross or net?

[00:45:11] Net. That's what I mean. It's yeah. It's 30,000. That's 15, $15,000 a year about plus or minus. Closer to 1990, you know, it's yeah. If you're getting 350 bucks a week and your went to 300, it's not going to be a good look. So if you're going to choose to be a lifetime reenter, or you're not going to have any choice about being a lifetime renter, you need to have set extra money aside.

[00:45:41] So that when you're retired, you can actually afford to continue to rent and ate at the same time. So it's about, you need to create your wealth, future wealth and ways other than owning your own home. 

[00:45:54] Julie South: Janet, we talked earlier about should people get insurance, but I didn't ask you a [00:46:00] question about Will's last will and Testament.

[00:46:04] So is there, is it too soon? When do they need to start thinking about that?

[00:46:10] Janet Natta: And, and you Seeland the law. Is there anyone who has more than $15,000 and assets needs to have a well, most people have got more than that in their KiwiSaver, so they need to have a, well, if they don't have a world. Someone has to make application to the high court for leaders of administration to take care of their stuff that costs a lot of money.

[00:46:37] It is far cheaper just to go and make a well, um, preferably with a lawyer or trustee company. So it's done properly and you get good advice, but yeah, absolutely people don't realize that they need to have a, well, even if they've only got a little. How often should they [00:47:00] update their will. Back in the day when I worked in the trustee industry, we recommended every five years, it should be reviewed.

[00:47:08] It's just have a look at, have a look at it. Does it still fit your circumstances? If you have got married, you need to make a new, whoa. If you've had children, you need to make a new well, because you need to appoint guardians for your kids. And that's really, really important. You know, if you've appointed a private person as an executor and they're not up for it, right.

[00:47:30] Because of how four they've moved away or you're not friends anymore, whatever you need to make a new well, so it's just have a look at it every so often and check that it's still valid for your circumstances. If you buy a house, if you buy a vet clinic. Yeah. It's a really good time to check all your ducks a lot.

[00:47:53] Julie South: I hope you found that interesting and helpful as you can probably tell. I hope you could. [00:48:00] Janet's passionate about teaching people how to work smarter with their money and helping them to achieve their goals. Most of which we know cost money. One of Janet's belief is that financial freedom. Isn't about having lots of money and lots of positions.

[00:48:17] It's about the power to have enough money to make good choices, instead of ending up at the mercy of others. Remember she talked about if you're currently renting, you need to be able to plan to continue renting even when you're not here. The type of choices that you need to make a very individual to you and will vary as you move through life.

[00:48:40] So we all need to adjust our financial plans on that journey. And the longer you put off sorting at your finances, the less time you have to get to where you want to be in life. Janet has into holistic financial planning, which is the process of having a detailed look at all the [00:49:00] areas that make up the financial segment of someone's life.

[00:49:03] Making sure that everything has been considered and that an appropriate plan is in place. As I said, at the beginning of this podcast, Jen, its business is especially tailored to people. Well, you have around $250,000 or more to invest. If that's you, then when you first meet with Jen, it she'll talk with you about budgeting, which is harnessing your earnings as they come into your household.

[00:49:30] She'll look at your debt and see if the structure is optimal for your circumstances. And she may also develop a plan to repay any debt fast. Together. You're talk about personal insurances, what kind and how much she'll look at your retirement savings and KiwiSaver are you saving in the right way and into the right place for you, Janet?

[00:49:51] We'll discuss your estate planning. Do you have one in place and will it do what you need it to do? Who [00:50:00] in goal is to have a very practical and workable plan of what you can choose to do to tidy things up and to make sure that you get to where you want to be, regardless of what may trip you up on the way through having a plan B is just as important as having a plan.

[00:50:17] A and you didn't actually want a plan B before it's new. Jen, it gets a huge amount of satisfaction from educating people about financial planning and watching them achieve their goals. She also gets a lot of spec, a lot of satisfaction, but she says with a much sadder heart from helping people implement their plan B because they didn't have a plan B plan a or because plan a wind a bit.

[00:50:44] Janet also has a very strong interest in a real love of the investment markets and a large part of her business is constructing and managing investment portfolios for her clients. So that's Janet Netta of smart [00:51:00] money advice, smart money, advice.co dot N Z for more info. Let's now talk about vet nurse awareness week 2021.

[00:51:10] We're on the countdown to that. It's the first week, the first full week of October and vet staff has five lunchtime pizza shots that it's giving away through that. Last year that staff ran a photo competition, five lucky clinics from the north, south, east and west were shouted lunch. The Shia, it's another photo competition.

[00:51:35] And here that staff was celebrating the skills and the talents that your clinics nurses have outside of work that help keep them or bright eyed and bushy tailed at work. So indirectly we're celebrating their, their ways that they stay mentally well and healthy. We want to see the photos of what they do that light them [00:52:00] up on the inside.

[00:52:02] Outside of work, examples of their creativity, their sportiness, perhaps their culinary, the crafty science. We want you to be able to celebrate their amazingness. That's hidden in plain sight each day at your clinic as well. You need to register first and clinics can register multiple times by different people and each different person counts as a separate entry.

[00:52:28] So the more people who register and send us different photos, the more entries you'll have in the drawer you can register at fit, staff.co dot N Z, and a news and media at the top. And then under vet nurse awareness week competition registry. Or if you're on Facebook, we've penned the post at the top of it.

[00:52:49] Staff's face paced. The update of its does Facebook page, which has Bitstamp dot at Facebook, which takes you to the registration form. From there, [00:53:00] we're all looking forward to celebrating the talent that exists in your clinic. So remember to read it. Something else that I'm looking forward to is sharing the employment law Q and a podcast with stiff Dyersburg.

[00:53:14] The Christians are N and they are interesting. I'm looking forward to hearing Steve's expert opinion and answer to them. Thank you for listening to this episode, please let me know what you think. You can email me julie@vetstaff.co.nz. Or get in touch with me by our social media. Remember to click the follow button so that you'll never miss out on a future episode, it's free.

[00:53:43] It doesn't cost a cent to follow and means that all episodes will be delivered direct to your podcast. Feed wherever you're listening. What if I, or I had, or apple or Google or Stitcher, any of them click that follow button means you'll [00:54:00] never have to go hunting for another podcast. Again, this is Julie south signing off.

[00:54:06] Thank you for spending the last 60 minutes or so of your life with Janet and me at paws claws and wit noses Kirkuk. Khaki Tiana peace be with you. Take care and God bless paws, claws and wet noses is sponsored by vet staff. If you've never heard of it, staff it's new, Zealand's only full service recruitment agency.

[00:54:34] 100% dedicated to the veterinary sector fit staff has been around since 2015 and works nationwide from Cape Reinga to the Bluff. And everywhere in between as well as helping Kiwis fit staff. Also helps overseas, qualified veterinarians find work and art hero and New Zealand fit. staff.co dot. Indeed.[00:55:00] .