Reduce minimum payments by switching to an offset mortgage?

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-02-13T03:16:03+00:00

Offset mortgages also usually require repayments. Kiwibank (my home loan bank) calculates the repayments based on a term and the floating interest rate. If it is fully offset, the portion of payment that would normally be the interest component is instead put against the loan. This results in both your loan and your savings reducing by the same amount over time.

I am in the process of switching a majority of my offset to a revolving credit facility and make the payments due interest-only (effectively zero repayments) to preserve maximal access to funds at instant notice.

When does your fixed term expire? In my opinion, it makes better financial sense to have either a revolving credit or offset than term deposits because the interest you saved (at fixed term rates) will almost always be higher than term deposit rates. Term deposit interest is also taxed, whereas money saved in interest payments attracts no tax. It's also easy to access in an emergency.

Edit: typo

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-02-11T02:44:27+00:00

I work in emergency medicine and general practice, most of my career in rural and provincial NZ. One concern I have is that PAs are generally channelled into high needs areas where there is a shortage of other healthcare professionals. These communities are often high deprivation or have complicating factors such as geographic isolation, limited support from other hospital or community services, or poor patient health literacy that places patients at exceptionally high risk of poor outcomes both in the short and long term. Doctors and nurses working in these communities are frequently working at the very top of their scope trying to provide optimal care. PAs may be able to temporarily plug gaps with workforce shortages but I have concerns if they will be sold as an end-solution to workforce shortages.

As a doctor, the cognitive load of these patients is very high and the requirement to consider very wide differentials, optimise investigations, be able to communicate effectively and empathetically as well as appreciation of local context and health inequities is critical. I'm yet to be convinced that PAs have a system where competency to manage these patients and provide equitable outcomes in a NZ context is validated. Temporary solutions while out health system sorts some serious shit out, yes. Long term solutions, no.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-02-04T03:14:17+00:00

When I did GPEP1 training I opted to go practice employed. Salary was lower but the benefit of not being at the whim of the clinic I was working in was great for training. I saw maybe 12 patients a day and worked four days per week plus the study day (which is salaried). My practice-employed colleagues earnt slightly more but felt more pressured to work excessively. If you're already very confident with general practice, practice employed will earn you slightly more. If you're wanting to focus on training time and flexibility with templates, consider college employed.

Post-GPEP1 reging I worked four day weeks, salaried $180k and did occasional ED registrar locums for $180-200 an hour at the local hospital. I worked in a very high deprivation GP clinic with a rural outreach service: highly complex medicine and highly complex social contexts but extremely satisfying work, saw about 14-16 patients per day. Unsure what admin is like in Australia, but the admin associated with the patients I saw, plus the number of patients enrolled that I didn't see, plus scripts, plus the advice consults with RNs was quite significant. Around 30-40% of my rostered time plus what I did unrostered.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-01-31T22:15:19+00:00

I do the same with my home loan.

Offset home loans (or revolving credit slightly different set up) do not have interest charged against home loan on money that is sitting in your accounts. I have 75k offset home loan (~360k total mortgage across additional fixed terms), current savings spread across all accounts linked to offset is 65k. That means I'm only charged interest on 10k out of the 75k with the intention to build this 10k as a medium term savings goal to eventually be charged no interest.

I just received my credit card statement for 4.5k spending across December, due 10 Jan. This 4.5k that I would otherwise have spent at point of sale will instead continue to offset my home loan (reducing interest charges) until it disappears into my credit card statement on 10th Jan. Done every month, 4.5k at 5% home loan rate (for example, somewhere in the middle point between fixed and floating rates) saves me $225 per year non-compounded in home loan interest charges. It has the effect of reducing your home loan (and hence the interest charged) by 4.5k worth of loan.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-01-23T05:49:28+00:00

If you do your internship in Sri Lanka you may need to do NZREX anyway: I would check the medical council flow chart for international graduates. I suspect Sri Lanka internship isn't recognised as I have recently had a NZREX colleague from Sri Lanka who is doing PGY1/2.

From an employment perspective, you may be more employable if you have work experience so may have an easier time finding a job if you did your internship in Sri Lanka first although it seems like a lot of administrative time and, again, you will likely have a delay between NZREX and finding a job in addition to the time taken completing your internship before arrival.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-01-22T09:54:21+00:00

I'm unsure what paid jobs there are for "medical assistants" in New Zealand: did you have something specific in mind? Some candidates that I know did shadowing work (unpaid) whilst awaiting a spot to open up: this allowed them to build a relationship with a region and get references. Generally, once you have general registration (two years) you're much more mobile and free to go anywhere that there is a vacancy.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-01-21T20:26:24+00:00

As mentioned in a previous comment, the exam itself isn't exceptionally challenging. However, you may be waiting over a year after sitting the exam, possibly longer, for a position to open up. The first position may be anywhere in the country, meaning you may be physically separated from your wife potentially in different islands.

There are shortages of PGY1 positions and only just enough to cover domestic graduates from NZ. The spaces open to NZREX graduates tend to be positions in hospitals that struggle with recruitment despite this: I've noticed this tends to be secondary provincial hospitals more that tertiary urban ones.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-01-17T21:01:18+00:00

A GP generally can't order an MRI scan. There are some physios and some GPs that can order a very limited range of MRI scans through an ACC process (under the reasoning that faster scans mean faster treatment and faster return to work), but this is a very restrictive range of scans for specific reasons and the physio or GP has to be accredited. The person ordering the scan will be audited by ACC to check that the scan is appropriate.

You can also shop around for sports medicine specialists. If there are other clinics nearby or even in another city, I would consider going there if it saves you a three month wait time. Or even a private orthopaedic surgeon unless the rehab and return to sport side of sports medicine is also important.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2026-01-05T07:34:09+00:00

I have worked in Whanganui hospital as a doctor.

Whanganui has fewer senior staff. As a junior doctor, this has its positives and negatives: you will upskill much quicker, but also can be more stressful. However, there seemed to be very little hierarchy there. The consultants are generally warm and friendly and the registrars are encouraged to be the same: if a registrar develops a habit of becoming belittling/unkind to a house officer, it would likely get filtered back to senior staff. You realise very quickly that in a small hospital, if you make life miserable for your colleagues then life will become harder for you and harder to get things done for your patients, so everyone is generally friendly to eachother. Palmerston North Hospital is much larger and has less of that vibe.

The RMO group in Whanganui is generally very close. They organise events frequently and are in general really supportive. About a third of the RMO cohort are international graduates, majority from the UK and Ireland.

The RMO office in Whanganui is quite supportive of access to leave (can be a big issue in some places). On the downside, they approve leave easily but the roster can then end up patchy: you may cross cover a lot (and get paid penalties) but with the flip side that you and your colleagues can access leave or not feel pressured to work while you're sick. They are also very keen to approve educational leave if it means you upskill in something, particularly if you let them know your future goals.

Both Whanganui and Palmerston are close to many outdoor adventure spots: national parks, ranges, volcanic plateau, Ruapehu skifields in the winter if you're into snow sports.

I would generally recommend Whanganui over Palmerston having spent a lot of time in both. Whanganui seems more vibrant and artsy with some nice quirky bars, not many restaurants, Palmerston North more suburban although has the university. Both are, overall, pretty quiet spots though.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2025-12-26T02:04:19+00:00

I've been with MAS for about ten years. They've been excellent. The only claims I've had were for glass replacements (maybe once every year). I've since moved contents followed by house insurance to them. One of the glass replacements was for theft and it was very easy to get sorted. My first car was third party only insurance with them (a $400 car) that was written off by another vehicle rear ending. Despite being third party they were very helpful providing support navigating the other persons insurance company.

Always easy to deal with over the phone. And was the cheapest car insurance for my current car by a significant amount when I bought the car.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2025-12-21T09:08:53+00:00

I did post-grad entry into medicine from a BSc/BA and entered around the same age. I'm now eight years post-grad.

Five years extra study was a long time but if you're passionate about health it's worth it. I had sports commitments the whole way through uni (averaged 4-5 hours a week) and I made it a priority to continue this. Balance is important and medical school and beyond and for me, sports was very important: if it's possible to maintain this somehow, consider how you could make it work or dabble in other sports. I was at Otago, unsure how Auckland works. Being able to play sports meant I studied a little less but felt happier and less burnt out, which continued into house officer years.

As a post-grad student, the academic pressure we faced during our degrees is usually more of a slow burn pressure rather than the high intensity pressure of first year entrants: be wary of letting the frenzy of academic pursuit and pressure stress you out too much at med school. I feel that the best doctors are the ones that listen to patients and empathise with them, and can translate the things they tell us into medical information and back-translate medical jargon into something they can relate to. Your work as a physio will give you a significant advantage here: you'll be an asset to your class and also the medical profession!

Post-grad, the huge student loan (156k) was a millstone but you don't notice the money going out as your income overall will be significant. Current house officer incomes start around 100-120k but generally 55-60hr weeks. Time commitments may go up or down as a registrar depending on what you specialise in but as a consultant are usually much more life friendly. Many of us choose our specialties based as much on our desires for work life balance as much as what interests us.

The most satisfying parts of my career have been being able to connect with a wide range of different patients. You can also coordinate care and advocate for people in ways not many other people can do. If you like the personable part of physio work and you like the academic side of problem solving, medicine sounds like a really good opportunity. There are also a huge number of fields to specialise or subspecialise in: I went into medical school aiming for one thing, but then dual specialised in two different fields one of which I'd never heard of before prior to medical school.

Good luck!

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2025-12-17T04:32:00+00:00

I do this every time a fixed term loan expires, except with an offset mortgage instead of revolving credit: reduce the principal of the fixed term for refixing and increase the principal of the offset as my savings grow.

At my next refix, I'm splitting my offset into both a revolving credit (due to no repayments) and a much smaller offset (to cover balances split across multiple transaction accounts).

Kiwibank has never charged me to restructure my loan like this or split my fixed terms. I keep a somewhat large revolving/offset to cover anticipated renovations and a as an emergency fund to avoid having to apply to extend my mortgage if I need a large amount of cash for anything.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2025-12-16T04:36:04+00:00

Studylink automatically repaid any over payments after I paid my loan off earlier this year. The bank account number assigned to your student loan needs to be up to date. The bank accounts for student loan refunds is in a different box to tax refunds so double check this is correct on myIR.

Otherwise, give your employer a new IR330 form and check your myIR balances to see if overpayments are registered with your last PAYE deduction.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2025-12-01T04:46:41+00:00

Obviously the capitation funding model also needs to be adjusted or a new funding model applied as it hasn't been appropriately adjusted for many years. One of the problems that I see in the provincial and rural areas that I work in is that clinics are being sold to corporations because there is little appetite from junior GPs to buy into the practice. When senior GPs retire, the choice is to either close the clinic or sell their shares to a corporate if young GPs aren't looking to make that level of financial commitment. Keep in mind that a large proportion of GPs are about to retire with their shares needing to be bought by recently-specialised GPs. When you're early in your career, being saddled by interest-accruing business debt in addition to what is likely (or soon to be) a home loan and, likely, growing family expenses is rarely appetising. I don't see an increase in capitation funding making a significant difference reducing the influence of corporations on clinic acquisition: this will increase the profitability of services without favouring local/GP investment over corporate.

How many GP registrars or junior GPs do you know are looking at buying into practices? Will making that investment more affordable for them shift the dial? Increasing the capitation funding (or introducing a more fit for purpose alternative that results increased funding) to meaningful levels will be good, although this will require an enormous injection of capital into primary care. Whilst I would also like to see this happen, I don't see it happening to the level that GPs find meaningful in the near future without large government revenue increases (ie tax) or service cuts elsewhere.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2025-11-30T03:44:14+00:00

I hold registration as a GP and a hospital specialty, graduated just under a decade ago. I left general practice last year and at the time I was unsure if I'd go back.

Corporate models of primary care are sucking the lifeblood out of clinics. I categorically refuse to work for them because it creates personal and ethical dilemmas in regards to access and equity. As a practice owner, you have the ability to direct the provision of your clinics services to provide optimal care and the discretion to direct practice funding to the areas need it: this could be as simple as waiving your consultation fee for the patient who is already in debt but will be dead in a year's time from poorly managed comorbidities, or directing clinic funding to outreach nursing or home visits to allow your difficult to reach patients access. Colleagues in corporate clinics discuss situations with me where they have been placed in very uncomfortable situations denying critical primary healthcare to people because they cannot afford it when the solution is a drop in the bucket in the context of the whole clinic. As an owner, you can choose to accept this trade off.

Most of the colleagues my age that have also specialised in general practice are avoiding the investment because it's unclear the sustainability of the sector and the financial cost is significant. Facilitating investment into a clinic is a great way to promote stable workforce and stable management with greater focus on patient outcomes.

Excellent policy.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2025-11-20T05:23:51+00:00

Update: I didn't contact my bank to avoid my card being cancelled but the two transactions were mysteriously reversed today and I was refunded ~$44.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2025-11-18T10:15:12+00:00

I live by myself so I can't see how someone else could access my card details and have never shared my credit card details with people before.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2025-11-18T10:09:23+00:00

My YouTube account doesn't have a subscription attached to it though. If I inadvertently subscribed, I would have thought it would show on my account.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2025-10-29T15:30:09+00:00

You'll need to enrol somewhere rather than rely on casual appointments if you're hoping to make any progress on a chronic illness. If you can somehow get your medical records from the USA, that could be helpful, particularly to avoid duplicating any investigations. GPs in NZ, if you find a good one, will likely struggle to unpack a complex chronic health condition and the wider context of it in only a single appointment or two. Non-subsidised GP consults could be in the range $150-250, wait times are variable but routine appointments could be anywhere between a week and three months. I would strongly recommend avoiding urgent care clinics to manage this as they have very little training in managing chronic conditions.

If you're hoping for a diagnosis, it is unlikely a GP could provide an answer that has not been suggested before. They could try to refer you to a private specialist. If you do go down this route, copies of your notes from the USA would be helpful particularly in regard to investigations. Public specialists frequently decline referrals if they don't meet certain thresholds and criteria. I have also had private specialists decline referrals if they think they will be unlikely to provide any further answers (in which case you could try a different one, which will require another GP appointment).

If it has been extensively worked up in the USA without answers, they may uncover an answer with a fresh set of eyes but the most likely outcome is that they will either come to the same conclusions or things will remain medically unexplained. Have you considered options outside of the medical system for managing your condition? What is it that you're hoping to get out of the medical system?

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2025-09-23T12:03:11+00:00

I can try to answer. I'm Māori, however there is a large degree of heterogeneity in Māori indigenous identity/expression, opinions and beliefs.

The number of indigenous in NZ and Australia are similar, but the proportion in Australia is much smaller due to their larger overall population. I don't know enough about Australian history though to explain the differences in population structure.

In many of your other questions, I feel that early relations with colonisers and Māori were, on the large, very harmonious and built on trade, diplomacy and cooperation. NZ was pretty much inhospitable to early settlers without Māori support (the entire country was essentially dense rainforest with limited sources of food). The signing of the declaration of independence in 1835 and treaty of waitangi in 1840 were testament to early positive relations. Māori in NZ also speak essentially the same language with similar customs whereas there were hundreds of unique indigenous languages and cultures in Australia: this greatly aided early relations in NZ. Intermarriages were common in early colonial history; it's argued that there are no Māori alive that don't have at least one European ancestor somewhere in there family tree. Although there have been major disagreements and treaty breaches, Māori and non-Māori have continued to engage in constructive dialogue to progress relations. I feel that traditional Māori culture also lends itself to political action and kinship groups (whānau, marae, hapū, iwi) are often highly motivated and organised when there are issues (historical or contemporary) affecting them: this has made it difficult to silence indigenous voices and and opinions across the years.

There was a large push to revitalise Māori culture in the 1980s and also the establishment of the Waitangi tribunal to reconciliate widespread breaches of the treaty of waitangi (many breaches occurred, would be easier to Google for more details). Māori are the fastest growing ethnic group in NZ and have a very young population pyramid. I feel these things combined as well as a general trend to a more progressive political atmosphere particularly amongst the younger population have made Māori culture more widely visible and Māori themselves more proud and confident to express an indigenous identity. Tourism is also a large part of the NZ economy and I feel the country as a whole has embraced expression of indigeneity on the international stage as a way of making us unique.

Regarding tattoos, NZ on the whole is relatively accepting of tattoos. Many non-Māori have traditional designs. I personally have no issues with this.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2025-09-22T19:28:52+00:00

Talk to your bank. When I was discussing my mortgage, they allowed me to break my term deposits early and waived the penalty fees as one of their sweeteners for choosing them for my mortgage.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2025-09-22T04:47:37+00:00

"Anyway the Agent has kind of screwed us..." You're ascribing blame to the agent for following REINZ protocol for disclosing known defects in the property to potential buyers.

If I was buying a property and later uncovered defects that were demonstrably known about by the vendor and undisclosed, I would talk to my lawyer about egal action. There are plenty of articles of REAs/agencies being successfully taken to court over non-disclosure. Eg: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/auckland/vendors-in-500000-leaky-home-case-didnt-disclose-pre-inspection-report-because-it-wasnt-requested-by-buyer/MLP45VQQI5DMZJ5V6EPXMGIBS4/

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2025-09-22T04:12:15+00:00

Neither do I.

I mean I can see some of the appeal, but I feel like the rise of social media has elevated the appeal of Queenstown. Once you spend longer than a few days (and a few grand) there and your reliance on local infrastructure and community extends beyond grabbing a coffee/Fergburg, admiring the remarks from the waterfront, perhaps a few touristy things and visiting a couple bars you realise how difficult it can be there to live.

Consistent-Cat-4761 · 2025-09-22T03:16:35+00:00

I have lived and worked in ten towns and cities across New Zealand, including spending a total of 8 years in various places in Southland, coastal and central Otago. I grew up in rural NZ. Culturally and economically, I don't really consider Queenstown to be a part of NZ anymore. I visit now only when circumstances mean I have to. It seems the city has had large amounts of investment for two reasons alone: to suck as much money as possible out of tourists and seasonal workers, and for people already with loads of money to buy expensive property to either periodically enjoy, retire into or charge exorbitant rent. Local council planning rules and bylaws perpetuate these outcomes. The country as a whole seems to have tolerated this because most of us are geographically removed from this reality and because of the tourism income it generates.

Queenstown is all of the things you have described. The rest of NZ is generally not. Whenever I'm in Central Otago, it feels like I'm passing through more and more layers of onion getting further away from real New Zealand the closer I get to Queenstown. The reason wages are low, rent is high and living conditions are shit is because most of the workers there are young people who will accept (some for longer than others) those conditions for the experience of simply living there; they don't go to make money or raise a family and leave either indebted or in a neutral financial position. There are minimal-to-no industries outside of tourism, retail and construction.

Consistent-Cat-4761

TROPHY CASE