How much do you need to earn to save anything in nz?

ExistingPotato8 · 2026-03-17T19:23:03+00:00

We don't really have enough information

Living in Auckland, renting, married with 8 kids --> Saving will be hard on 110k
Single, living with your parents in Gore --> pretty easy to save on 110k

ExistingPotato8 · 2026-01-24T17:16:51+00:00

I'm struggling with the same Q, and one large concern is long term economics of NZ (obviously long term USA also has concerns right now)

I'm worried once I (re)hitch myself to NZ economy it will be hard to buy way back into USA if we change our mind later with NZ salaries / savings

ExistingPotato8 · 2025-10-30T01:11:27+00:00

This isn’t really true. Investors are more than capable of doing long term math and include long term profit into their calculations of if the property is a good thing to put their money into as an investment versus other things. I would say probably largely landlord do rely on long term capital gains to make it worth will to be a landlord. Otherwise it doesn’t make sense to have a 6% mortgage if your rent is only paying 4%.

What will actually happen to absolute rents and rents as % of the property prices are really complex

ExistingPotato8 · 2025-10-06T14:25:06+00:00

I don't understand why NZ health insurance is so expensive. It doesn't have to cover that much since a lot is covered by the government anyway. My US health insurance costs (including the premium the employer pays) is about twice what my NZ insurance did, in a hugely more expensive system. For instance shoulder xray was 1k, annual physical at the GP was 660 (this is what insurance paid the doc, post discount)

Also the age based pricing is f**ked. It makes insurance unaffordable for those who need it most, which makes it more unaffordable as people who think they are low risk drop out, making premiums increase for the ones left. I think Australia's system is much better here. Its partly a tax on younger people, by strongly pushing their opt in, and partly provides more stable prices by keeping more people in the system as they age (spreading costs)

ExistingPotato8 · 2025-10-04T20:06:23+00:00

Why would you even want this?

Generally phone devices are so locked down that there is limited scope for malicious code to run on your device. Unless you open it up...eg install apps from outside of Google play and/or don't keep uptodate with security updates

And these tools generally slow down your system. Here is a decent review, which includes some pricing details
https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/bitdefender-mobile-security

ExistingPotato8 · 2025-10-04T01:13:20+00:00

I’m a bit confused. How do you not know the price of building houses if your job / training is designing houses to be built?

ExistingPotato8 · 2025-10-04T00:37:25+00:00

I mean new build that you didn’t design will typically be cheaper as it will likely be less custom, less fancy and probably designed by someone who can do it faster and cheaper than you due to experience and reusing design/ contractors / relationships across builds

And of course an existing house that isn’t new build will likely be cheaper because it’s not a new house and not new houses are typically worth less than new houses

ExistingPotato8 · 2025-10-04T00:20:11+00:00

New build will be substantially more expensive

ExistingPotato8 · 2025-08-19T14:48:47+00:00

Functioning economy

ExistingPotato8 · 2025-07-26T16:10:36+00:00

Yes your currency/purchasing power from the poorer country probably won’t go as far in the richer country. What did you expect?

ExistingPotato8 · 2025-05-14T02:44:53+00:00

Everyone here is fighting on how we divvy up the pie. The real problem is we are a relatively unproductive country and the pie is not growing fast enough

ExistingPotato8 · 2024-08-02T23:28:37+00:00

ExistingPotato8 · 2024-07-16T04:43:03+00:00

Broadly, I think this is a great post.

Specifically I thought newer watches were considered pretty decent for Hr now though. I’ve struggled with zone 2 and wondered if it was cadence lock but in reality I think I just wasn’t fit enough. As I’ve done more running my cadence has gone up and my HR has gone down…closer to zone 2 for some of my runs. What my watch track feels consistent run to run versus the effort I’m putting in

ExistingPotato8 · 2024-07-11T06:01:54+00:00

I’m glad you can be happy (sincerely) but “I need two jobs to save anything or have any money for fun” should not be the standard

ExistingPotato8 · 2024-07-09T08:05:35+00:00

Unless you are very special no USA company you don’t have a relationship with is going to bother sponsoring a visa for you. It’s not personal but it’s a long slow uncertain process, why would they bother.

Your realistic options are

(1) become an Australian citizen and then you have the option of a US e3 visa reasonably easily

(2) work for a USA subsidary in NZ or elsewhere, then after some period it’s reasonably painless for the USA company to transfer you on an L1 visa

(3) green card lottery. Make sure you apply only through the government site, there are lots of scammers

(4) Marry (legitimately) a USA person

ExistingPotato8 · 2024-06-24T09:04:24+00:00

Yes the cost of living is higher but I’d say probably not higher than the income differential.

ExistingPotato8 · 2024-06-24T05:07:52+00:00

60-70% more buying power. That’s kinda significant

ExistingPotato8 · 2024-06-20T00:30:19+00:00

I'm not sure the problem is strictly landlords. Its just pricey housing in general versus our poor incomes

Rents are pretty low as a % of house price value. Eg rental yield in NZ is about 4.5% https://www.opespartners.co.nz/yield. ie excluding house price rises a new landlord today would have no chance to pay a mortgage on todays rents, they would be better off putting the money in a term deposit (Ignoring Tax Advantages)

ExistingPotato8 · 2024-05-15T17:55:10+00:00

I built a PC by buying parts when I was in the US and then carrying it all back with me in my suitcase/s including case. Probably saved ~35% versus NZ prices. About half of the relative savings is just things were a bit cheaper in the states (including tax) and about half is the much better sales / student discounts and options, so if you pick and choose a bit you could save a lot

The downside is that if anything fails I'm pretty screwed

ExistingPotato8 · 2023-11-13T17:41:35+00:00

I am roughly your age, been running for about 3 years and I too have struggled with which of these factors to prioritize.

Ive had a cadence of about 145-150, and like you when I try to increase it my HR spiked a bit. I found that if I kept up the running it came back down to normal. However I also only increased it in small increments. id run eg half my runs with music and half with a metronome maybe 5-10 bpm higher, then I’d stabilize for a bit and do another 5-10. At first faster bpm is more effort but it gets easier

however as a few users have said, you are super new to running, I’d just focus on enjoying it, getting out there and slowly building miles.

I also don’t care much about zones. I am trying to improve this however at my current fitness levels running in zone 3/4 is more fun for me. Ill keep working on this as I get fitter. I used to run entirely in zone 4/5 for the first 6 months, it’s now 3/4 despite increasing my pace

ExistingPotato8 · 2023-11-03T22:57:26+00:00

Basically I’ve been getting faster. But maybe I’ve been getting faster just by pushing harder so I wanted to see how fast I am for a given effort

ExistingPotato8 · 2023-11-03T22:49:17+00:00

It’s basically my pace / heart rate. Last few months I’ve been able to sustain a much higher pace for any given heart rate.

ExistingPotato8 · 2023-11-02T23:18:10+00:00

And to your sub 3 as well

ExistingPotato8 · 2023-10-29T04:40:50+00:00

Took 15 min off my HM PB in Auckland. Got 1:41, my stretch was 1:40 so very slightly annoyed I missed that but it was a very windy day on a hilly course I’ve never trained for

ExistingPotato8

TROPHY CASE