With the Reserve Bank dropping the Official Cash Rate to a new low of 1.0 per cent, and the major banks cutting home loan rates, is now the time to be paying off as much as your mortgage as you can?
Hits presenter Toni Street believes so, and "at the age of 35 decided to sort out her money situation".
She says: "My mum had been urging me to see a [financial adviser] for years and to sort out my aimless spending. We all do it, and small tweaks can make a major difference. I didn't want to be freaking out about my retirement."
Street decided to engage a financial adviser who specialises in helping people become mortgage free.
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"She made it seem like it shouldn't be hard," she says. "My partner Matt and I both set our own budget based on the things that are important to us, and I think we'll both find different things harder. For Matt it will be coffee, for me it will be reigning in my spending on the kids."
Street and her partner hope the plan they've implemented will help them save tens of thousands of dollars each year. "We are hoping to cut seven years off our mortgage," she says. "My biggest temptation, though, will be holidays. I love experiences - I might just need to aim a little lower!"
Financial adviser Hannah McQueen, who came up with the plan for Street, says a mortgage on a home should be treated differently from a mortgage on an investment property. "The mortgage for the home you live in is unproductive and that debt is costing you," she says.
McQueen, who founded financial personal trainers EnableMe on the back of her own first home buying experiences, says the drop in home loan rates should make paying off the mortgage easier but stresses that financial discipline is needed.
"What I know about Kiwis is, if they save in one area, they tend to fritter that money on something else," she says.
"Most of us lack a mind-set around money. We don't think we can be any better, so we tend not to try. This is our time in the sun yet most of us will not look back and think we made much of the opportunity."
She thinks even someone like Street can change her mind-set and make savings. "When you are working to a plan there is always hope. And if the plan excites, and you are getting results, you are more likely to stick to it."
