Learning Pathways
A learning pathway is a set of guides put in the order the decisions actually arrive, with the calculator that turns each one into your own numbers sitting beside it. That is the whole idea, and it exists because the site had a different problem: more than four hundred guides and two thousand calculators, every one of them useful, and no indication anywhere of which to read first.
Ordering matters more than people expect. Most first home buyers start by looking at houses, which is roughly step eleven of sixteen, and end up viewing places they were never going to be lent the money for. Most people who have just lost a job are handed budgeting advice before anyone has worked out what they are owed. Almost everyone who starts investing chooses a fund before they have an emergency fund, which is the one thing that decides whether they can leave that fund alone when the market falls. In each case the information was freely available and in the wrong order.
So each pathway below is a sequence rather than a category. Every step is a guide you can read in a few minutes, with a one line explanation of why it sits where it does, and a calculator alongside wherever there is a number worth working out with your own figures rather than an example. You can tick steps off as you go, and the page will remember where you were the next time you open it.
What to expect. Most pathways run between eight and sixteen steps and take one to three hours of reading in total, though nobody is expected to do that in a sitting. Start at the top if the whole subject is new, or drop in at whichever step matches where you actually are, because every guide stands on its own and will tell you what comes next. Several pathways include a point at which the honest answer is to stop reading and talk to a lawyer, an accountant or a free financial mentor, and those are marked rather than glossed over.
Everything here is free. There is no account, no email address required, and nothing is sent anywhere: the tick boxes are stored in your own browser and go no further. None of it is financial advice, and every guide carries the date it was last reviewed so you can see how current it is.
Starting out
The first money decisions, and the ones nobody explains.
Starting your first job
Your IRD number, your tax code, your payslip and your rights, explained once and properly.
Renting well
What a landlord can and cannot do, what your bond is really for, and how to get it back.
Moving to New Zealand, or back
IRD number, bank account and tax residency sorted, plus what follows you here from overseas.
Banking and everyday money
How the bank side actually works, and where the money quietly goes.
Money sense: the foundations
The ideas everything else is built on, in plain language.
Understanding your tax
Every deduction on your payslip explained, in the order it starts applying to you.
Pay and conditions at work
What you are owed, what is negotiable, and how to read a payslip that does not match what you expected.
Power and household bills
Where the household money actually goes each month, and which switches are worth the afternoon.
Building up
Bigger commitments, and the sequences that go wrong when rushed.
Buying your first home
From "can we even afford this" to a signed agreement, in the order the decisions actually arrive.
Going self-employed or contracting
A defensible rate, and the tax you should be putting aside from the first invoice.
Investing for the first time
Where to start, in what order, and the New Zealand tax rules nobody mentions until later.
Having a baby
What you are entitled to, and what the first year actually costs once the income changes.
Getting insured properly
What to insure, how much for, and why claims get declined.
Investing beyond KiwiSaver
Your first investments outside KiwiSaver, and the tax rules that catch New Zealanders out.
Buying and running a car
What the car actually costs, not what the sticker says.
Selling your home
From deciding whether to move to handing over the keys, in the order the decisions actually arrive.
Running a business by the numbers
Read your own accounts, and know which number is telling you the truth.
Buying something other than a standard house
Apartments, new builds, leasehold and off the plans, and what each one does differently.
Becoming a landlord
What letting a property actually earns after tax, and the rules that decide whether it earns anything at all.
Managing your mortgage
What to do at every rollover, and what refixing, refinancing or paying extra is actually worth.
Opening a business location
From an idea for a site to a case with measured numbers in it: catchment, growth, break-even, lease, staff.
When life changes
The hard moments, in the order they actually need handling.
Getting out of debt
Understand it, attack it, and know the formal options if repayment is not realistic.
When you lose your job
Your entitlements first, then how many months you actually have.
Facing a restructure
From the consultation letter to the next payslip, in the order it happens, with the money worked out at every step.
Scams, fraud and staying safe
How the current scams actually work, and the first three things to do in the first hour.
When a relationship ends
What is shared, what is not, and how to separate the money safely.
When money is tight
What you are entitled to, what you can push back on, and what to do first.
Helping family with money
How to help without putting yourself at risk, and what each way of helping actually commits you to.
Choosing where to live
Rent, earnings, spending, commute and growth for every area, in the order the decision actually needs them.
Pathways draw on the guide library and the calculators across the site. If you would rather browse than follow a sequence, start there. To check what you already know, try the financial literacy test.
None of this is financial advice. It is information to help you ask better questions and work out your own numbers.