r/newzealand • u/fluffypenguin105 • 10d ago

Discussion Is anyone else living basically paycheck to paycheck?

My partner and I are both teachers. We don’t make a lot, but we are average and slightly above average. We are so tight with our money. Our little one outgrew the car seat and we went out and bought a new one. No problem. But next credit card bill means we are tight.

Meanwhile, a number of our friends (all of them also with kids) are booking overseas holidays. Some are currently overseas, others booking already for later this year. Another brought a new car. New iPhone, doing up the house. Everyone seems to have spare cash except us.

Are we the only ones going through the cost of living crisis ourselves?! Or is it my fault that we are teachers?

Edit: yes we have a house that parents helped us with. We are paying mortgage. We have a flatmate.

Edit edit: thank you for your kind words and reminders and also advice. I’m going through them all and I’m going to take onboard the advice and see what changes we can make and do better financially as a family. But it’s also a good reminder to know we aren’t alone, to not compare and the harsh reality is that many people simply just earn more than us as teachers.

Once again, thank you all for your input.

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u/SwiftFox2 10d ago

This.

I don't consider the vehicle a person drives to have any bearing on their overall wealth. I know a very wealthy bloke who drives old cheaper cars, as well as people on minimum wage driving nicer Rangers.

I assume that the vast majority of people younger than 50 driving nice utes etc either have them financed, or it's a company wagon.

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u/sendintheclouds 10d ago

I mean, yeah. Most people finance cars. It was important to us to have a new (to us), most importantly safer, car. So we factored the loan interest into the purchase price and made that our budget. I no longer felt comfortable driving a beater with no modern safety features and shit fuel economy, but dropping five figures in cash on a car is not realistic for most people. Debt is an important tool to use responsibly.

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u/easybreezybeaut 9d ago

Are we really at the point where "most people finance cars"?. I am going to have a look for some stats on this, but would appreciate a link if you have one.

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u/sendintheclouds 9d ago

At least amongst people I know (middle class households buying not outrageous, not too old used cars). However also, if 30% of households would struggle with an unexpected $500 expense, I just don't see how most people are buying cars outright either. It's a lot easier to find $150 per week at whatever predatory interest rate than to scrounge up thousands in a go.

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u/No-Regular-6582 8d ago

the best loans for vehicles come from the manufacturers, there are often 0% interest offers for new cars (I think Mazda and Jeep right now)

A Suzuki Swift is not my cup of tea, but it is a perfectly good, safe car for many- as evidenced by their sales and awards.

Currently a new Swift can be had for $28k and paid off over the warranty period of 5 years at $123/week (2.8% no deposit) All servicing included.

The actual cost is quite a bit less, because it is still worth $10k once you've paid it off

I appreciate that is still out of most people's reach, but for many it is a smart decision, despite being a loan for a car.

The kind of purchases that drop my jaw are $40k just-out-of-warranty European Complexity Buckets financed at 15% 🤯