My Ever-Evolving List of Trusted Money Tools and Resources
25 May, 2025
I receive daily emails from people asking me for resources and information to help them answer their money questions. I frequently share the same handy tools and resources. Today I wanted to share them all in one place.
Creating what I believe to be New Zealand’s longest-running personal finance blog and podcast has taught me a lot about where to find trusted and robust information, and most of it can be found for free. I like to share resources that consistently repeat or help to affirm common-sense messages about managing your money.
There is a considerable benefit in hearing the same good, practical, straightforward advice repeated. The resources I like and share always stick to the basics of sound financial management. Money need not be complicated, and too many people make it unnecessarily so.
I firmly believe in sending helpful information your way and letting you explore and learn about it yourself because that way, you absorb it better and apply it directly to your situation. I meet too many people who regret taking their eye off the ball, so I know that when you educate yourself about your finances, instead of outsourcing the task to someone else, whether that be a financial advisor or a spouse, it puts you in charge, or makes you part of a team.
Below is a list of helpful stuff! Pick and choose what relates to your situation. If you have a super helpful resource that has helped you, please comment below.
Calculators
There are many reasons and scenarios why people might need to use some type of financial calculator, and the American website Choose FI has an excellent selection. All the tricky math is done for you, and you just have to plug in your numbers:
Amortization Calculator - See your interest payments and payoff value for an amortized loan
Retirement Calculator - Determine how much of your income you need to save for your future retirement nest egg
Future Value of Investments Calculator - See how much money you’ll earn on your investments over time with compound growth
Savings Rate Calculator - Determine how long it’ll take you to reach financial independence
How to Calculate a FI Number - Work out your financial independence number
Mortgage Calculator - Calculate your monthly payment
Sorted has recently created a new calculator aimed specifically at Kiwis, all of whom receive superannuation from age 65, but struggle to account for it in their retirement planning. It is hard to work out if your KiwiSaver can bridge the gap between the superannuation payment you receive and what you spend. This new Retirement Navigator Tool will be a huge help in breaking down how much you can realistically draw each year from your KiwiSaver during your long retirement.
FICalc Retirement Calculator - FI (financial independence) Calc is a calculator that evaluates retirement plans using historical data. Whatever your asset is, whatever your pension is likely to be, whether or not you will continue to work into retirement, and when your government superannuation payments kick in, this powerful calculator lets you plug in all your numbers and see if your retirement plans are robust enough to go the distance. It takes a little effort to learn how to adjust all the settings to fit YOUR exact situation, but it's worth the effort.
Katie Donegan from Rebel Finance School created a calculator to help you determine your investment property's actual returns. No more guesswork required! Find out for yourself if you are making money on your investment property or not.
Your Money Blueprint has created a vast range of calculators and spreadsheets. They range from simple savings calculators to working out your paid parental leave entitlement calculators. And everything in between! There are too many to list here, so check it out yourself.
Blog Posts: The Happy Saver six-part Financial Independence Series
Managing your money is a process that never ends. I found myself repeating the same information, so I wrote this series to get all my suggestions into a concise guide to help you get structure in your money and create a framework for building your wealth. Within each blog post are links and resources to further your understanding.
Financial Independence Series: READ or LISTEN
I’m aware that people learn differently, so the information is the same for the blog posts and the podcasts.
Blog Post: Sinking Funds
The concept of a sinking fund is easy to learn, yet many don’t know about it. Put simply, you open a bank account for a specific purpose, such as “Family Holiday” and each week, fortnight or month, you create an automatic bank transfer of a set amount of money into that account. When you reach your required balance, you take your family holiday. Sinking funds stop you from going into credit card debt and help you save and pay cash for future purchases, even if you don’t know their exact value. I created a blog post in 2020 to answer the question fully: What Is A Sinking Fund?
Rebel Finance School free 10-week course
British Empire Medal recipients Katie and Alan Donegan take personal finance education to a new level through a 10-week, FREE personal finance course called Rebel Finance School. For anyone who has ever said, “No one taught me about money”, this is the comprehensive education you were looking for. Now in its fifth year, they start at the very beginning of your money journey, and go right through to planning a comfortable retirement. It’s live and interactive (but you can watch it later on YouTube).
Although they are from the UK, this course is globally applicable (plus, I co-host an extra session just for Kiwis). Katie and Alan became financially independent in 2019, meaning they never needed to work for money again, but they still needed a purpose. Hence, Rebel Finance School. I interviewed them for my podcast: Once you have won the money game, stop and enjoy life. Unlike other courses that charge you a hefty fee to learn one aspect of money, they teach you everything you need to know about money, whatever your current situation, for free. The course starts in June, and I take part every year! It is rare in the financial industry to see people donating their time and knowledge to lift others. I cannot speak highly enough about this course, and from the feedback I receive, I know this course transforms lives.
Index Fund and Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) explainer video
I share the following link so often that I only have to type one letter into my browser before the video pops up. JL Collins wrote a book called The Simple Path to Wealth that transformed my life. In it, he explained the simple concept behind being a decent share market investor. To cut to the chase, he says: don’t pick stocks, just buy all the stocks. By all means, buy his book (he has just released an updated version that you can find HERE), but this one-hour talk he gave to Google employees back in 2018 continues to do an excellent job of summarising the book—The Simple Path to Wealth, JL Collins Talks at Google.
Books
If I recommend a book on money to someone new, I like to share ones that offer solutions, not just vague and vanilla advice. Many money books are not worth reading, and I often think I have ONE shot to keep this person interested, so I have to select very carefully! I like books that tell you straight that you need to know your net worth, get on a budget, have some emergency money put aside, pay into your retirement fund, get out of debt for good, invest in assets and think ahead. If you do the basics well, you will feel financially secure.
TIP: Whenever you hear about a new money book, search the author on your podcast/Instagram/YouTube/Radio app. When authors release a book, they often try to appear on as many social media platforms as possible to get the word out.
Scott Pape continues to be the book that people pick up first when they want to learn about money. I listened to a 2022 interview he did on the Empowering Leaders podcast, and much like The Donegans and I, he has a genuine drive to help others. You will find his book at your local bookshop and library, plus he has both a Family and a Kids edition. The Barefoot Investor should be read in schools.
It’s an old one now, but Dave Ramsey’s book delivers the basics well, even if it is meant for an American audience. He also has many free resources to back up his message, which you can find at www.ramseysolutions.com. But just reading his book and listening to half a dozen podcast episodes will set the scene for you to manage your money well. He is all about budgeting, getting out of debt, working hard and investing well.
JL Collins continues to be the best money book I’ve ever read, which is specifically about investing. Stock picking will not make you rich, but becoming a share investor who buys the entire share market likely will. Most of his book is an easy read, where he explains ETF or Index Fund investing well, but you can skip the U.S. tax sections. Still, you will find value in watching the YouTube link above and listening to him interviewed in various podcasts, such as this recent Choose FI episode.
Bill Perkins’ book makes you rethink how you use both your time and money. His message is simple: don’t wait too long to enjoy life. While many are great at saving, Perkins reminds us that money is a tool to use now, not just for retirement, but for living a full life along the way. The memories you make along the way will pay you “memory dividends” for life. Dying with zero is not about being careless, but about spending with purpose while we are healthy and able, instead of continually putting things off for some far-off future date. In my experience, too many retirees clutch onto their money too tightly out of fear, and this book talks you through that.
Canadians Kristy and Bryce from www.millennial-revolution.com wrote this book a few years ago, detailing their story from $0 to retirement by 30. They write with humour and straight-talking smarts about how she went from growing up in extreme poverty in China to neither of them ever needing to work for another dollar again. For every person who ever said, “I wish I knew about financial independence sooner,” this is the book we wish we had read as they challenge the traditional idea of success and instead focus on the freedom to choose how you spend your days, regardless of where you live or what job you have. They teach you to be smart with your money and not just settle for what your parents’ generation suggests.
I have a bookshelf full of personal finance books and post them all over New Zealand (you just have to return them at your expense when you are done). If you are having trouble tracking one down, email me to see if I have a copy you can borrow.
Websites and Instagram
JL Collins continues to publish new content on his website www.jlcollinsnh.com. It’s a website I go back to occasionally, particularly during share market volatility, as he is always a voice of reason when others are overreacting.
The Sorted website is excellent. Full of tools, guides and personal stories. Their job is to teach you, and they do it well. However, the main link I share is for their Sorted Smart Investor tool, which I use mainly to help people compare KiwiSaver funds. Under the “Compare KiwiSaver and managed funds” section, choose “Advanced Search” and get comparing. Also, sign up for their email newsletter.
Chris from MoneyHub continues to do a great job of bringing together a vast array of information on all sorts of money-related topics and is worth checking out when you have a specific money question you are trying to answer.
Personal Finance Club on Instagram shares a simple daily graphic explaining a financial concept. They are both clever and practical.
Mr. Money Mustache has written many excellent blog posts, and the one I share most is The Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement. He doesn’t publish much anymore, but his content is still useful.
Choose FI send out a weekly email with good information, and they always link to great resources you may not otherwise know about. Just go to their website and sign up for Brad’s weekly newsletter.
Investment Tracking Tool: Sharesight
When I mention I invest in the share market, I’m often asked about the exact returns of my portfolio. Well, thanks to the globally used, New Zealand-made platform called Sharesight, I know to the cent! I used to try to calculate this information in my spreadsheet, which was an abject failure if I’m honest, and I was relieved to find this software. Users who have under 10 holdings can use Sharesight for free, or you can pay for a subscription for greater functionality. Put simply, every buy or sell trade is entered into Sharesight, and it analyses this complex data and tells me exactly what my total return, capital gain and income is for the period or investment I select. I don’t know how they do it, but I’m glad they do. This is one of the paid tools I could not be without.
Budgeting Tool: PocketSmith
The second paid tool I use and couldn’t function without is PocketSmith. I tried many budgeting resources before committing to PocketSmith, and it's the personal finance tool I use daily. It took me time to learn it, and to this day, I’m still learning as my finances continuously evolve and change. Still, remarkably, PocketSmith adapts itself to my situation every time. You have to automate your finances to create a lifelong habit of budgeting and managing your money. Time spent manually entering endless transactions is wasted, and you spend more time creating data than using it to make decisions that help you live well. Because PocketSmith links to the bank and investment accounts of my choosing, all my transactions are imported and categorised automatically, meaning I just use that information to manage our household (and business) finances. Again, impressive Kiwi-made software!
Accounting Tool: Hnry
It is not strictly related to personal finance; it is more of a business finance tool. However, I often share the Kiwi company Hnry as a resource because many people mix their personal and business finances when they shouldn’t. My finances ran smoothly, but my business (The Happy Saver) was stuck in a time warp. Using an accountant was insanely SLOW and expensive, and I was forever incorrectly guessing how much money I needed to set aside for tax, etc. I only knew once a year, when I got my tax return back, what I had earned, and by the time I got that information, it was already out of date. Hopeless! In short, I pay a small fee to enable Hnry to let me manage my business finances as concisely as I manage my personal finances. I know that all of my taxes, expenses, etc., are correct and paid as I go, and the money in my bank account is mine to manage. It’s been an absolute game changer!
Other bloggers I rate are:
In the nine years I have created The Happy Saver, many other bloggers have come and gone. Why? If your sole purpose is to make money, don’t take up blogging! It’s a huge time suck and most people give up or pivot to selling products and courses. What also happens is that if the content creator is on a mad sprint to grow their audience, they will publish a lot of content. And more is not always better. For that reason, there are few bloggers that I actively follow and can recommend today. But that’s not to say there are no great bloggers out there, so let me know in the comments who you are enjoying reading at the moment.
So, for that reason, I’m pretty choosy about what I read these days. I must also say that I’m amazed and grateful that so many people continue to read The Happy Saver. I know your time is valuable, and I appreciate you taking the time to read what I share.
There are a couple of content creators that I do follow, though, because they provide a consistent financial message.
The Barefoot Investor - You can sign up for his weekly newsletter.
Susan Edmunds is a money correspondent from Radio New Zealand and writes a wide range of personal finance stories. Search for her name on the RNZ website.
PocketSmith create a blog where several content creators (such as myself) and PocketSmith users contribute to their blog. As a result, it's diverse, and I can always find a gem to read every time I go onto their website.
It is not a blog as such, but Kiwi Luke Kerneys sends out a weekly email called Keep The Change, which you can subscribe to. He writes about whatever is on his mind that week, and there is often something said that resonates with me. It might do for you, too?
Podcasts I enjoy are:
Oh my gosh. There are so many podcasts! It is hard to recommend a consistently good money podcast. The trouble with podcasting is that in an effort for the podcaster to stay up in the rankings, which attracts more sponsorship income, they need to produce a lot of content, and once they have exhausted their contact list of friends and associates, they often stray from their original purpose. Or, they are owned by an investment company, and their podcast is their funnel to channel new business back to them. As with blogs, more is not better, especially if the guest is just marketing their product, so I encourage you to pick and choose relevant episodes.
If a guest on a podcast has resonated with me, I just search for that person in my podcast app to find other podcasts they have featured on. They will say something different in each one, meaning I can hear more of what they have to say. I follow about 20 money podcasts, but here are a few that I return to often:
And of course, take a listen to The Happy Saver Podcast because I share the lived experiences of regular people. I endeavour to release a new episode every three weeks, always on Wednesday.
I might keep returning to this page to update it as new resources come to light, or old ones fade.
What resources do you return to time and again or recommend to others the most? We are all different and learn in various ways, so please list your helpful resources in the comments below for others to enjoy.
