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Te Kahukura Boynton is the founder of Māori Millionaire, a financial literacy business on a mission to support Māori to become financially independent. Te Kahukura was born and raised in Kahungunu, Napier, and is currently living in Hamilton. She studies law at the University of Waikato and lives with her partner who is studying Te Reo Māori. They have no dependents. Te Kahukura studies full-time, works on her business full-time, and works at a law firm part-time.
Income: I am currently working 8.5 hours a week in a law firm earning $200 each week, with my student allowance of $300 per week topping that up. The income from my business fluctuates so I get anywhere between $50 to $100 per week from that.
Expenses: Currently, I am lucky to only pay $150 a week in board. My other fixed costs include my car insurance at $27 a week, $15 for contents insurance, $75 a week for my utilities and phone, and roughly $13 a week for gas (I don’t go anywhere!!). I have a few sinking funds I put weekly amounts into. I like to be very organized and plan for everything that could come up, including WoFs, regos, etc.
Debt: Currently, I don’t have any consumer debt. The only money I owe is on my student loan which is interest-free. This is sitting at approximately $11,000.
Savings: I have about $2,000 total in my savings accounts right now and this grows each week with regular deposits.
Investments: At the moment I have $10,000 in investments, split between my KiwiSaver and Sharesies.
What would you do if you needed money in an emergency? I would use my emergency fund that I regularly add to. I’d use it for anything that would get worse if I didn’t pay for it, or for a necessity that needs to be paid for that can’t be covered with my everyday account.
How would you describe your financial situation? Quite tight, being a full-time student and working part-time is hard financially; even while I am doing all the “right things” it’s still hard. And at the end of the day, I am super lucky to have cheap board but even that, proportional to my income, is really expensive. Everything is so expensive at the moment; the cost of living is so high!
Do you feel in control of your finances? Yeah, I definitely do, even though it’s quite tight I feel like my situation could be worse if I had consumer debt. I feel like I am in a controlled situation. There are things I could do, like to go and work full time, to earn more money, but I have a purpose at the moment - to finish my degree. I know it’s not going to be like this forever. Living this way for the next few years will help me to achieve my goal.
Do you worry about money? Yeah, I do, mostly as a business owner. I worry that the unforeseeable could come up. By having one employee relying on an income from the business, I know I have a responsibility, and I worry about not having enough to pay her.
Any money regrets? Oh definitely! When was 16 I saved $3,000 and then I had a mental health crisis and spent it all. I learned a lot from seeing it all disappear. Looking back now, that’s $3,000 I will never get back.
What was money like growing up? We talked about not having money a lot. I remember Mum taking me to the supermarket and we were the cheapskates, we would count every cent. I would see things ten cents cheaper and call out to Mum, so we got the best deal. We were very conscious of everything going in and out. My brother went to uni when I was about 7 or 8 and studied economics so we would have a lot of conversations about money, and it opened my eyes to different ways of thinking about it.
What was your toughest financial situation? When I first moved out of home and went to uni, it was my first time being financially responsible for myself. I didn’t have financial support from my parents and didn’t have a job or a car or any savings after I paid the move-in costs. When I first moved into the dorms, my rent was $314 a week and Studylink hadn’t confirmed my allowance yet. I was so stressed and did the only thing I could. I applied for 60 different jobs and got rejected by pretty much all of them because I had no car. One of the roles I applied for without really knowing I had was with an old lady who would hire uni students to tutor math to kids in intermediate. I think I got the job because I had an old maths award on my CV. I would walk or bus to work and then walk home in the dark if I had no money. If I was lucky, I would take a $5 Oola ride. Sometimes I would get a ride from my partner back to the dorms – which helped when it was raining!
Proudest financial moment: The other day I was doing a net worth calculation and it showed that mine had gone over six figures. Considering that two and a half years ago I was worrying about money - it feels good. My net worth is made up of my car, contents, shares, and business valuation.
Best financial advice: Start with a budget. By having a list of where your money is coming from, and where it is going, you can see the full picture of your finances which can help you to see what you need to do.
How do you think most other Kiwis are doing financially? I think pretty much everyone is struggling with the cost-of-living crisis. Even people who I considered wealthy are finding it tough. I just can’t see anything good happening to fix any of that any time soon.
Where do you want to be financially? I want my passive income to be more than my expenses. That is when I know I have made it.