"I bought The Richest Man in Babylon for a NCEA economics assignment and ended up actually applying the 'save 10%' rule to my part-time job wage. Small thing, but it's the first time saving has ever stuck."
Ben, 19Dunedin
Sam's story, 26, Wellington
"Two years ago I was making minimum payments on two credit cards and couldn't have told you the combined balance without checking three different apps. My friend handed me The Total Money Makeover as a half-joke birthday gift. I remember thinking the tone was a bit much at first, not gonna lie. But the actual method (list every debt smallest to largest, attack them one at a time, put everything else on autopilot) was the first thing that ever actually stuck for me.
Took fourteen months to clear both cards. The surprising part wasn't getting to zero, honestly. It was that I kept the habit going afterward instead of loosening up the second the balances cleared. There's three months of expenses sitting in a separate account now that I don't touch, and for the first time as an adult, a surprise car repair bill didn't wreck my month. I still wouldn't call myself 'good with money.' I just finally had a system simple enough that I didn't need to be."