This is how much 25 Aucklanders make and how they feel about money right now, in their own words.<\/p>\n
Bus driver<\/p>\n
$76,000<\/p>\n
I\u2019m 48. I live with my husband and my 6-year-old. My older child goes to university in the South Island. My husband is not working because he\u2019s too sick. He needs to pay for the doctor, tablets and blood pressure medicine. I applied for the sickness benefit for him, but Winz said my pay is too high. We pay $400 a week on rent. That\u2019s why I need help [from Winz], to make it easier for my family \u2013 it\u2019s only me working. <\/p>\n
Fire engineer<\/p>\n
$120,000<\/p>\n
I was a fireman. I knew nothing about fire engineering, so I went back to university at quite an old age and started working in it. I\u2019m on a single income. My wife is currently studying at university. It\u2019s tough, like it is for everybody, but we are where we are. We have a 13-year-old. <\/p>\n
For me, it\u2019s definitely not about salary these days. It\u2019s more about the quality of life because eventually you spend that salary. There are not a great deal of fire engineers in New Zealand. Recruiters are often seeking me out. There are some days I don\u2019t enjoy it; it\u2019s quite a stressful job, but it\u2019s got its rewards. I\u2019m not in debt, but we don\u2019t put a great deal away every month.<\/p>\n
Social media manager<\/p>\n
$86,700<\/p>\n
I lead the social media team for a few large social media pages. I make $86,700 a year in salary for a 40-hour week (but it often goes longer). I manage a team of people working across a few pages and working on brand partnerships. I\u2019ve been in the industry [I\u2019m in] for nearly 10 years now, but I got started in social media around 2020. <\/p>\n
Between my partner\u2019s wages and mine, we have enough left after rent, food, and bills to have a little to play with, but not really enough to seriously save for a deposit on a house. My job isn\u2019t physically demanding, but it can be fairly tedious and stressful. I think I should be hitting the six-figure mark by this stage. Some of my friends in similar roles are paid less than I am, others $20k+ more.<\/p>\n
Mental health support co-ordinator<\/p>\n
$80,000<\/p>\n
I support our inpatient communities in the mental health sector. It\u2019s been almost three years now that I\u2019ve been doing this. I own my own home. I pay a mortgage, more than $1000 a week. I don\u2019t have any other debt. I have a partner who earns and we also have two kids.<\/p>\n
I am feeling pretty tight at the moment. Things are pretty expensive. But I guess I feel blessed with whatever we have. Obviously, we want to earn more, but in reality, that\u2019s not our focus because we have our own Christian values. That\u2019s what motivates me. Sometimes I have just enough to survive for the next payday and a little bit of saving, especially if we set goals to go on holiday.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m looking at starting my own lawnmower business. I want to do my own thing.<\/p>\n
Uber driver<\/p>\n
$59,800<\/p>\n
The pay depends on how many hours you choose to do. If you work 55 to 60 hours a week, you can make around $1150 a week before tax. I live alone and am single. I pay $240 a week in rent. Sometimes, money is a really bad struggle. Especially when the [bills] pile up at the same time, like insurance, income tax and GST. Then, you have to cut back on something. But you can only cut back on food. That\u2019s it. You can\u2019t stop paying bills. <\/p>\n
My food budget is $150 to $200 every week. This includes coffee every day. My phone costs $110 a week. The car is on finance, so I pay $200 per week on that. And $72 a week on insurance. Sometimes you speed, or you accidentally enter the bus lane, and then a fine comes, so these things also take money. <\/p>\n
I want to earn at least $2000 per week after tax. That\u2019s how much money you need if you want to live in this city in a good way.<\/p>\n
Hairdressing student<\/p>\n
Unemployed<\/p>\n
I\u2019m 18. I don\u2019t work, but I am doing a fulltime hairdressing course. I needed to take a student loan for it, which is $12,000. I want to become a senior stylist. I\u2019m living with my parents. They pay for everything. My mum helps me a lot. She puts money on my [bus] card. I go home to eat, but sometimes I\u2019ll bring snacks from home when I\u2019m out. I want to get an apprenticeship next year. I can\u2019t this year because I\u2019m playing football. I heard hairdressers make good pay, so I\u2019m not really worried about the cost of living. I think they make $55 an hour. <\/p>\n
Journalist<\/p>\n
$60,500<\/p>\n
I work as a junior reporter for a media company. I have been in my current role for over a year. I love the ins and outs of the job. It\u2019s hard to get bored when there\u2019s always an opportunity to learn something new and push myself out of my comfort zone. <\/p>\n
I\u2019m often unsatisfied by how much I\u2019m paid, especially when comparing salaries with other people my age. The job can be stressful. <\/p>\n
I typically set aside $150 a week for groceries and one meal out, around $50 for fuel and transport, $265 for rent and household expenses, and $100 for recreation and entertainment. I also pay for my gym membership, car insurance, phone plan, streaming services when they come through. The rest is then put into a range of investment accounts.<\/p>\n
Food delivery worker<\/p>\n
$57,200<\/p>\n
I\u2019m 37. I moved here from Bangladesh 11 months ago with my husband and child. For the first two months, I was working in a caf\u00e9, but the schedule was harmful for me because I have a kid \u2013 I have to have time to take care of my son. So I started doing Uber delivery. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a freedom job. When I want to work, I just go online and when I want to go home, I just go offline and go home. My husband is a student here, and he has a part-time job. He can\u2019t work more than 25 hours a week because of his visa. So, that\u2019s another reason why Uber delivery suits me. Right now, we are renting. I feel good financially. We are perfect. <\/p>\n
Builder<\/p>\n
$50 an hour<\/p>\n
I\u2019m 55. The amount I earn varies because I contract, but I charge $50 an hour, and I\u2019m okay with my pay. My savings vary a lot \u2013 at the moment, I don\u2019t have a lot of constant work. I\u2019m on a single income. I don\u2019t have debt and I don\u2019t have dependants. I pay $250 a week on rent. I\u2019d like to be optimistic when thinking about finances. I can see there\u2019s a bit of an economic squeeze at the moment, but that generally runs in cycles. Sometimes there is plenty of work, and then there\u2019s not a lot. There are good years and bad years. I would like to own a house.<\/p>\n
Asset manager in tourism sector<\/p>\n
$120,000<\/p>\n
$80,000 from caf\u00e9 business<\/p>\n
I manage assets, projects and compliance for a tourism company in the Marlborough Sounds. It\u2019s a family business. The cost of living\u2019s quite high, but I\u2019m comfortable with how much I\u2019m earning. We have a dual income and three kids. We have a mortgage but no other debt. I am definitely feeling the pinch with the cost of fuel and the cost of food within the cafe. <\/p>\n
Of course, I would like to earn more; I\u2019m doing two people\u2019s jobs. I\u2019m satisfied, but there are bags under my eyes. Gone are the days when you work hard and reap the rewards for it, because you just get taxed more. So that\u2019s a bit of a pain in the bum. Getting by is not a problem. Getting ahead is a bit of a challenge.<\/p>\n
Radio producer<\/p>\n
$79,000<\/p>\n
I\u2019m in my early 20s. I work graveyard hours. I went to broadcasting school and then did a journalism course and got a job from there. I rent in the city with other flatmates. How much I make is enough to get by, but I hope I\u2019ll make more as I get older. It\u2019s not like I can\u2019t afford to live, but it\u2019s not like I have amazing savings either. I find myself often putting healthcare off \u2013 dental care or going to the GP \u2013 mainly because every time I go, it\u2019s going to be a huge expense. It\u2019s $70 to see the doctor, and then you\u2019ll pay for all this other stuff on top of that. <\/p>\n
Administrator in health sector<\/p>\n
$84,000<\/p>\n
I book healthcare appointments and I\u2019ve been doing this for 25 years. I\u2019m not happy with my pay. I want more. I love my job and look forward to going to work, and I execute my work with love and dedication. However, my pay was very low for more than two decades, only increasing by a pinch each year for inflation. Only recently, I got a bigger bump. I think I should be earning $95-100k now, given my years of experience. But I do pick up some weekend shifts, which boosts my pay a bit. <\/p>\n
Financially, I\u2019m okay now, only because my children are grown and my mortgage is finally paid off. But money has been a source of stress for most of my life. I try to save as much as I can and keep a strict budget. I don\u2019t invest in shares because I don\u2019t know too much about it. I don\u2019t eat out. I permit myself to travel internationally once a year for just a few days \u2013 any more than that and I won\u2019t hit my retirement savings goal. I do also own two rental properties, but I\u2019m not making any profit from them \u2013 the tenants\u2019 rent pays the mortgage repayments and that\u2019s it. I plan on selling those when I retire soon.<\/p>\n
Bank manager<\/p>\n
$132,000<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been with this bank for 13 years. I started in the front line and then worked my way up. <\/p>\n
Now, I feel okay with how much I make. But the pay progression wasn\u2019t steady increments. I just had the right manager a couple of years ago, who bumped me up to what I potentially should have been on for a while. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s still a struggle paying for things. My husband and I are full-time workers. We probably make an equivalent of $240,000 per year. But we\u2019re still renting. Neither of us can stop working. We have two kids. We have two cars. I feel like the last two years we very much [have been] counting how much money we\u2019re spending all the time.<\/p>\n
I recently went to Australia and was tripping out at how cheap everything was. A food shop costs me $400 to $500 in New Zealand, and it was around $150 over there. The cost of living here is chaotic.<\/p>\n
We want to purchase a home. The challenge my partner and I have is we are terrible at budgeting. The irony is that I work for a bank, but I have so much fear of being judged by them after they look into my accounts. So that\u2019s what holds us back. We have a massive assumption that we\u2019re just not going to get a house, so we just don\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n
Cleaner<\/p>\n
$52,000<\/p>\n
I\u2019m 60 this year. I started working as a cleaner in 2000. My kids were young then so I wanted a job to have money for their schooling, and something that let me work part-time so I could do things for them. They\u2019re grown now and I work full time. My husband also works. We just make our money to pay our rent. <\/p>\n
It was hard in the beginning, especially for us Pasifika people here, because it\u2019s not like in the Islands, where you have extended family supporting you. We were alone here. But I\u2019m really happy with my job and my heart says to keep working \u2013 I think I won\u2019t stop until God calls me. A lot of people pass away once they retire, because they stop moving their bodies. I don\u2019t want to do that.<\/p>\n
Nurse<\/p>\n
$111,239<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been a registered nurse since 1982. Every day, I organise the gastrology list and assist doctors with procedures. I\u2019m happy with how much I earn and have no debt. I own my own home.<\/p>\n
University student<\/p>\n
Unemployed. $300 a week from student allowance<\/p>\n
I\u2019m studying education (teaching). I\u2019ve taken out about $15,000 in student loans so far, but I\u2019m taking out another $15,000 this year. My parents help with my student loan, but I also have to pay them back $7,000. I have a student allowance on top of that, which is $300 a week from the Government. I live in the city with flatmates. My rent is about $350 a week. That doesn\u2019t leave me with much money. I\u2019m lucky I have my parents to help me.<\/p>\n
Finances are a bit of a struggle, but I am managing. I\u2019m lucky that I have my parents to help me out, but I don\u2019t have enough money to spend on other stuff for myself. I\u2019m having to cut out going out with my friends. I\u2019m more careful with what I spend on groceries, healthcare, all of that. Some of my friends are also struggling with money and we\u2019re all just trying to make ends meet. <\/p>\n
High school teacher<\/p>\n
$114,000<\/p>\n
I\u2019m the history curriculum leader \u2013 or the teacher in charge. I\u2019ve been doing it for 17 years. I trained as a teacher because I loved history. I love my job. <\/p>\n
I\u2019m fine with my salary because I\u2019m single. I rent with flatmates so I don\u2019t have to pay a mortgage. But I\u2019ve just been over to Australia, and I found out that the starting salary for a teacher in New South Wales is $114,000, which is what I earn. So while I\u2019m very happy with what I earn, I have a hard time recommending to new student teachers they should stay in New Zealand. <\/p>\n
I\u2019m established in my career so I don\u2019t want to move over, but if I was starting fresh, I\u2019d be looking at New South Wales. I think teachers should probably be paid about $10k higher than we are. We\u2019re not going to compete with Australia, I understand that, but I think a teacher like me should be on $125k.<\/p>\n
My rent is only $260 a week, my food budget is around $150, and I spend about $100 a week on petrol. I spend a lot on travel. <\/p>\n
I can\u2019t get a house. There\u2019s no chance of that. Unless I get left an inheritance, there\u2019s not going to be a house in my future. It definitely hurts that there\u2019s no possibility of saving up for that. That\u2019s why I travel so much. The cost of a deposit goes up ahead of my salary \u2013 there\u2019s no point in saving. <\/p>\n
Change manager in insurance<\/p>\n
$110,000<\/p>\n
I\u2019m 34. My job is the people side of project management. I\u2019ve been doing this for four years. In terms of salary, about $10k higher than what I get now is probably about right for the role, but I think I\u2019m living comfortably. My partner is working too, and we own our own home. <\/p>\n
We spend about $100 a week on groceries. We buy a lot of food online in bulk, especially meat products, to get the cost down. We\u2019ve got a bit of vegetable gardening going on as well, and that helps with costs. <\/p>\n
If there were a sudden emergency, financially, we would be secure. If I got fired tomorrow, it\u2019d be stressful, but we\u2019re still going to make our mortgage repayments.<\/p>\n
Gardening manager<\/p>\n
$82,000<\/p>\n
I\u2019m 62. I look after a team of gardeners. The wages aren\u2019t great. My wife\u2019s retired, she\u2019s on a pension, and we rent. I\u2019ve managed to work my income up to what it is now through going into supervisory roles. Before that, I was actually working a secondary job to get by, and I did that for 14 years. <\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been lucky enough to rent the same place for 20 years, which is about $500 a week. But we are freaking out about when we have to move from here, with the lack of social housing for people, especially in our age bracket. There\u2019s a lot of stress involved with that. <\/p>\n
My children are grown, but we help with our grandchildren. They have to live outside of Auckland to survive. They live in Warkworth. It\u2019s a bit cheaper out there to live and rent there, but what kills them is the daycare costs.<\/p>\n
I never seem to have enough money to save properly. I try to put a little bit away, and I save in a super scheme. But when you do the calculations and you realise, God, that\u2019s not going to be enough for me to retire at 65 anyway. We\u2019re not in a good state.<\/p>\n
Financial strategy manager<\/p>\n
$175,000<\/p>\n
I\u2019m 55. I work for a bank. I\u2018ve been working in the field for about 35 years. We have a household income of $275,000. We own our own home.<\/p>\n
Money is probably tight. We owned homes in the past, then rented for 20 years. We\u2019ve recently bought a home again. I had a redundancy a couple of years ago, soon after we bought the house. We had quite a big mortgage. The impact of that was quite large. I was out of work for about 18 months.<\/p>\n
Getting by in terms of paying for the mortgage, bills and essential costs is not easy. There is no travelling, no eating out. We have basic, repetitive meals and do what we can to get by.<\/p>\n
We had a few debts that we needed to borrow money [for] when I was redundant. I think if we can pay a few things off, we\u2019ll be in an okay position.<\/p>\n
Learning and development consultant<\/p>\n
$167,000<\/p>\n
I\u2019m 53. I\u2019ve been in this field for 26 years. My wife doesn\u2019t work, but she receives a passive income from investments, between $60,000 and $70,000 a year. We have two kids. We own our home. <\/p>\n
I feel secure financially. I\u2019m paid enough. We\u2019re pretty careful with our outgoings, that\u2019s the main thing \u2013 see how much income\u2019s coming in and work out our spending. We can afford all the things we want.<\/p>\n
About $9000 a month comes in. The mortgage takes around $1800 of that. We spend about $500 a week on groceries. We do travel. Nothing extravagant – we fly Jetstar most places. Maybe once a year we\u2019ll go somewhere international, but we\u2019re happy to also go in a campervan or go camping.<\/p>\n
Insurance claims assessor<\/p>\n
$80,000<\/p>\n
I\u2019m 29, married with two kids. Our household income is around $140,000. We both come from big families, so as much as we\u2019d love to have more children, sometimes we feel the economic crunch of being able to financially provide for all our children equally. For example, we\u2019re talking about sending our son to a private school. However, you can\u2019t send one son to a private school and then not send the rest of the children.<\/p>\n
My family and time spent with my family are my primary factors. If I were hitting around $100 to 120k a year, it would bump our overall income to a good place. But any further than that, and I think I\u2019d have to start working longer hours and committing more to the role. At the moment, I still have that kind of healthy work-life balance.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m less focused on where I could be and more on taking accountability for what I have and trying to make what we have work, because it\u2019s quite unstable times at the moment.<\/p>\n
Auditor<\/p>\n
$100,000<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been doing this type of job in New Zealand for 2 and a half years, but in total, about 5 years. <\/p>\n
I think my salary is liveable. But, considering how many hours I work, I\u2019d prefer a higher amount. I flat with my sister and her partner. Half of my income goes into savings. Rent is cheap because it\u2019s with my sister \u2013 around $400 a week. I\u2019m trying to save up to buy my own place.<\/p>\n
Video producer<\/p>\n
$110,000<\/p>\n
I\u2019m 49. I\u2019ve been doing this job for about 10 years. Financially, it was okay when I started. Now I\u2019m not very comfortable. Our household income is $170,000. We\u2019re renting \u2013 we pay $800 a week \u2013 and $200-300 a week on food. We are looking into reducing the kids\u2019 sports activities now because it\u2019s really tough to afford everything.<\/p>\n
Before, I was supporting my wife and two newborn kids. Now my wife is working fulltime and hardly saving anything. And if you save, there\u2019s always something to pay for. Registrations, cars, insurances, kids\u2019 football gear, outfits, equipment, etc.<\/p>\n
We never go out for dinner. We treat ourselves with takeaways, but that\u2019s once every two months.<\/p>\n
The more you earn, the more you spend. I don\u2019t want to be rich. I love working and I want to work. I just want to be able to live normally and afford things for a normal family of four.<\/p>\n
I should earn enough to have normal things around me, like going on holiday once a year, signing up my kids for a football or art class, and providing decent food. Not super cheap [food] like noodles, but nutritious food like fruit, vegetables and healthy meat \u2013 meat prices have gone through the roof.<\/p>\n
We are also considering leaving New Zealand, but I don\u2019t know where for. The whole world is now going through a similar situation with the cost of living. I don\u2019t see a future for my kids here. Where are they going to stay to buy a house? And how?<\/p>\n
Lawyer<\/p>\n
$210,000<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been working for 13 years as a lawyer. I own a home and am renting. My mortgage is around $4000 a month. Rent is around $3000 a month. Financially, I feel all right, I suppose. But I don\u2019t feel financially wonderful because I\u2019ve just moved back to New Zealand after earning about $320,000 in Sydney. <\/p>\n
I moved because there are better long-term career prospects here. What I do is highly specific to my industry. I wouldn\u2019t move back to Sydney because I\u2019ve got family here, and I want to [pass the] bar, which is not something that can be offered in Australia without many more years of work.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t hurt anywhere financially in a meaningful way. I can\u2019t nip off and go skiing at a very nice place or go to Europe at the drop of a hat. I definitely could be better with money \u2013 I\u2019m probably too flippant with spending.<\/p>\n
Varsha Anjali is a journalist in the lifestyle team at the Herald. She is based in Auckland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is how much 25 Aucklanders make and how they feel about money right now, in their own…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22398,298,7491,14739,2678,22263,2959,221,1943,29137,6036,5969,111,43,139,69,12937,5970,33281,6923,102],"class_list":["post-444894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-aucklanders","tag-butter","tag-earn","tag-expensive","tag-fuel","tag-happened","tag-high","tag-how","tag-inflation","tag-keeping","tag-know","tag-much","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-prices","tag-really","tag-wages","tag-what","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}