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Episodes from Making Cents
A Michelin-Trained Chef's Insider Secrets To Saving Money On Your Food
Adele Holland cooked for billionaires on private jets. Now she helps real people eat well for $50 a week, and she reckons the skills transfer better than you'd think.Adele is a Michelin-trained chef who spent years cooking in Swiss chalets and on superyachts before walking away from the waste and opulence of that world.Now, as the creator behind Dishes with Del, she's on a mission to make budget meals genuinely delicious.In this episode, we get into how to meal plan on a budget, the cheap...
Are Small Homes A Bad Buy?
Apartments and townhouses are selling for less than people paid for them, and in record numbers. Frances Cook joins RNZ Nights to break down why smaller properties are taking a bigger hit than the rest of the property market and what it means for first home buyers, investors, and owners in negative equity.Follow me everywhere!Facebook / https://www.facebook.com/FrancesCookNZInstagram / https://www.instagram.com/francescooknzTikTok / https://www.tiktok.com/@francescooknzJoin the Money Memo newsletter for a free weekly...
The Money Timeline That Lets Normal People Build Wealth
If you've ever wondered why some people build real wealth on ordinary incomes, while others save for decades and still feel behind, this episode is the answer.Financial journalist Frances Cook breaks down the relationship between money and time, and why getting this right changes everything about how you invest, where your money goes, and how hard it can work for you.In this episode:The rule of 100 - how to figure out how much to invest vs keep in cashNow money, soon money, and later money - the simple framework for organising your...
Why Overwhelmed Parents End Up Spending More Money, And How To Fix It
What if the chaos of parenthood is actually building your business brain?Renata Wiles was posting videos on the internet, with no business background, no tech background, and no real following.Now she's the founder of Roam with Kids, an app helping New Zealand parents find family-friendly places to go.In this episode, Frances talks with Renata about the messy reality of going from frustrated mum to tech founder.They’re talking:Why overwhelmed parents spend more, and the surprisingly simple fixThe KiwiSaver gap for parentsHow to turn a parenting pa...
KiwiSaver Changes On The Cards Again - Are They Worth It?
Frances Cook joins the TVNZ Breakfast team to crunch the numbers on a proposed policy that would automatically enrol newborns into KiwiSaver with a $1,000 government contribution and what that could actually be worth by the time they retire.Follow me everywhere!Facebook / Frances Cook - JournalistInstagram / Frances | Money | Investing (@francescooknz) • Instagram profileTikTok / Frances Cook on TikTokJoin the Money Memo newsletter for a free weekly money tip in your inbox each week Newsletter sign up
NZ's Hottest Jobs in 2026… And How to Get Paid More in Any of Them
One in four young people in NZ can't find work. But some jobs are up 200% year on year.The job market hasn't collapsed - it's split. And if you're on the wrong side of that split, waiting for things to improve isn't a strategy.In this episode, we get into which jobs are actually booming right now, what the latest Stats NZ unemployment numbers really mean once you dig past the headline figure, and what it tells us about where the economy is actually heading.Then we...
The Lazy Investor's Guide To Building Real Wealth
Most of us assume that getting ahead financially means working harder, watching the markets, and making smart moves. The data says that’s wrong.In this episode, Frances talks with Sean Freer, Director of Global Exchange Indices at S&P Dow Jones Indices, about why passive investing consistently beats active fund management, and what that means for everyday investors.We talk about:Why 86% of professional fund managers fail to beat the index over 15 yearsWhat index funds and ETFs actually are, and how to choose between 14,000+ optionsThe NZX 50, the S&P 500, and how market concentration re...
10 Pieces Of Advice I'd Give My 20-Year-Old Self
Frances Cook shares the ten money lessons she wishes she'd known at 20, including the mindset shifts, small habits, and easy wins that made the biggest difference to her financial life.Follow me everywhere!Facebook / Frances Cook - JournalistInstagram / Frances | Money | Investing (@francescooknz) • Instagram profileTikTok / Frances Cook on TikTokJoin the Money Memo newsletter for a free weekly money tip in your inbox each week Newsletter sign up
Spending Money the Right Way (Most Kiwis Miss This)
It's one thing to build financial stability, it's another to actually let yourself enjoy it. In this Ask the Experts episode, Frances Cook is joined by Katie Wesney from Enable Me to unpack a problem that's more common than you'd think: what happens when the scarcity mindset that helped you build financial security starts working against you? A listener wrote in with a $5 million net worth, and genuine anxiety about spending any of it. Kmart clothes, secondhand cars, no overseas trips in six years. On paper, financially free. In practice, still...
Ali Mau: From TV Icon to Startup Founder at 60 (And How She Paid For It)
What does it actually cost to walk away from a successful career and build something that matters?Ali Mau is one of New Zealand's most recognised television faces, including Breakfast, Fair Go, Seven Sharp, One News.She was also made redundant five times along the way.Instead of treating each setback as a dead end, she used them as clarity. Now in her sixties, she’s co-founded Tika, a tech-for-good startup helping survivors of sexual harm.In this episode of Making Cents, Frances Co...
Why You Keep Buying Things You Don't Need Online
With six in ten Kiwis making impulse purchases from social media every month, Frances Cook joins the TVNZ Breakfast team to explain the manipulative tactics behind online shopping and how to take back control of your spending.Follow me everywhere!Facebook / Frances Cook - JournalistInstagram / Frances | Money | Investing (@francescooknz) • Instagram profileTikTok / Frances Cook on TikTokJoin the Money Memo newsletter for a free weekly money tip in your inbox each week Newsletter sign upBecome a confident sharemarket investor by signing up to the Market Me...
The 5 Levels of Financial Freedom: Which One Are You?
Financial freedom is a series of levels, and once you understand them, the whole thing stops feeling impossible and starts feeling like a plan.In this solo episode of Making Cents, Frances Cook breaks down the five levels of financial freedom, from knowing your numbers for the first time, to the point where work becomes genuinely optional.Each level builds on the last. Each one makes the next one easier to reach, not harder. And the first level doesn't require much money at all - just honesty....