A Richer You: How to Make the Most of Your Money

by Mary Holm

Bestselling author and New Zealand's most trusted financial expert on how to make your money work in the real world Getting richer doesn't just mean accumulating more money. It's about building your knowledge of the different ways money works, so you can navigate around whatever comes your family complications, following your dreams, relationship issues, house price fluctuations, being braver in retirement, helping your children - young and older, getting the best mortgage for you, saving too little - or too much!

Sometimes the best path to a richer you is to learn from the mistakes and triumphs of others. This book features 184 of those situations, to help make your financial journey smoother and all the more rewarding.

'IF YOU READ ONE BOOK TO HELP YOURSELF FINANCIALLY THIS YEAR, MAKE IT THIS ONE.' - JANE WRIGHTSON, COMMISSION FOR FINANCIAL CAPABILITY

Genres: Nonfiction, Finance, Self Help, Money

345 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 3, 2021

Reviews

[Lana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reheated columns without much new material - an ok book, but can find everything in it elsewhere.

[Alana Saunders · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maybe I’m not the right audience for this book but I found the advice to be absolutely useless unless you already had a significant amount of money. It was all about investments and kiwisaver.

[Teao · Rating 4 out of 5]

A selected columns from people with her replies with a bit more added all into one book, found some of the information useful and will put into practice. Also liked how she mentioned in some parts prior to COVID.

[Arianna Maniapoto · Rating 1 out of 5]

Only helpful if you're over 50, approaching retirement or have a lot of assets. Some questions and answers were especially unhelpful and uninformative as they consisted purely of a fact about their family the client wanted to share (like their great-grandfather still saving consistently). If you're in your 20's or 30's, I'd skip this altogether.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every person in their late teens-mid twenties (if not older!) need to read this and “Rich enough?”. Mary Holm has fantastic, low-risk suggestions to make your money work for you. Cannot recommend Mary Holms books enough

[Creed · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was easy to read and full of great advice, and I love the tone and style that Mary Holm writes in. She's witty and doesn't add in extra fluff, but explains things concisely and updates/corrects/defends her position when things change or when presented with a different option.

I know that it's targeted towards Kiwis, but 90% of the advice only really applied to Kiwis. In a country with so many migrants and those who have spent lots of time abroad, I was hoping there would be more information about consolidating international accounts, pensions, and funds.

The author does seem aware that a lot of her letter writers are "lucky", upper-middle class Kiwis, and there is an effot to include some balance and advice for those who haven't got the same level of wealth, but much of the advice seemed simplistic and repetitive about halfway through the book becuase of the lack of diversity of letters.

Perhaps an explainer of the general advice (e.g. when to choose high/medium/low risk funds) and reasoning behind it would have been better, followed by letters that are exceptions to this rule. I think this format would have been more relatable to many, and put fewer people off thinking that they don't have enough to invest.

I also think that she might make the wrong assumptions about what people know at times. For instance, she explains compound interest several times, or the fact that paying a debt off sooner means you're effectively "earning" the interest that would have been paid on that debt, but there's no information on what exactly stocks or bonds are, or different types of mortgages, or advice on making a budget, all of which I think would be more useful to the average Kiwi.

I suppose there are other resources on that, but it's odd that an entire book on personal finance doesn't even touch on any of those, especially when the author is so trusted and experienced in breaking down complicated subjects into easy-to-understand tidbits.

[Liam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely not was i was expecting when i opened this book.

Perhaps it was due to being naive or just not looking into the book much before picking it up. But what i was hoping for was a follow-up to Marys first book with some updated areas and new info regarding the big changes that have happened in the world since.

What i got was a compilation of write ups from her weekly column. While not bad and still insightful, it wasn't really what i was looking for, and I probably wouldn't have read it if i had known.

But just to reiterate, it's not bad. And if this is what you're looking for, then it'll be a great time

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wanting a quick read between novels, I thought this would fit the brief, but NO. This didn't turn out to be a quick read, several pauses along the way to check a website or two. A long pause to check last year's credit card total - not a good idea. A long pause to check the Kiwisaver account. A long pause to check financial advisors. A long pause to reasses my housing requirements.
Although I follow Mary in the Herald there were several letters that were new, some I could have written nyself.
This book will do you no harm to read and reflect, or take action.

[Johnny Howe · Rating 2 out of 5]

The whole book is a real q&a from the authors time doing a newspaper column.
It would be fine if this was obvious on the cover somewhere.

The authors responses can be summed up as: KiwiSaver good, markets will drop - hold on, diversify.
For most people it’s hard to disagree with this.

[Melissa Butler · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a series of curated letters from the Mary’s Herald column so if you regularly read that there’s nothing that new in here. I think her other books were better. Having said that, I’m a big fan of women empowering themselves around money, so get amongst it if it comes your way. #financialliteracy

[Ben Reay · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compilation of letters from her newspaper column over the years - mostly very relevant, applicable and common sense advice that is useful to the reader too not just the letter writer.

[Bradley Marshall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great advice but didn't enjoy the format of it

[Nicholas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Auntie Mary has put out a reader's digest of her column, carefully edited for relevance and continuation perfect for anyone thats focus is limited to bite sized reading sessions and wants a personal finance understanding without significant reading investment into the subject.