As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a software engineer shares their financial comings and going.

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Gender: Male

Age: 21

Ethnicity: NZ European

Role: Software engineer, full time work + contracting

Salary/income/assets: $120k/year salary, $80/hour contracting, $60k in stocks, $10k in crypto

My living location is: Suburban.

Rent/mortgage per week: I pay $166 per week but I live in a 5-bedroom flat which is in total $830

Student loan or other debt payments per week: $70k student loan debt. No other debt apart from my credit card which is paid off in full every month.

Typical weekly food costs

Groceries: Probably about $60 per week. I eat as much as I can in the office for free (snacks/breakfast food) and we get free lunches weekly so that cuts down on my food spending a lot.

Eating out: Previously when I was dating I’d eat out for about $30 a week or so but now we’ve broken up so it’s pretty much $0 outside of the rare work lunch.

Takeaways:$0 almost every week.

Workday lunches: Almost always leftovers brought from home.

Cafe coffees/snacks: $0, it’s just not worth it to spend $6 for a coffee when I can make one at home or work for pretty much nothing.

Other food costs: N/A.

Savings: I auto-invest about $500 NZD a week into major US ETFs. I don’t really have any cash savings as I’m looking for better returns than savings account interest and it’s very unlikely I’d need a lot of money out of nowhere.

I worry about money: Rarely.

Three words to describe my financial situation: Stable, ambitious, conservative.

My biggest edible indulgence would be: Absolutely love Vietnamese food – Banh Mi or Pho gets me every time.

In a typical week my alcohol expenditure would be: It used to be a lot higher but recently I’ve been cutting down a lot, on average now I’d say it’s maybe two boxes a month so ~$12 a week.

In a typical week my transport expenditure would be: About $20 a week in petrol, I ride a motorbike to the city from the shore as my commute which is quite fuel efficient.

I estimate in the past year the ballpark amount I spent on my personal clothing (including sleepwear and underwear) was: Probably about $500.

My most expensive clothing in the past year was: Some pants I really wanted but had to pay $50 for shipping from the UK – they were on a black Friday sale so in total it was only about $150 but still pretty steep.

My last pair of shoes cost: Motorcycle boots – $380.

My grooming/beauty expenditure in a year is about: I avoid getting a haircut whenever possible – I just hate going to the barbers and I don’t really do anything else, so probably about $80 a year for two haircuts.

My exercise expenditure in a year is about: Cityfitness basic plan – about $350/year.

My last Friday night cost: About $70, $50 for a gig ticket and $15 worth of alcohol at pres.

Most regrettable purchase in the last 12 months was: A Northern bass ticket – never been so wet in my life.

Most indulgent purchase (that I don’t regret) in the last 12 months was:A three-month solo travel Europe holiday – first time out of Aus/NZ and was very expensive but I’d just finished my degree and needed a break and it was absolutely worth it.

One area where I’m a bit of a tightwad is: Buying drinks at bars/clubs, it’s just so difficult to justify buying alcohol at 3-4x the price it would have been at pres.

Five words to describe my financial personality would be…Invest heavily, but don’t forget to have fun.

I grew up in a house where money was: My parents never really talked to me about money – we rented and me and siblings went to public school, we were comfortable but I don’t think my family was very well off, certainly they’re much worse off than anyone who bought a house in 2000.

The last time my Eftpos card was declined was: Probably about three years ago when I was a broke student.

In five years, in financial terms, I see myself: Hopefully purchasing property in a major European or UK city, I’ve had enough of New Zealand – there’s just not enough to do here when you’re young and it’s still very impractical to buy property as single income, even with a high salary.

I would love to have more money for: Travelling – it’s the only thing I really enjoy.

Describe your financial low: During third year uni when I couldn’t afford to feed myself because my casual work hadn’t given me any shifts recently and had to survive off free foods from the church on Symonds Street and uni events.

I give money away to… Know Your Stuff – absolute legends who are going so far for harm reduction in this country.