I write for a living. And, apparently, for fun. This is where it all comes together after hours – real talk on money and life, with detours into travel, food and more.
I left home young and struck out on my own financially, which shapes basically everything about my approach to money. I’m a saver who’s always had multiple streams of income to some degree, and have doubled my income since starting my career. (That said, I’m allergic to maths and terrified of Excel. But you don’t have to be good with numbers and spreadsheets to be good with money…)
In 2012 the travel bug hit hard, and I stumbled across the RTW travel blog community. After years of hustling, in 2013 I got hitched and took six months off to live my travel dream. Along with T (who merits the occasional mention around here as probably the only person in the world who can deal with my neuroses and frequent bouts of hangriness), we lived out of our backpacks and made our way around the world in – more or less – 180 days. Yeah, I still can’t quite believe that happened, either.
In November 2013, we touched down back home in Auckland, a city that’s great to live in most of the time. (For a totally accurate picture of what life in New Zealand is like, may I point you towards this Reddit thread and this Buzzfeed post?) I love travel but have no wish to travel full-time. Proof: I bought a house in 2016 and it’s the best thing ever.
