Cooking the Books podcast: Why a simple savings account is the key to money happiness

Each week the NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB's Cooking The Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it's why saving even a little bit could change your relationship with money. Hosted by Frances Cook.

People often say it's the simple things in life that matter, and that's certainly true when it comes to money. Most of the things you can do to improve your financial situation are pretty simple.

But it's one of the very simplest things that will bring you the most happiness. You just need to actually use your savings account.

This is from the ANZ Financial Wellbeing survey, which looks at not only whether we're coping with our money, but also, how we feel about it.

Among the results was a very interesting one for those of us who want to feel more in control: the two biggest changes to increase your money happiness are not borrowing for day-to-day expenses, and to save some money regularly.

These lessons applied no matter what income people were on, and even saving a little bit had a powerful effect on financial wellbeing.

There's just one problem. A quarter of the New Zealanders surveyed have absolutely no cash savings.

Everyone's situation is different, but frankly, I just don't believe that one in four of us doesn't have enough money to even save $10 a week.

I talked to ANZ's general manager Wealth Products Ana-Marie Lockyer about what we can all learn from this research and how to be happier about our money.

We discussed how important a savings account is, its impact on your financial happiness, how to get started, and how much the average person should save.

For the interview, listen to the podcast.

If you have a question about this podcast, or an idea for the next one, come and talk to me about it. I'm on Facebook here, Instagram here and Twitter here.

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