Cooking the Books podcast: How NZers are reaching financial security without a house

OPINION:

Each week the NZ Herald's Cooking the Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it's how high house prices are changing the way we manage our money. Hosted by Frances Cook.

Listen to the Cooking the Books podcast here or watch the interview above.

You'd have to be living under a rock to miss all the chat about housing, what with the soaring prices and the Government bringing in new rules to try to bring them under control.

While it's good that action is being taken, it's always a long-term game - we'll have to wait to see how many of the housing changes make an impact. There's usually a lag effect, where even successful measures take a while to work.

Now while I still think owning your own home is important for your financial security, it's not the only thing. In fact, even if you were to buy your own house and then stop there, I'd argue that you're not looking after your financial future properly.

I also don't buy into the idea that property is the best way to invest.

So if you're feeling frustrated by all of this, you do still have options.

It seems New Zealanders are already picking up on this.

Hatch polled its investors, and found that 35 per cent don't invest in property while 14 per cent said they simply couldn't afford it. Meanwhile, another 14 per cent are looking to invest more in shares soon.

To be clear, this was a Facebook poll, so it's not scientific. But it is backed up by a very credible survey carried out by the Financial Markets Authority, and released at the end of last year.

Their "Attitudes towards New Zealand's financial markets" survey showed property investing was falling, down five percentage points to nine per cent last year, while more people were buying shares, bouncing up to 20 per cent.

For the latest podcast I talked to Kristen Lunman, from Hatch.

For the interview, watch the video above, or listen to the podcast.

• If you have a question about this podcast, or question you'd like answered in the next one, come and talk to me about it. I'm on Facebook here, Instagram here and Twitter here.

• Listen to the full interview on the Cooking the Books podcast. You can find new episodes in the Herald, or subscribe on iHeartRadio, Apple podcasts app, or Spotify.