Cooking the Books podcast: How to prepare for a recession if you don't have any savings

"I am speaking to you at what I know is an increasingly challenging time. A time of disruption in the life of our country: a disruption that has brought grief to some, financial difficulties to many, and enormous changes to the daily lives of us all," she said.

Each week the NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB's Cooking the Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it's how you can future-proof your finances even if you don't have savings. Hosted by Frances Cook.

The rainy day has arrived. Now is the time when a savings account can help you ride out the turbulence and give you peace of mind.

The problem is that as New Zealanders we're one of the worst in the world for saving our money.

Figures from the Reserve Bank show that in 2019, New Zealanders as a group saved -0.3 per cent. As in, overall, we didn't save anything. In fact, most of us have been living beyond our means, and using debt to fund it.

To put it another way, figures from finder.com show 58 per cent of us have less than $500 in savings.

So if this is you, then you're absolutely not alone. And while hindsight is 20/20, there's no point berating ourselves for what we should or shouldn't have done in the past.

What's more important is taking control of the things we can, today. And happily, there are lots of options for getting yourself more financially stable so you can survive what life throws at you.

For the latest Cooking the Books podcast I talked to Hannah McQueen from EnableMe.

We discussed how much you should have in savings generally, how to stay calm and supercharge your savings, and the other options available if your situation gets worse.

For the interview listen on the podcast player here.

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.

You can subscribe to this podcast on iHeartRadio, Apple podcasts app, or Spotify, to make sure you never miss an episode.

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NeedToKnow3

• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website