According to the IRD Student Loan Repayment Calculator, I will be free of my Student Loan by the start of May 2024. This is just over 10 years after I started working as an Optometrist at Specsavers Riccarton. This milestone has got me thinking and prompted me to look back to when I started writing this blog near the end of 2015. Hindsight is 20/20 and its with fond amusement at the level of understanding I had back then. I was rather high up the Dunning Kruger scale of confidence as I made small and significant wins. My metaphors of climbing Maungatautari, The Tide at Whangapoua and visiting Waitomo Caves were rather on point; life and finances would continue to be filled with ups and downs, slips and spills, and moments in the dark.

The major tool I developed in these early years of getting out of overdraft was to track where my money went and work towards decreasing debt each week. I still use this tool today but now to facilitate reducing the balance of a revolving credit mortgage. Interestingly, I feel less anxious about the balance of our fixed rate mortgage, and I think I put this down to a new tool which I have followed the last 2 years; The Household Position Statement which I learnt from Keep The Change.

While it’s great seeing more money in the chequing account each week, seeing where this is being implemented has been the next level of financial literacy. Luke’s weekly emails help to provide a touch point and reminder to the long term, as well as being conscious of the short term money habits which can easily trip us up. Added to that, Luke‘s highly successful podcast taps into those of us who learn verbally, and expands on the ideas and different forces when it comes to our finances and financial decisions. Some of the best shows are when Luke and Mortgage Broker Mikey Smith chew the fat on different topics such as ‘Why the Hunting Season Is A Must‘ and ‘How to Destroy 2024‘.

If you’d like to take a deeper dive, Luke has Created ‘Night School‘;

• Free Money Mail 
• Access To Keep The Change Content
• Access to Keep The Change Community
• Access to Keep The Change Night School Online Course
• Build A Financial Plan
• Over 20 Chapters To Work Through

So as I get ready for one of the biggest pay rises in my life; 12% tax free pay rise, by paying off my student loan, the goals remain the same; Be in a position to own an Optometry Practice, Run a successful business, Invest in a Commercial Deer Farm, Develop a Destination Farm, Retreat and Restaurant and fundamental to all this, support my Family. Having Finances as a pillar to do this, and being mindful of how money moves through our household will allow us to reach this Big Hairy Audacious Goals.