About

Mum’s Money New Zealand is an online money magazine designed to help New Zealanders find ways to save more money, pay down debt, increase income and live their best financial life.

To help this mission, our advice and tips have been quoted extensively in many reputable online publications, including but not limited to:

  • Yahoo Finance
  • Readers Digest
  • Discover Bank
  • AOL
  • Rockstar Finance
  • Lifehacker Australia and Lifehacker International
  • MSN Money
  • The Simple Dollar
  • Well Kept Wallet
  • Cheapism
  • Stuff
  • Cooking The Books Podcast

About Emma Healey  – Founder and Editor

mcbmh about

My name is Emma and I am determined to find a version of financial freedom that works for my family.

Simply put, I want enough money to have the freedom to choose what I do with my time.

I want to be home with my kids when they are sick. I want to spend the school holidays making memories. I also want to do fulfilling work and build a chunky retirement stash.

Basically, I want it all.

Now, in 2023, I think I’ve finally found the balance I’ve worked towards since becoming a mother.

To succeed at this is ironic, considering just how bad I was with money before I had kids. 

I’ll never forget the low point of my financial life. Sitting in my accountant’s office as he told me just how much I owed in tax.

I had been working as a contractor for a Sydney company without putting any money away to pay taxes at the end of the year. I’d spent it all.

I had to apply for a personal loan to pay my tax bill because I had no savings. On top of this, I had credit cards and a store card with hefty balances.

This experience was the kick in the bum I needed to get my life in order. I quickly got to work increasing my income in as many ways as I could.

I made extra money tending bar at concerts, babysat my boss’ kids, got a weekend retail job and worked late-night shopping shifts after my 9-5 ended.

I did market research and online surveys when I was at home. I worked 7 days a week and took every opportunity to earn more.

At the same time I started to realise that not spending $10 on a takeaway Thai for dinner was the same as earning $10, and a damned sight easier!

I embraced frugal living and started to actually enjoy a simpler life (which was a massive deal for a spender like me).

As time went on, I convinced my partner to save with me.

We became a money-saving team, and together we were able to fund lots of travel (and still travel a lot, even with kids).

When I was approximately five hundred weeks pregnant (at least, that’s how it felt), I read Tim Ferris’ The Four Hour Work Week, and I was hooked.

I was about to start a dialled-down version of a remote gig, with my employer allowing me to work remotely from home for 10 hours a week during the first year of my baby’s life.

To think I could continue to do that from anywhere in the world was mind-blowing. I tested the location independence concept on a family holiday to the Gold Coast in Australia.

I sat out on the balcony of the apartment my family had rented during a video chat with my colleague in Sydney. He had no idea I was not in my apartment.

The wicked excitement of it filled my head with new ideas.

Within a year, I was travelling in Mexico with my husband and toddler.

I was working 20 hours a week online as a virtual assistant and making more than enough in AUD to cover a comfortable life for my family.

Best of all, I was working on my terms and times that suited my family. I started to take on clients as a virtual assistant (specialising in marketing) to grow my income.

This work, plus our solid savings stash, covered six months of living in Spain.

To say I’m hooked on remote working is an understatement. It has completely transformed my life.

I can now afford to take my kids on holidays whenever we want and not need to worry about getting annual leave approved.

I’m a stay-at-home mum, yet I earn more now than in my corporate marketing role (minus the daycare bill of $126 a day).

I started blogging about money in 2015 at moneycanbuymehappiness.com, which has now been rebranded to the site you are reading today.

That site started to share what I’ve learned in this journey to financial freedom, but I  soon realised that a wide range of voices was needed, and Mum’s Money was born.

Thank you so much for being here.

Further reading if you’re interested: