“She’ll be Right” Isn’t Always Right – Thousands Access Free Financial Help

The number of New Zealanders contacting MoneyTalks, one of the country’s leading free financial mentoring services, has almost doubled since last year.

“This year nearly 13,000 people have already taken advantage of MoneyTalks’ free mentoring,” says Rob Egan, MoneyTalks Advisor.

“Covid-19 is having a huge impact on people’s ability to manage their finances,” he says.

Partnering with ANZ New Zealand, MoneyTalks offers customers free access to over 200 financial mentors across New Zealand.

“People need to be confident they are making the right decisions and we are pleased to be able to help them by connecting them with a free and independent financial mentoring service,” says Ben Kelleher, Managing Director - Personal Banking at ANZ NZ.

“With their agreement, we can refer a customer to MoneyTalks and within 24 hours they'lll get a call back from a trained professional who can help,” says Ben.

 “The referral partnership with ANZ works well because some people don’t know about us or don’t take that next step to pick up the phone and call us,” says Rob.

“If people seek financial advice early we can help them make any necessary changes with minimum disruption to their lifestyle.” 

One of MoneyTalk's mentors, Kyra Walker, says a key aspect of the service is that it is non-judgmental.

“There’s never any judgement and all conversations are strictly confidential – all we want is to help people get back to living a good quality life,” she says.

“People are often juggling multiple priorities so to help ease some of the pressure we’ll often sign an agreement with clients meaning we can call creditors or providers on their behalf which frees up their time."

MoneyTalks have financial mentors who are fluent in English, Mandarin, Māori or Samoan.

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NEVER TOO EARLY

“One challenge we’re having is people coming to us for advice when they’re already in crisis,” says Rob Egan.

Jake Lilley, who manages the business partnerships for MoneyTalks, agrees.

He says “it’s barriers like the Kiwi ‘she’ll be right’ attitude, cultural stigma and juggling multiple priorities that can get in the way of people seeking advice early.”

“Our Financial Mentors are sensitive to these barriers and the reason some are in the role is because they’ve also faced financial challenges in their lives and they understand how knowing all the options and finding a way forward can relieve so much stress for whānau,” says Jake.

Financial Mentors usually meet in person after an initial phone call and can mentor for a day, a month, a year or longer depending on what the person’s financial situation is.

“Covid-19 aside, any major life event such as a relationship breakdown, illness or injury, having a child or redundancy can cause unexpected financial pressures – we want people to know they’re not alone,” says Kyra Walker, a Financial Mentor at MoneyTalks.

Contact MoneyTalks