Making Cents

Adele Holland cooked for billionaires on private jets. Now she helps real people eat well for $50 a week, and she reckons the skills transfer better than you'd think.

Adele is a Michelin-trained chef who spent years cooking in Swiss chalets and on superyachts before walking away from the waste and opulence of that world.

Now, as the creator behind Dishes with Del, she's on a mission to make budget meals genuinely delicious.

In this episode, we get into how to meal plan on a budget, the cheap pantry staples that do the heavy lifting, how to stretch expensive proteins further than you thought possible, and the small chef tricks that make a real difference to your grocery bill and your food waste. Think feta brine, coconut cream ice cubes, and frozen soup bases you can make from scraps.

Whether you're trying to cut your supermarket spend, reduce food waste, or just get more interesting meals on the table for less, this one's for you.

In this episode:

• How to meal plan for the week on $50
• Budget pantry staples every kitchen needs
• How to reduce food waste with simple chef tricks
• How to stretch meat and protein on a tight budget
• Why planning is the unsexy secret to saving money on groceries

This episode of Making Cents is proudly supported by Odoo. Go to http://odoo.com/r/hpl now and try it for free, for 15 days.

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Production and video editing by Lana Byrne

Audio engineering by Tash Chittock

Filmed by Fanaticals

Apartments and townhouses are selling for less than people paid for them, and in record numbers.

Frances Cook joins RNZ Nights to break down why smaller properties are taking a bigger hit than the rest of the property market and what it means for first home buyers, investors, and owners in negative equity.

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Audio engineering by Tash Chittock

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If you've ever wondered why some people build real wealth on ordinary incomes, while others save for decades and still feel behind, this episode is the answer.

Financial journalist Frances Cook breaks down the relationship between money and time, and why getting this right changes everything about how you invest, where your money goes, and how hard it can work for you.

In this episode:

• The rule of 100 - how to figure out how much to invest vs keep in cash
• Now money, soon money, and later money - the simple framework for organising your finances
• Why your emergency fund needs to stay in cash (even when it feels like a missed opportunity)
• Compounding returns explained simply - and why $10k will eventually feel small
• The rule of 72 - how to calculate how fast your money doubles

Whether you're just starting your investing journey or want to make sure your money is working as hard as possible, this episode gives you a practical framework you can actually use.

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Production and video editing by Lana Byrne

Audio engineering by Tash Chittock

Filmed by Fanaticals

What if the chaos of parenthood is actually building your business brain?

Renata Wiles was posting videos on the internet, with no business background, no tech background, and no real following.

Now she's the founder of Roam with Kids, an app helping New Zealand parents find family-friendly places to go.

In this episode, Frances talks with Renata about the messy reality of going from frustrated mum to tech founder.

They’re talking:

• Why overwhelmed parents spend more, and the surprisingly simple fix
• The KiwiSaver gap for parents
• How to turn a parenting pain point into a business
• Building multiple income streams so one bad month doesn't sink you
• Why you don't need a following, a business degree, or a perfect plan to start

If you've ever had a business idea but talked yourself out of it, this episode is the nudge you needed.

This episode of Making Cents is proudly supported by Odoo. Go to http://odoo.com/r/hpl now and try it for free, for 15 days.

Follow me everywhere!

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Join the Money Memo newsletter for a free weekly money tip in your inbox each week https://www.francescook.co.nz/subscribe

Become a confident sharemarket investor by signing up to the Market Memo newsletter https://www.francescook.co.nz/invest

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Production and video editing by Lana Byrne

Audio engineering by Tash Chittock

Filmed by Fanaticals

Frances Cook joins the TVNZ Breakfast team to crunch the numbers on a proposed policy that would automatically enrol newborns into KiwiSaver with a $1,000 government contribution and what that could actually be worth by the time they retire.

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One in four young people in NZ can't find work. But some jobs are up 200% year on year.

The job market hasn't collapsed - it's split. And if you're on the wrong side of that split, waiting for things to improve isn't a strategy.

In this episode, we get into which jobs are actually booming right now, what the latest Stats NZ unemployment numbers really mean once you dig past the headline figure, and what it tells us about where the economy is actually heading.

Then we get practical. How to make yourself the person your employer can't afford to lose. How to job hunt strategically when most roles are never even advertised. And how to ask for a pay rise, with real scripts, not vague advice about knowing your worth.

We also talk honestly about AI: what it actually means for your career right now and the two smart plays depending on where you want to go.

In this episode:

• The Stats NZ unemployment data and what's buried in it
• The top 10 most in-demand jobs in NZ right now
• Why the hidden job market is 70-80% of all roles (and how to access it)
• Two career strategies for navigating AI
• How to ask for a pay rise: timing, preparation, and the exact words to use

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This podcast was filmed & produced by Fanaticals

Video editing & content production by Lana Byrne

Audio engineering by Tash Chittock

Most of us assume that getting ahead financially means working harder, watching the markets, and making smart moves. The data says that’s wrong.

In this episode, Frances talks with Sean Freer, Director of Global Exchange Indices at S&P Dow Jones Indices, about why passive investing consistently beats active fund management, and what that means for everyday investors.

We talk about:

• Why 86% of professional fund managers fail to beat the index over 15 years
• What index funds and ETFs actually are, and how to choose between 14,000+ options
• The NZX 50, the S&P 500, and how market concentration really works
• Why fees quietly destroy your investments, and what to do about it
• The behavioural finance traps that cause investors to sell at exactly the wrong moment
• Why the "set and forget" approach outperforms almost everything else

Whether you're new to investing or already have a passive strategy, this episode will sharpen your thinking… and probably confirm you're overcomplicating it.

This episode of Making Cents is proudly supported by Odoo. Go to http://odoo.com/r/hpl now and try it for free, for 15 days.

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Join the Money Memo newsletter for a free weekly money tip in your inbox each week https://www.francescook.co.nz/subscribe

Become a confident sharemarket investor by signing up to the Market Memo newsletter https://www.francescook.co.nz/invest

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This podcast was filmed & produced by Fanaticals

Video editing & content production by Lana Byrne

Audio engineering by Tash Chittock

Frances Cook shares the ten money lessons she wishes she'd known at 20, including the mindset shifts, small habits, and easy wins that made the biggest difference to her financial life.

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It's one thing to build financial stability, it's another to actually let yourself enjoy it.

In this Ask the Experts episode, Frances Cook is joined by Katie Wesney from Enable Me to unpack a problem that's more common than you'd think: what happens when the scarcity mindset that helped you build financial security starts working against you?

A listener wrote in with a $5 million net worth, and genuine anxiety about spending any of it. Kmart clothes, secondhand cars, no overseas trips in six years. On paper, financially free. In practice, still living like every dollar matters.

In this episode, we get into:

– Why money anxiety doesn't disappear when the numbers improve

– The difference between what you should spend on and what actually lights you up

– How childhood experiences with money shape your relationship with it for decades

– What a financial adviser actually does to help you build permission to spend

– The practical systems that replace anxiety with confidence

– Why the 4% rule exists, and how to think about your own number.

Have a question you'd like us to tackle? Send it to [email protected] and you might feature on a future episode.

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Join the Money Memo newsletter for a free weekly money tip in your inbox each week https://www.francescook.co.nz/subscribe

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This podcast was filmed & produced by Fanaticals

Video editing & content production by Lana Byrne

Audio engineering by Tash Chittock

What does it actually cost to walk away from a successful career and build something that matters?

Ali Mau is one of New Zealand's most recognised television faces, including Breakfast, Fair Go, Seven Sharp, One News.

She was also made redundant five times along the way.

Instead of treating each setback as a dead end, she used them as clarity. Now in her sixties, she’s co-founded Tika, a tech-for-good startup helping survivors of sexual harm.

In this episode of Making Cents, Frances Cook talks with Ali about the real financial reality of a major career pivot: the year of zero income, burning through savings, accumulating debt, and why none of that was visible from the outside.

They dig into how to fund a passion project when traditional funding streams are stacked against you, how transferable skills show up in unexpected ways, and what you actually need to have in place, both financially and personally, before you make the leap.

If you've ever wondered how to afford a career change, how to keep the lights on while building something meaningful, or whether it's too late to start over, this episode is for you.

This episode of Making Cents is proudly supported by Odoo. Go to https://www.odoo.com/r/hpl now and try it for free, for 15 days.

Follow me everywhere!

Facebook / https://www.facebook.com/FrancesCookNZ

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Join the Money Memo newsletter for a free weekly money tip in your inbox each week https://www.francescook.co.nz/subscribe

Become a confident sharemarket investor by signing up to the Market Memo newsletter https://www.francescook.co.nz/invest

#MakingCents #FrancesCook #MakingCentsPodcast #InvestingPodcast #MoneyPodcast #FinancialFreedom

This podcast was filmed & produced by Fanaticals

Video editing & content production by Lana Byrne

Audio engineering by Tash Chittock