Buying your first home can be daunting, there is a lot of jargon and everyone is trying to get their cut.

Preparing for what you are doing will make the process a lot easier for you.

KiwiSaver is a great way to build your retirement, and the longer you are in KiwiSaver the better.

We call this the emergency fund. It’s a source of funds, either in cash or a bank account that is only there to pay for pre-defined expenses, but otherwise ignored.

There are a few options for you to consider when contributing to KiwiSaver, but what is best for you?

What exactly is a pre-approval, and how do you get one?

A pre-approval is an approval for finance to buy a home. Your income is signed off, your deposit, and your price range.

Every year around now you will be seeing information coming out about “Member tax credits”, but what are they, and is it important?

A balance transfer credit card is seen as a good way to help get out of credit card debt, as you can get a card that has a much lower interest rate, possibly even 0%.

We all know that cards have interest rates and its not difficult to work out the interest cost per month. If you have a $10,000 balance owing, on a 20% card, the interest cost will be $166 a month.

Credit cards are debt, they are about spending money you don’t have and future you has to pick up the tab for what today you is spending.

They fool you into thinking you have more money than you do. A $10,000 limit on your credit card is not $10 000 you have, it’s just pre-approved debt.

We get asked this often, when clients have more deposit than is required and wonder if they should leave some of the money in the KiwiSaver to keep the balance higher.

When we buy house, car and contents cover, it’s really common to never look at them again. However you really should review these as things change.

What happens to your KiwiSaver while you are overseas, and what are the potential pitfalls?
There are a few things to consider, so you don’t miss out while you are away.

Many first home buyers are not sure where to start when it comes to getting their first mortgage.

Most end up just wandering into the bank to ask a few questions and then get swept up into the banks process, end up with an approval but no real advice or understanding of how first home buyers get a mortgage.

Here at DUX we have helped hundreds of people to get into their first home.

We answer a lot of questions and have advised many people on how to tweak their situation to make it a bit easier when its time to buy.

Here are 5 tips for first home buyers to help make it easier to get a mortgage and buy a home.

There is an article on the Herald about a new Breast cancer drug that is getting good results, but is $5000 a month for the pills.

So naturally people would like this to be covered by Pharmac so it can be done for free. This is not that easy, as Pharmac has a specific budget and every issue out there has new drugs people would love to be funded.

 A recent article in Stuff suggested that half of Kiwis surveyed had no idea what the Member Tax credits are.

This is pretty horrifying considering its been 10 years since KiwiSaver came in and it's all over the internet.

Christmas day is 16 weeks from Monday (the 4th of September).

Now that this has horrified you, you should be wondering about what you are going to do for Christmas and the spending for it.

7 years ago, DUX was formed.

It was the last Friday of August in 2010 and the place I had worked for 6 years, and assumed I would be working at for another 10+, decided that they did not want me there anymore.

With the market’s focus on getting people into KiwiSaver, a growing number of Kiwis hitting retirement are finding there is little in the way of products or advice for them.  Jason Krupp looks at some of the key factors they need to consider to protect their nest eggs. 

Mighty River Power has been one of the single biggest equity catalysts on the Kiwi market in decades, with the partial float of the state-owned electricity company attracting mum-and-dad investors in droves.