Why Working Harder Isn't Making Us Richer

Hey team,

Before we get into it, I have the MOST hotly requested webinar, coming your way.

You want to know about investing, you want to know about financial freedom, so I hear you, let’s do both.

How To Invest For Financial Freedom, coming your way.

And if I do say so myself, I’m excited for our panelists.

Brownwyn Candish is building financial freedom herself, and is also a chartered accountant who specialises in advising people who want to build financial freedom.

She has both the lived experience, and the professional.

Then Katie Wesney from EnableMe, one of your favourite Ask the Experts guests, who will share her experience after helping hundreds of clients figure out investing and financial freedom on their own terms.

We’ll take your questions live, so don’t miss this one.

You can sign up right here, francescook.co.nz/freedom. Invite your friends too, so we can all level up together.

Is it just me, or do we all feel pretty “stuck” lately.

We’ve been going through the rhymes. We just needed to “survive to ‘25”.

Then 2025 arrived and was also not great.

Then we were holding out for the “fix in ‘26!” And ah, that hasn’t arrived so far either.

So I’ve been talking to some of the smartest people I know, trying to figure out what’s going so wrong, and why life is getting so damn hard.

And it left me having a mild Bart Simpson moment. Don’t have a cow, man!

People are feeling the pinch all over the world, but it’s particularly bad in New Zealand.

We work some of the longest hours in the OECD. We’re not lazy.

If anything, we say yes to more, do more, squeeze more into the week than a lot of other places.

And yet, we’re certainly not paid for that. It’s what economists refer to as our productivity. We are putting in a lot of hours, and not getting as much back for it as we should.

Christoph Schumacher is a Professor of Innovation and Economics at Massey University, the Director of the Knowledge Exchange Hub, AND he has an excellent German accent, so I had to get him on the podcast to give me his view on this.

He has some hard truths, that I think we need to hear.

It’s not a quick fix, but it is an important one.

There’s only so much milk you can get out of a cow.

Now, he’s not actually taking a swing at the dairy sector here, it’s more, we need to start being smarter about the industries we prioritise, and what we expect to get back from them.

We’ve spent decades getting really good at our main industries, and they’ve earned well, but only to a point.

The industries we’ve picked are ones that are hard to scale up. They don’t really get more productive just by pushing more. You can’t make a cow produce double the milk just by trying harder.

At the risk of really milking this metaphor…

We’ve maxed out our cows. And instead of finding a different animal, we’ve mostly just kept milking it.

Earlier starts, longer days, we’ve got the same cow going in for more milking sessions, but we’re getting the same amount of milk.

Milk smarter not harder?

But guys, we’re actually one of the most inventive countries in the world.

Christoph had a fun fact that I had no idea about - New Zealanders actually file a huge amount of patents, given our population size. We are great at coming up with inventive, new ideas.

It’s just that we’re not great at then taking it to the world.

We tend to invent things here, then keep them here, rather than turning them into global products.

It’s useful to a few hundred people, when it could’ve be a radical change for a few million.

Along with all the money you make from that, too.

Then there’s the dark side of our Number Eight Wire, DIY mentality.

Mostly, I love that when a problem needs solving, we roll up our sleeves and get on with solving it ourselves.

But Christoph pointed out that to move fast, and build smarter businesses that make money, employ people on good wages, well, you often need specialists.

Taking an idea from “good thing I made” to “thing the world wants a piece of” usually needs those specialists.

Someone will be the one whose whole job is growing it. Someone else will be the one whose whole job is selling it.

And when we’re used to being generalists, and praised for just getting on with it ourselves, that can hold us back.

That attitude is brilliant for running a cottage business, and less good for building something that goes out to the world.

This is all very interesting for a wider economy discussion, but I think there’s also a big lesson here for our own lives as individuals.

If your own income right now is focused on “more hours = more money”, you’re stuck milking a cow that might not have more milk to give.

So I think it’s worth asking ourselves if there’s a different animal we should be focused on.

A skill you could pick up, or improve, to be worth more money for the same hours.

A side project that doesn’t need you standing over it every minute.

Or even something that earns a bit, regardless of whether you clocked in today. We all know that that’s why I love investing.

I think there’s a danger in us assuming the only lever we have is “try harder”.

We need a smarter cow.

Anyway, Christoph gave me so much food for thought, I highly recommend his episode!

Check it out on the latest Making Cents podcast on YouTube here, or get it in your ears through all the podcast apps, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

I’ve had lots of questions about what you can do if you need to sell your home, even while the market is down. I hear you - sometimes you need to sell, even if the timing isn’t ideal.

So is there anything you can do to tip the scales in your favour?

Ah, yes, and Vanessa Williams from realestate.co.nz had some facts and figures that I truly wasn’t expecting.

For instance, did you know that just adding a video to your listing can increase viewings by almost 200%?

I’m sorry but that’s crazy.

Meanwhile, if you’re considering selling your home in summer, get in a gardener NOW, because some established, flowering shrubs, could improve the numbers of people who stop by the open home. Then you just have to get them into a bidding war…

Honestly there are so many tips and tricks in this conversation, she brought the goods as always.

We’re diving into all of it, and it’s out on Thursday, so make sure you’re subscribed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube.

And if you have your own question for Ask the Experts, send it to me! ask@francescook.co.nz

Until next time.

- Frances

P.S. I’m a financial journalist of over 10 years, and qualified as a financial advisor, specialising in investments.

However, please remember that this newsletter is general educational information, and not individualised financial advice. If you’d like to talk to a financial advisor, I have a podcast on how to find a good one.