Free, plain-English money tools for New Zealanders.

What BetterMoney is

BetterMoney is a free, plain-English money toolkit for New Zealanders — calculators, comparisons, and guides that help you make better decisions about your pay, your KiwiSaver, and your mortgage. No sign-up. No sales pitch. No finance degree required.

We built it because most Kiwis know roughly what they earn, but far fewer know what they actually keep — after tax, ACC, KiwiSaver, and student loan repayments. Even fewer understand how those numbers connect to their savings trajectory, their retirement outlook, or their borrowing power.

That's a problem worth solving. Not with products to sell you. With tools that let you see your own numbers clearly, in your own time, on your own terms.

What makes BetterMoney different

• Independent. No sponsored placements, no affiliate kickbacks influencing rankings, no pay-to-win.
• Free, always. Calculators, comparisons, and guides cost nothing — and never will.
• No sign-up. Use any tool without an account. Save your results only if you want to.
• Plain English. We explain the maths instead of hiding it. Sources cited, formulas visible.
• Built for here. NZ tax brackets, NZ KiwiSaver rules, NZ DTI thresholds. Not a US tool with a NZ flag.

Who's behind it

BetterMoney is built by a small group of global Kiwis based in Aotearoa, the UK, and Australia. We're engineers who care about getting the maths and tax engines right, designers who care about it being readable on a phone at 9pm, and one person who reads every FMA bulletin so you don't have to.

Our website was built by Colere Labs. We're not a venture-backed startup chasing a unicorn round. We're a few people who got tired of seeing IRD's tools, the bank calculators, and the financial advice forums all giving slightly different answers to the same questions — and decided to ship a free, plain-English version that doesn't sell anything.

If you want to know more about us, hello@bettermoney.co.nz reaches a real person within 48 hours.

My Money — your financial picture, built by you

Every time you use a BetterMoney tool, you're building a picture of your finances. We call this My Money — a personal, private view of what you earn, what you keep, what you're saving, how your investments are growing, and how you're protected.

My Money is organised around five pillars:

• Earn — What comes in. Your salary, income sources, and how they compare.
• Keep — What's left after tax, ACC, student loans, and deductions.
• Save — What you're putting aside. KiwiSaver contributions, savings rates, and habits.
• Grow — Where your money is working. Fund performance, compounding, and your retirement number.
• Protect — What guards your position. Insurance, emergency funds, and risk awareness.

As you explore different tools and guides, your pillars fill in. Each calculation adds a piece. Each guide you read deepens your understanding. My Money isn't a score of how good your finances are — it's a measure of how well you understand them.

A complete picture doesn't mean perfect finances. It means you know your numbers, you've explored the trade-offs, and you're making decisions with open eyes.

How it works

1. Use any tool — Run a PAYE calculation, project your KiwiSaver, check your borrowing power. No sign-up needed.

2. Build your understanding — Every tool adds to your My Money view. Your pillars fill in automatically — no forms, no profile to complete.

3. See the full picture — Your money at a glance. What you earn, keep, save, grow, and protect. All in one place, always private.

How we make money

Right now: we don't. The site costs us hosting, time, and the occasional flat white.

Paid experiences will arrive when we ship new budgeting and business features, but only if they earn the price. We've already started building a budgeting tool with AI-parsed bank data — paid because the AI parsing has real per-user costs we want to bound, not because we want to lock the basic tools behind a paywall. The free calculators, comparisons, and guides stay free. Always. And we'll keep adding new ones.

Businesses and finance companies can also pay a small listing fee or affiliate fee to fully brand their entry in our tools and calculators — logo, photos, expanded card, the lot. The fee buys how their listing presents, not where it ranks. Position on the comparison stays algorithmic and neutral; paying us doesn't push a product up the page.

We'll always be transparent about it. If we ever take affiliate revenue or referral fees, we'll say so on the page where it's relevant — not buried in a footer.

When we compare investment platforms, credit cards, KiwiSaver funds, or insurance providers, our comparisons are based on:

• Published fees and rates. We use the numbers providers publish, sourced from their websites, the Disclose Register, IRD, and other official sources.
• Features that matter to the decision. Not every feature matters equally. We focus on what actually affects your outcome — fees, returns, tax treatment, access, and minimum investment thresholds.
• Suitability for different situations. There's no single "best" product. Our guides explain which option suits which person, and why.

We don't rank products based on commercial relationships. Our comparisons are based on the numbers and features each product publishes.

Current affiliate or referral agreements: None. 100% unbiased.

Every guide states its sources and the date it was last reviewed. Financial rates (PAYE, ACC, KiwiSaver, mortgage rates, term deposits) change regularly. We review rate-dependent content on a quarterly cycle and update promptly when legislation changes.

Our calculators use the same tax rates and thresholds published by IRD. Core tools like the PAYE calculator and KiwiSaver tools produce deterministic results — the maths is fixed, not generated by AI. Where a result is deterministic, you can trust the numbers.

Where our tools use AI (for natural language input parsing, educational insights, and scenario chat), this is clearly indicated. AI-generated responses explain and frame the calculator output in plain language. AI responses may occasionally be inaccurate. They should not be relied upon as a substitute for the deterministic calculator output or professional advice.

What this site is not

BetterMoney is education, not advice. Nothing on this site takes into account your personal financial situation, goals, or risk tolerance. We show you the numbers and help you understand them — what you do next is up to you.

Neither BetterMoney nor Colere Labs is a Financial Advice Provider under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013, nor an authorised financial adviser. We do not provide regulated financial advice.

If you need advice tailored to your circumstances, talk to a financial adviser.