Thrive Financial

Farmers or tradies — who's harder to get to sit down?

Calder's answer: neither. They're both avoiding the paperwork.

The difference is the drive. Tradies are usually in town. For farmers, it's out into the wop-wops, find the place, and prove you're not scary.

That's the job. It's also why the advice out here doesn't look like advice from an office in a city.

The meeting happens at your kitchen table, in your smoko room, or on your tailgate. Wherever you actually are.

Want one of those? Give us a call, we'll call you straight back.

General information only, not personal financial advice.

Four things people tell us all the time. Two are true. Two aren't.

"ACC pays up to 80% of your income." True — but it's capped. ACC only pays on income up to a set maximum, and that cap is reset every April. Earn over it and 80% of your actual salary is not what turns up.

"Everyone's KiwiSaver comes with life insurance." False. A few schemes include a small amount of cover. Most don't. Worth checking rather than assuming — and if it's advice on the scheme itself you're after, that's not us, we'll point you to who does.

"A pre-existing condition means something serious." False. It can be something managed with medication, like anxiety. It's classed as pre-existing because you have it. That doesn't make it the end of the world.

"Your adviser has to tell you how they get paid before they advise you." True. That's part of the FMA guidelines, and it's how we provide a fair and honest service. We disclose exactly how we're remunerated by the insurers.

Got a question you've been putting off? Give us a call, we'll call you straight back.

General information only, not personal financial advice.

"What's the hardest part of being a financial adviser that nobody sees?"

Ivy's answer isn't the paperwork or the long days.

It's helping someone understand that insurance isn't just another expense.

She moved here from the Philippines in 2015. The tax surprised her. But she'll also tell you the money you earn here goes further — which is exactly why that distinction matters.

An expense is money gone. Cover is money doing a job: sitting there, waiting, in case the worst week of your life turns up.

Most people only find out which one it was when they need it.

Give us a call, we'll call you straight back.

General information only, not personal financial advice.

"What do most farmers pay for that they don't need?"

Jae's answer: cover he'd tell them to cancel.

Here's what he sees. The bank made them take insurance out to get the lending. That cover protects the bank's risk — not the farmer's. If he goes down, the bank gets its money back. The family is still standing there with the same problem.

And debt moves. Cover written against a loan five years ago often doesn't match what's owed today.

So when a farmer sends Jae a policy schedule, he's looking at the financials straight after — because a policy only works if it still lines up with the debt.

Sometimes the honest advice is that you're paying for something you don't need any more.

Not sure yours still matches? Give us a call, we'll call you straight back.

General information only, not personal financial advice.

If you got taken out tomorrow, could you afford to replace yourself?

That's the question Calder puts to farmers before calving starts.

And his answer isn't the one you'd expect from an adviser. It's not always insurance, insurance, insurance. Plenty of farms can hire someone in and carry it on the overdraft.

But you need to know where that money is coming from — before it's your busiest month and you're the one stuck on the sideline.

Sort it before the season, not during it.

Farmers, have you ever actually run those numbers?

General information only, not personal financial advice.

We asked Calder a few quick ones. The last answer was the one worth keeping.

"One thing every business owner should know but doesn't?"

He wouldn't generalise. But he did offer this:

Not everything you do gives you a material return. That doesn't mean it isn't worth it.

Which is insurance in one sentence, really. It looks like a cost in every single year it does nothing. It only ever looks like a good decision in the year you need it.

We also asked him to pick between a handshake and paperwork. Honest answer: the paperwork is the bane of his life. But you can't get cover without it, so handshake first, paperwork always.

Give us a call, we'll call you straight back.

General information only, not personal financial advice.

"I'll sort it out once I'm settled."

Ivy hears it every week. She also said it herself.

She arrived from the Philippines in 2015. Then came the move. Then her baby. Then another visa. Eleven years on, here's what she'll tell you:

Settled is not a day that arrives. There is no morning where you wake up and everything is finally sorted.

The people who end up properly covered aren't the ones who waited for things to calm down. They're the ones who stopped waiting.

Give us a call, we'll call you straight back.

General information only, not personal financial advice.

Most people think we only do life insurance for families.

We do — and it's about a third of what walks through the door in Feilding.

The other two thirds are rural and business. And they're usually the ones that need it most.

Because a sharemilker carrying real debt and a business with four shareholders are opposite ends of the spectrum. One's exposed through ACC and their own body. The other's exposed the day a shareholder dies and nobody's written down what happens next.

Same word — "insurance". Completely different conversation. You need someone who's actually stood on a farm, and someone who's read a shareholders' agreement.

We have both.

Give us a call, we'll call you straight back.

General information only, not personal financial advice.

Thrive Financial + Vega Mortgages. One building, one very full room.

We hosted the Business After 5 out of our Masterton office last week — food, drinks, a quiz nobody wanted to lose, and a lot of local business owners in one place.

Kris Towgood said it best on the night: it's not about competition, it's about collaboration. Same town, same people, and everyone deserves the right personal service.

Anita Cooper talked health insurance. Kylie Sayer and Kuini de la Mare talked lending. Mike won the cap.

Thanks Tupu Ana Business Masterton — that was a good night.

Give us a call, we'll call you straight back.

General information only, not personal financial advice.