SortMe Money

Sharesies, Hatch, Kernel: where each one fits in an NZ portfolio

Sharesies, Hatch, and Kernel turned the NZ share market from something Kiwis read about in the Weekend Herald into something you can open on the couch — fractional shares of Apple or Nvidia from $5, an S&P 500 ETF bought in 90 seconds, the full US market in your phone, in NZD, anytime. Most coverage treats it as a straight "which app should I pick?" question. SortMe Founder & CEO Carl Thompson thinks the more interesting tension is that easy access isn't the same as good outcomes — and that the platforms' fee models quietly push different behaviours at you, only some of which build wealth over 20 years. This episode walks through where each of the three platforms genuinely earns its place in an NZ portfolio, the boring research that should silently shape the stack, the FIF tax trap most US investors hit around the $50k mark, and why the biggest mistake isn't picking the wrong app — it's never seeing all three on one screen. In this episode: * The one-line job description for each platform: Sharesies as the on-ramp (US + NZ + AU from $5, KiwiSaver built in), Hatch as the deep US route (~6,000 stocks/ETFs in USD, held in your name), and Kernel as the indexer (low-fee NZ-PIE funds at 0.25% p.a. and a low-fee KiwiSaver) * The FIF trap that catches Hatch users: if your overseas shares cost basis crosses $50,000 NZD at any point in the tax year, you're taxed under the Fair Dividend Rate method (deemed 5% of opening value, paid or not) — and why a PIE-wrapped Kernel S&P 500 fund sidesteps the conversation entirely * The unfashionably boring research that should sit silently behind every portfolio decision: S&P's SPIVA scorecard shows 80%+ of active equity funds underperformed their index over the 10 years to December 2025 * The Barber & Odean study of 66,465 US households: the 20% who traded most earned 11.4% a year, the 20% who traded least earned 18.5% — same market, fewer decisions, seven percentage points more return per year, compounded for 20 years * Why the fee model matters more than the fee: transaction-fee platforms (Sharesies, Hatch) earn when you trade more; AUM platforms (Kernel) earn when you contribute and leave it — and which design nudge each one is quietly built around * The stack that works for most NZ households: Kernel as the indexed core (KiwiSaver included), Sharesies as the everyday account for smaller regular orders, Hatch reserved for specific US picks sized below the FIF threshold * What actually sinks multi-platform households — not the platform mix, but the funding drift: auto-invests switched off in March that never came back on, a $1,000 Kernel monthly quietly sitting at $400, a Hatch USD balance nobody looks at until tax time * Carl's take: "The platforms aren't the problem. Picking the right one for the right job is easy in an afternoon. The problem is the discipline to keep funding them every pay cycle, and the visibility to know when one is out of balance. Both of those are software jobs, not willpower jobs." * How SortMe pulls all three onto one screen via Akahu — net worth in NZD across Sharesies, Hatch, Kernel, KiwiSaver, bank and property, with budget auto-allocation that pays the Investing bucket every payday whether you're paying attention or not Read the full article: sortme.com/post/sharesies-vs-hatch-vs-kernel-nz

Joint or separate? How dual-income NZ households really run their money in 2026

Should you keep your money joint, separate, or somewhere in between? After thousands of onboarding calls and customer interviews with NZ households, SortMe Founder & CEO Carl Thompson thinks that's the wrong question. The real one is how two incomes should actually flow through one household — where each pay lands, how the bills get paid, where each partner gets some autonomy, and how anyone ends up with a single screen showing the whole picture. To dig into the relationship side of it, this episode brings in Erika Palmer, Founder & CEO of Cupla — the shared-calendar app used by half a million couples — who's watched the same pattern play out across hundreds of thousands of relationships. "The couples who plan together don't just stay together — they like each other more," she says. This episode walks through the three money frameworks NZ couples drift into, the four-bucket setup that actually scales for the next 20 years, and exactly how to set it up so both partners are looking at the same screen. In this episode: * Meet "Michael and Emma" — SortMe's average dual-income persona, with his-account-her-account-mortgage-in-his-name-Sharesies-in-hers drift, two default Balanced KiwiSavers untouched since signup, and no one ever sitting down to look at the whole thing on one screen * The three money frameworks couples settle into — fully joint (transparency but every $40 lunch is a conversation), fully separate (autonomy but no shared plan), and the yours-mine-ours hybrid that most NZ households eventually land on * The four-bucket setup that scales: one household account where all income lands, then automatic splits — 60% to essentials, 10% split between personal spending allowances, 10% to short-term savings, 20% to long-term investing (Barefoot Investor's 60/10/10/20 framework) * Why the personal allowance is the line worth getting right — too low and one partner resents it, too high and the savings line gets squeezed * Erika's read on what actually breaks relationships financially: "Asymmetry in planning isn't the problem... Contention enters when the person carrying the load feels their effort isn't seen. The unsticking point is visibility." * The 20-minute quarterly check-in and the four questions to run through with the SortMe screen open between you * How to invite your partner into your SortMe workspace for free — only one of you needs a subscription — and the one rule for joint accounts so the same transactions don't show up twice * Why the thing that compounds over 20 years isn't just the investment account — it's the conversation, and what changes when both partners can finally see the same picture Read the full article: sortme.com/post/joint-or-separate-finances-nz

Budgeting v3 is live. Your essentials and your lifestyle now live apart

Budgeting every dollar sucks. It's also impossible. Traditional budgeting apps ask you to pre-allocate "lunches: $80" or "kids' activities: $50" in January and expect reality to obey — one week leftovers are free, the next you're buying every day; one weekend the sun is out and the kids are at the park, the next you're paying for movies, ten-pin bowling and Sunday dinner. That's why most people who download a regular budgeting app abandon it within three months. SortMe Founder & CEO Carl Thompson and the SortMe team have spent more iterations than they can count rebuilding the budget around a simpler idea: your essentials are forecastable, your lifestyle isn't — so stop pretending they are. This episode walks through what's new in Budgeting v3, why splitting essentials from lifestyle changes how households actually use a budget, and the maths that makes a single Lifestyle cap one of the most powerful levers on a five-year mortgage cycle. In this episode: * The honest case against forecasting every dollar — and why traditional category-by-category budgeting drives a three-month abandonment problem * The core insight behind v3: mortgage, rates, power, water and broadband are forecastable; lunches, coffees, kids' activities and the weekend plan are not — and trying to budget both the same way is why budgets break * How Category Groups work — Household Essentials and Lifestyle Spending ship by default, you decide where the streaming sub and the gym membership land, and you can rename or add more groups so your reports follow how your household actually thinks * Managing at the right altitude: set a single $1,500/month cap on Lifestyle Spending and stop tracking whether lunch was $80 or $140 this week — or keep using category-level targets if you prefer line-level control (the split works either way) * The maths that makes the split worth setting up: $400/month redirected from lifestyle into the mortgage, KiwiSaver or a fund is $4,800 a year — $24,000 across a five-year fixed cycle, reallocated to assets * The five-step, ten-minute tune-up: confirm categories sit in the right group, rename or add groups, set a group cap (optional), adjust category-level budgets, and open the new reporting view * How the migration works — every existing account has been moved to v3 automatically, so the change is visible the moment you open SortMe * Where to get hands-on help — book time with Charlotte Barraclough, SortMe's Chief Customer Officer, via the Book Pro Help button at the top of your account Read the full article: sortme.com/post/budgeting-v3-essentials-vs-lifestyle

NZ House Sales Steadied in March — Why First-Home Buyers Still Have the Upper Hand

If you've been saving for your first home, the recent NZ housing headlines probably gave you whiplash. January and February both posted year-on-year declines in sales volumes — the first back-to-back drop in nearly three years — and most of the commentary framed it as the start of a cool-down. Then the March REINZ data landed and complicated the story: 7,853 sales nationally, the busiest month in twelve, with the House Price Index tipping slightly positive year-on-year. SortMe Founder & CEO Carl Thompson and Kane Taylor — who heads the TaylorMade team at Ray White Grey Lynn, has sold over $250 million in property, holds three suburb records, and was Trade Me's Salesperson of the Year in 2024 — think the doom-loop coverage missed the read entirely. In Kane's words: "first-home buyers, I'd say, currently have the upper hand." This episode unpacks why a market where sales have stabilised and prices haven't moved is friendlier to first-home buyers than the headlines suggested, and exactly what to do about it before the next rate move. In this episode: * The numbers behind the bounce: 7,853 March sales (-0.1% YoY), REINZ HPI +0.2% YoY, national median $788,000, QV national average $909,572 — and what "stalled, not crashed" actually means for buyers * Why a record 28.8% of all NZ purchases in December 2025 were first-home buyers, and how the 1 April KiwiSaver contribution lift to 3.5% quietly added roughly $700/year to deposit pots for someone on $70K * Kane's on-the-ground read from Auckland's city fringe, West Auckland and the North Shore — and why the $600,000 to early $1,000,000 bracket has the most genuinely motivated vendors right now * The four property types where first-home buyers are winning: townhouses (post-2021 oversupply), apartments, 1980s/90s fibre-cement homes, and cross-lease titles people self-eliminate from for the wrong reasons * The mindset gap that separates buyers who land a home in six months from those still searching a year later — and why Kane says "if another buyer is 3–6 months into their journey and you're 0–3, they have the experience advantage" * Why the fix for first-home buyers isn't more spreadsheets — it's more open homes, started months earlier than most people start * The difference between saving for a deposit and servicing a mortgage — and how to stress-test your real cashflow (groceries, $3.30/L petrol, subscriptions) before you walk into the bank * Kane's closing rule worth fridge-magnetting: "every $1 saved is roughly $5 of borrowing power" — plus the three things every first-home buyer should check this month Read the full article: sortme.com/post/nz-house-sales-march-2026-first-home-buyers

PocketSmith alternatives in NZ (and when SortMe is the better fit)

For NZ households who've outgrown bank apps and spreadsheets, PocketSmith vs SortMe is often the next comparison they hit — both NZ-built, both go well beyond basic budgeting, and both are recommended by financial advisors. Most coverage frames it as a feature-by-feature shootout. SortMe Founder & CEO Carl Thompson thinks the deeper difference between the two products is a category one, not a feature one: PocketSmith is a powerful software tool for the "home CFO" who enjoys running the numbers, and SortMe is an AI financial assistant designed to take that workload off you. This episode is Carl's honest comparison from the founder's chair — declared interest upfront, plenty of respect for what PocketSmith has built since 2008 — and the two questions that tell most households which one they actually need. In this episode: * Why "tool you operate" vs "assistant that operates for you" is the real category split — not the feature list * Where PocketSmith genuinely wins: 60-year daily cashflow forecasting on the Fortune plan, flexible categorisation for power users, 12,000+ international bank connections (matters if you've worked offshore), and 18 years of product stability since 2008 * Where SortMe is built differently: cashflow-centric (not budget-centric), AI-driven Cycle Reviews that give a hyper-personalised overview, and a deliberately modern interface designed not to feel like old-school finance software * The pattern-recognition layer SortMe surfaces — KiwiSaver fund mismatches, cashflow drift, upcoming mortgage refix dates, and a pathway to a licensed financial advisor partner * The Subscription Tracker: the average SortMe user cancels $2,371 a year in forgotten recurring charges * The pricing breakdown: PocketSmith Foundation ($9.95), Flourish ($19.95), Fortune ($34.95) vs SortMe Boost at $99/year (works out to $8.25/month) * Why neither app locks you in — both use Akahu, NZ's open banking platform, so consent is portable and SortMe auto-categorises up to 12 months of history in a few minutes * The two-question test to decide which one to pick — and a brief look at the other NZ options worth knowing (BudgetBuddie, MyBudgetPal, bank apps, and the trusty Sunday-a-month spreadsheet) Read the full article: sortme.com/post/pocketsmith-alternatives-nz