Each week, BusinessDesk and the NZ Herald's Cooking the Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it's the opportunities for your money in a high-interest-rate environment. Hosted by Frances Cook.


Talk about interest rates is everywhere right now, and for good reason.

They're the secret sauce that changes everything in the money world, even if you don't see the direct impact at first. 

Most recently, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand has yanked rates up again by an unprecedented 0.75%, the most it has ever increased them in one go. 

In the past 18 months, the Official Cash Rate has gone from 0.25% to 4.25%. 

The OCR is how the government influences interest rates elsewhere, but what happens to them depends on whether it's your mortgage, or a credit card, or a savings account that's involved. They're all different. 

We know this will cause financial pain because any form of debt becomes more expensive, but there are actually opportunities here, too. 

Savings, investments like bonds – those are all changing, too. And if you're careful, you could end up making money. 

For the latest podcast I talked to Tim Fairbrother, a certified financial planner from Rival Wealth.

For the interview, listen to the podcast here.