Hannah McQueen picked up the phone and rang the University of Auckland’s calculus department. Her request was odd for a financial adviser. She wanted a formula to get herself out of mortgage debt.
The brief was exact: structure the debt to clear it as fast as possible, at the lowest possible interest rate, with maximum flexibility. The department introduced her to Dr Jamie Sneddon. For three months the two of them worked on it, and what came out was a formula for restructuring her borrowing.
It did not fix anything on its own. “It assumes I’ve got money left over to pay the mortgage off faster, which makes sense, apart from the fact I didn’t have any money left over,” McQueen said. “So I was earning good money, but I was still living payday to payday.” She is a chartered accountant. “I can colour code a budget if you want me to. I just wouldn’t stick to it unless I felt like it.”
From arithmetic to behaviour
That gap between the maths and the person became her business. McQueen turned her attention to the psychology of spending, and it grew into EnableMe, a financial coaching firm she later built and sold. The sale, in 2023, left her free to stop working. She did not.
Her earlier career had a rough start. She told the Money Talks podcast she was fired at 22, after a stint at KPMG, when her boss rejected her pitch to steer clients away from borrowing and toward clearing debts. The idea came from mortgage broking, where she saw that borrowers pay back three times what they borrow. On her own loan she would repay a million dollars, and the rate discount she was chasing would save $12,000. “I think I’m focusing on the wrong thing here!” she remembers thinking.
She makes the same point about price. Shopping around the banks for a sharp rate, she says, “kinda saves you $10,000. And I’m, like, is it even worth it?” But, she added, “if I can save $300,000, now you’re talking.”
More income, same trouble
McQueen shared this with former deputy prime minister Paula Bennett on the NZ Herald podcast Ask Me Anything. Her career has spanned close to twenty years of coaching Kiwis on money. Her view is that most people have the cure backwards. “I think most people think incorrectly that if you just earn more money, you would be okay,” she said.
In her practice, some of the highest earners were among those making the least financial progress. “What more money gives you, usually, is permission to not worry about the money,” she said, rather than a reason to push ahead faster. Lifestyle stretches to match the paycheque.
Next venture
She has moved on to health. Age Brightly, a wellbeing service she recently launched, was planned with two Auckland clinics, in Freemans Bay and Remuera, with first appointments due in March. McQueen told the Weekend Herald she set it up partly for her ageing parents, as the number of New Zealanders over 65 edges toward one million by 2028.
Sources
- Why high income earners still struggle to build wealth, according to Hannah McQueen (NZ Herald)
- EnableMe's Hannah McQueen on why earning good money won't make you rich – Money Talks (NZ Herald)
- Auckland financial entrepreneur Hannah McQueen aims to shake up healthcare industry with new company Age Brightly (NZ Herald)
