Budget Planner Calculator.

The first step in preparing for a mortgage.

Planning for your mortgage application.

A budget is simply a money plan. It’s a blueprint for your spending that helps you steer your money where you want it to go. Putting a basic budget together takes around 30 minutes to an hour. You’ll need most of this information when you make your mortgage application, so it’s time well-invested. It means you’ll hit the ground running with your lender or financial adviser.

What information will I need?

To make the most of our budget planner calculator, you will need to know:

Your combined income (after tax). This should include PAYE, bonuses, investment income, rents, government benefits and any other income source.
Your combined spend. This should include transport, household expenses, living expenses, insurance premiums, KiwiSaver contributions, loans, credit card payments, leisure and entertainment.

More helpful calculators.

Whether you need a mortgage calculator to work out your borrowing power, mortgage repayments or some help budgeting to work out what you can afford, we have got your covered.

Borrowing Power

Work out how much you could borrow based on some quick questions about your current financial situation

Mortgage Repayments

Get an estimate of what your repayments could be, based on your mortgage amount, term and interest rate.

need advice on how best to budget?

Get s financial adviser on your side.

If you’re working on a budget in preparation for a home loan application, having a qualified adviser to help you along can really make a difference. We can introduce you to an mortgage adviser who understands how to navigate the new CCCFA rules about uncommitted monthly income (UMI). Working with a regulated adviser costs you nothing, because they’re paid by the lenders.

Why put a budget together?

When you take a little time to work out essential expenses, as well as the ‘nice to haves’ and potential emergency bills, you get a clear picture of how much you need to live on each month. Often, this is an enlightening experience. Sometimes it reveals unnecessary spending that could go towards paying off a mortgage.

Doing a budget also prepares you for the home loan application process. Your lender will want evidence that you can afford mortgage repayments, which means capturing an honest snapshot of money in and money out.

Going forward, a budget provides a benchmark that you can try to live up to. By doing an analysis on your actual spending each month and comparing it to your predicted spending (in your budget), you can see if you’re sticking to the plan. A budget helps you to be accountable for both your income and your expenditure.

If you ever have trouble sleeping due to financial worries, having a budget helps you to feel confident that you’re not getting into financial trouble, because you’re accountable for your spending. That’s got to be worth the 30 minutes or so it takes to put a budget together.

Visit the Learning Centre.

Visit our Learning Centre for carefully-researched articles that are relevant to your situation. Our resources are organised into categories – first home buyer, next home buyer, property investing, refinancing, building and general news. Authors include independent economist Tony Alexander and experts from the NZ home loan industry.