RNZ's money correspondent Susan Edmunds answers your questions. Photo: RNZ Photo: RNZ
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How often should I assess my health, life and income protection?
Costs rise with age. If we look at the state of our hospitals and the growth of private, how much should we have in health insurance?
The answer to the first part of your question is that it makes sense to look at your insurances every year, when they come up for renewal, or when you go through a significant life event, like having kids, or getting married or divorced.
Consumer insurance expert Rebecca Styles said health insurance was tricky, because as you say, risks increase as people get older and the premium you pay goes up, but you are also most likely to worry about needing it.
She said you could set your insurance up to cover you in a worst-case scenario, rather than trying to meet all your potential medical needs.
"As health insurance costs have increased and people have cancelled it, it does put more pressure on the public system, while also reducing the income for insurers, which mean those that remain insured are likely face higher premiums."
Rival Wealth adviser Tim Fairbrother said other reasons to look at insurance might include children leaving home or buying a house.
- Do banks always pass on Official Cash Rate cuts? Listen to 'No Stupid Questions' with Susan Edmunds
"You probably won't change levels every year, but every three years, you may make small changes to try to keep premiums under control," he said. "For health insurance, you want to make sure you have a comprehensive base plan and have non-Pharmac drugs included."
This refers to treatments that are approved, but not currently government-funded and can be very expensive.
"The comprehensive base plan will mean you are focusing on the larger, more-expensive operations and not covering the expensive-to-cover, lower-cost items, such as specialists and tests, dental and optical benefits," Fairbrother said. "Non-Pharmac drugs can be very expensive on claim, some $20,000 per month for six months.
"They are cheap to cover and you don't want to be wondering about why you didn't add them on at the start, once you need them. Once you have a comprehensive base plan and have non-Pharmac drugs included, then you can manage how much you pay for by installing an excess - the higher the excess that you will pay first, the lower your premiums will be."
I'm paying a mortgage on the house I live i and I also have three boarders living with me.
Am I able to get the mortgage interest and depreciation on the shared rooms deducted on tax or any other way?
The answer to this depends on whether you have 'boarders' or 'flatmates'.
Inland Revenue defines boarding as a situation where you're offering things like meals on top of just the room. In that situation, it sets an amount you can charge per week (currently $237,) before you have to pay tax on it or claim any expenses.
This is meant to allow for the normal level of costs that would go into providing that service.
If you have flatmates who are only paying for a room, then you need to pay tax on the income that you earn from them and you can claim a percentage of your costs against that income to reduce your tax bill.
That includes things like a proportion of your home loan interest cost that reflects the proportion of your house that is rented out - both the bedrooms that are used by the people renting them and a portion of the common areas.
You can also claim things like part of your power bill and broadband.
Why does the Official Cash Rate change not affect credit card interest rates? Why do they remain so high?
I had a look at credit card interest rates earlier this week and found there was anything from 9.95 percent to more than 20 percent being charged. It's probably worth shopping around to get a good rate.
I think this comes down to a couple of things - the first is that many people say they plan to pay their credit cards off in full each month and so don't expect to be charged any interest.
That means banks don't have to compete as hard with their interest rates, because it's not something consumers are looking for.
The other thing is that credit cards are generally unsecured debt, so are riskier for the banks and other credit card providers.
There can also be other costs associated with cards that the providers have to deal with, such as issues with fraud.
I'm told that credit cards used to move more often than they do now though.
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