Ask Me Anything: Te Kahukura Boynton talks to Paula Bennett about becoming ‘the Māori Millionaire’

Te Kahukura Boynton is the 19-year-old who founded Māori Millionaire. She was taught to work hard and always try her best. Photo / Supplied

Te Kahukura Boynton is only 19 years old, but the University of Waikato law student is already a multi-hyphenate success - blogger, podcaster and entrepreneur.

And she has an ambitious goal, planning to become a millionaire in just six years’ time when she turns 25.

To help with that goal, she launched Māori Millionaire last year, her way of platforming her journey towards financial stability, security and success, as well as creating a community for helping others explore their financial capabilities.

Speaking to Paula Bennett on the NZ Herald podcast, Ask Me Anything, Boynton said she has been interested in personal finance since she was 8 years old and read Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.

“After I read that, I called my nan up and I was like, ‘Nan, I need to have an important conversation with you. I need to check that you are maximising your accounts for compound interest’, and she’s like, ‘Kahu, what are you doing? Aren’t you supposed to be at school or something?’

“But it was conversations like that I was having as a young person to actually learn about this, and then I continued to do it. I watched heaps of YouTube videos about money and investing.”

That trend continued into high school, where Boynton had to convince her friends and classmates the stock market existed and was something they could use to make money.

Despite that preparedness, when she started university, Boynton found herself with little money to pay for moving costs and the lack of financial security made it difficult to focus on her studies.

“It was then that I decided, you know, I’m not the only one going through this stuff. You know, all my other friends were broke as well and I thought, this isn’t fun. It’s not nice. It’s not good for your mental health. It’s not good for so many things. And it also means that if Māori are at uni and we are worrying about money, we’re not gonna perform as well as our peers are if we are worrying about money all the time.

“And so, if I was able to help say one person, to at least start budgeting or to create multiple sources of income, then that would help us to do better.”

Thus, Māori Millionaire was born, with Boynton picking 25 as her goal thanks to those books and podcasts she had delved into. Her plan is already seeing her achieve some success, but Boynton isn’t getting ahead of herself - or her goal.

“At the moment I’m really focusing on living below my means. And so despite growing an income through my business, I’m continuing to live as if I was still in that first year of uni as a broke uni student.

“I’m boarding and doing all of these things trying to keep my living expenses as low as they can be, keeping my emergency fund well stacked because you never know what can happen and then investing the difference, so I’m able to grow that difference.”

Listen to the full podcast to hear more from Te Kahukura Boynton on her financial journey and her advice for those looking to invest.

Ask Me Anything is a NZ Herald podcast, hosted by Paula Bennett. New episodes are out every Sunday.

You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.