KEY POINTS:
With finance companies falling over in a cascading series of collapses, the nation's financial literacy is coming under the spotlight.
Surely, with the vast resources of the internet at our fingertips, there's no excuse for not knowing what's happening to your money?
Auckland financial adviser and founder of MoneyTV Lisa Dudson says it's like diet and exercise - we have a heap of information, yet the more we know, the fatter we've become.
She is hoping a new way of presenting financial information - chatty, informal, with an emphasis on short video clips - will bridge the gap between financial professionals and the public. She launched MoneyTV this month to do just that.
"What I see is we've got Sorted [run by the Office of the Retirement Commissioner] out there, which has some fantastic articles on it, but sometimes people still struggle with what to do - how to interpret that raw data into something that maybe they can relate to easier."
MoneyTV uses short videos to make it easier than reading through a long series of printed articles.
"The visual angle just creates a whole different dimension to things, sometimes people understand things better when they see them visually."
Dudson has gathered together experts to make a series of video blog diary entries on topics ranging from trustees and their responsibilities to superannuation and mortgage stress. Some are pitched at the challenges of personal inpsiration and motivation.
She anticipates adding two to three video clips a week, each three to four minutes long. Subscribers to a newsletter will be alerted each time new clips are put on to the site.
With greater suspicion of the sometimes conflicted role of financial planners in recommending companies that pay healthy commissions, Dudson is quick to point out MoneyTV is not just a tricky way of directing new business to her own firm.
She firmly believes there is a growing gulf between the financial services industry and the general public.
"It's about moving you forward financially, if that's about getting out of debt or creating a significant investment portfolio. We're trying to create a bridge between the public and the financial services industry. It's sitting in that middle space."
There is "squillions of stuff" about financial planning, investments and savings already available on the internet, yet many people struggle to get through it all. "We are creating a portal to make it easier for people. There's no doubt about it. The financial services industry, while it's come under a bit of flak lately, is an absolutely critical part of people's lives."
The industry has traditionally been centred around managing investment portfolios. "And if you don't have a portfolio you want managed, you just want to get to that point, then you have to be able to figure out some way to start."
Dudson says the site will be "completely independent", designed to support the public and industry and be "the bridge in the middle".
"I think there's a bit of a gap between Joe Public and the industry," she says. "Sometimes they don't know how to properly talk to each other."
But financial literacy is only one part of the equation, she says, since all the technical knowledge in the world is no good without the motivation and the capability to actually get started.
"Literacy is almost the technical education, while capability includes people's motivation and desire. You can have all the literacy in the world, but it doesn't mean you're actually going to do anything."
Dudson says there is also plenty of advice and knowledge on health, diets and fitness. "We have more information on those categories now than in the entire history of the world, but people are getting fatter and more unhealthy. It's kind of the same in the financial industry.
"I think what's happening is that it's almost too much information and we don't know where to start. We also don't often have a 'why?'."
Technical information probably covers 10 per cent of what is needed - the other 90 per cent is motivation.
Dudson says she's staying away from the finance company collapses on MoneyTV, but is planning to film a blog on the topic. "The collapse of these companies is devastating."
Some of the finance companies are great, but are starting to get a bit shaky because people are taking their money out, making things worse.
"It's tragic, there's no doubt about it. In some ways it's more tragic for the industry than a lot of the individuals. And [it's tragic] for the whole investment industry, because people get very nervous, because there is an opportunity cost to cash."
Many who have had the worst experience with finance companies are those who have invested directly - and not through a financial adviser.
MoneyTV is squarely aimed a "middle New Zealand" and will hopefully arm people with "a little bit more knowledge" so that when they go to a professional they have better questions to ask.
Dudson says New Zealanders need to get away from their "DIY" approach to financial planning - something she hopes MoneyTV will help them do.
