This month, Kiwi Hacks investigates what you need to know around currency exchange. Geraldine Collett, Business Development Manager at currency specialist, Halo Financial, offers answers to the most frequently asked questions on making cost-effective international money transfers safely. 

“We get asked these questions time and time again,” says Geraldine, “so we hope you find the team’s answers useful. The British Pound is really strong against the New Zealand Dollar at the moment, so many Halo clients are asking how they can make the most of this to maximise any international payments or currency transfers they are making, whether that’s to family back home in turbulent times, for bills, salaries, school fees, or any other important international money transfers.”

So read on for some top tips...

1. How much difference do exchange rates really make to my money?

The simple answer is a big difference! Current economic events have pushed the Pound up so that interbank rates – the rates at which banks buy and sell currency to each other – are pricing over two NZD to the Pound. This is a dramatic change in exchange rates from even earlier this year and means that in the current market, you will get far more New ZealandDollars for your money if you need to send money back home. Currency markets move all the time, however, in response to a number of global influences, and can easily catch you off guard if you are not aware and prepared.

Author: Daniel H. Pink

Reviewer: Libby Gordon

The secrets to perfect timing; a big claim! And as a time-poor London dweller this book appealed to me as I, along with the rest of book club, was keen to understand Daniel H Pinks theory on how timing might enable us to make the most of the hours in our day through his book “When”. As with all our books some people loved it more than others but the book itself was easy to read and gave the right mix of stories to illustrate points and practical takeaways. What did we each find interesting? Did we learn? And most importantly what changes had we, or did we want to make, as a result of reading this. 

Naps!
One idea that stood out to all of us unanimously, as we all sat around the table with coffee (or tea) in hand, was the idea of Nappachino. (Well we all thought that naps, whenever, were a good idea!) Nappachino: Drink coffee (or other caffeinated drink), nap for no more than thirty minutes, wake up, caffeine kicks in as your brain is refreshed from your nap, you are ready to take on the world. We were not sure how, however, we could integrate this into day to day working life but working from home days did allow for this!

With a fantastic panel, MC and audience of bubbling Kiwi women it was no surprise our IWD event at New Zealand House was filled with laughter, friendship and inspiration.

Organised by the New Zealand Business Womens Network and KEA, it was wonderful to have Bronwen Horton (founder NZBWN) and Laura Young (KEA NZ Advisor) to welcome us all at this year’s event.

Victoria Macdonald from Channel 4 was our incredible MC who guided the discussion throughout the night as we navigated the theme #Eachforequal, the trending sign suggested as a possible alternative to handshakes in this current climate. Our panelists: Rachel Carrell, Alison Wallace, Emma Rigby, Rebecca Smith and Lizzie Gurr discussed some of the many topics of this year’s IWD and ended the night by responding to some great audience questions.

One of the first discussions of the night was around the power of the Kiwi ‘number eight wire’ mentality, defined as a cliche but as a true cliche. It is something inherent to our upbringing; to see a problem and our gut reaction being to fix it.