enableMe opens Wellington office

Press Release
Monday 13 October

enableMe opens Wellington office

If it took just one less coffee a day to reduce your mortgage repayments by $100,000, would you jump at the chance?

Most New Zealanders would if they knew how, says Sam Bejjani, general manager of enableMe, the financial management consultancy which opens its Wellington office this week.

enableMe, which Mr Bejjani likens to a financial personal trainer, shows clients how to dramatically reduce the time it takes to pay off a mortgage.

“Putting an extra $20 a week into your mortgage will save around $300,000 on a 30-year mortgage,” says Mr Bejjani.

enableMe’s philosophy is to encourage a good look at the psychology of spending followed by small tweaks in lifestyle. Just don’t mention the ‘b’ word, says Mr Bejjani.

“Kiwis hate the word budgeting because it conjures up images of going without and deprival, but through improving financial literacy, it becomes clear that this is not the answer.”

enableMe began when founder Hannah McQueen shopped around for her first mortgage, played the banks off to get the best interest rate possible and then realised that interest rate she had chased so hard to get would still mean a negligible drop in actual repayments.

McQueen, who studied calculus at university, devised a formula in collaboration with Auckland University’s calculus department, to optimise mortgage structures. This in effect reverse engineers the bank’s system of maximising the interest charged over the life of the mortgage. The potency of that formula, in collaboration with enableMe’s three other drivers of financial success, allows on average $300,000 of interest to be saved. When friends became interested in her plan and started following her advice, the Chartered Accountant and Masters in Taxation Law realised she had a model for business and opened an Auckland office. Her formula is the basic DNA of enableMe.

enableMe’s average client has a mortgage of $350,000 and enableMe’s advice allows them to strip 16 years from the life cycle of that mortgage.

enableMe markets itself through seminars , referrals, and the staff benefits programmes of businesses, and it charges clients an initial consultation fee of $250 plus GST to take them through the enableMe plan and show them how much they could save on a mortgage.

However as part of the Wellington opening, enableMe is offering this consultation at no charge with a consultant who will be a chartered accountant, solicitor, or tax specialist.

If clients sign up, enableMe will help clients understand their psychology of spending, agree on a spending plan, optimise their mortgage and put an account structure in place that supports better discipline in day-to-day finances.

ENDS