Leah Wakeford is a 25-year-old Coromandel based Veterinary Science graduate who studied at Massey in Palmerston North.
Leah is now a full-time veterinarian at Franklin Vets Kopu, in the Coromandel and has recently taken up studying her masters part-time to further her career.
Leah has been in the workforce for two years now and she advises new graduates to find balance with their finances by saving hard but also enjoying their life.
"My advice to all the soon-to-be graduates is save your money but don't forget to spend it on stuff you enjoy. Having money sitting in your bank account doesn't mean anything if you don't have time or friends to enjoy it with. It's all about balance.
"When I got the contract for my first job I worked out what I was going to be getting in hand each month after my student loan and KiwiSaver was deducted. It's easy to get used to having money after living on your student loan for five years but the reality is all your expenses go up too. It's worth doing a rough budget to work out how much you're going to have left before you go crazy.
"Now I immediately put half of my salary into a savings account, and it's become second nature to me – the amount rapidly builds up. My current financial goal is to buy a house, so the money I'm putting away is for my future mortgage. I find it reasonably easy not to touch this money as I do my day-to-day living on my credit card so I'm not constantly looking at my bank account and seeing how much is in there. If you have any big savings goals (or smaller ones along the way) I'd create individual bank accounts, it's much easier to split it up as you go."
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