Melanie Robertson - Financial Adviser & Mortgage Adviser

29/10/2026

📢 📢 Exciting announcement 📢 📢

I'm now an accredited adviser with PPS Mutual New Zealand - and I wanted to share what that means for all my clients and future clients!
PPS Mutual has a story worth knowing.

Founded over 80 years ago by professionals for professionals, its grown into a trusted global network serving over 160,000 members across South Africa, Australia, and now New Zealand.

Its a life insurer built exclusively for professionals, available through a very select group of accredited advisers.

Who is it for? People in professional roles - doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects, accountants, and other qualified specialists.

Membership is deliberately exclusive, which is part of what makes it so valuable.

What really sets PPS Mutual apart:

• Products tailored to the needs of professionals

• A mutual structure - owned by a trust for the benefit of members, not shareholders

• A Profit Share Benefit - members can share in PPS Mutuals success when the business does well

• Available only through accredited advisers like me!

If you're a professional - or know one who might be eligible - I'd love to have a conversation.
https://calendly.com/ladywealth/online-meeting-all-things-finance

29/10/2026

Health Insurance Protect Your Future - Life's Unexpected Serious Illnesses

12/09/2026

Meet Mini Mel 💜

She might be small, but she’s here for the big financial conversations 😄

Mortgages, KiwiSaver, investments, insurance and planning for your future — I’m a holistic financial adviser, so it’s about looking at the whole picture, not just one piece of it.

And I have a feeling you might be seeing a little more of Mini Mel around here 👀💜

11/09/2026

💜 September is Wills Month, and this article really made me think.

We spend so much time planning for life.

Holidays, houses, mortgages, KiwiSaver, investments, retirement…

But how much time do we spend planning for the people we leave behind?

One line really stood out to me:

Your will may be one of the last important things you leave for the people you love.

Through my own family experience recently, I’ve realised that simply having a will isn’t necessarily the end of the planning.

Does it still reflect your life today?

Does your family know where it is?

Do they know who your executor is?

Would they know where to find your important financial information?

And have you actually talked about what you want?

Relationships change. Families change. We buy and sell property. Our finances change. And sometimes our wishes change too.

Yet a will we prepared 10 or 15 years ago can easily sit there untouched.

So perhaps Wills Month is a good reminder to pull yours out and have another look.

And if you don’t have one yet, perhaps it’s time to have that conversation and get the appropriate legal advice.

I’m learning firsthand just how valuable it is to leave clarity, not questions, for the people you love. 💜

If something happened tomorrow, would your will still reflect the life you have today?

This article is well worth a read 👇

Wills are rarely spoken about, writes Brooke Roberts.

10/09/2026

🏠 Yes, you CAN buy a home with a 5% deposit. But should you always?

This is the other side of the first-home-buyer conversation that I think we need to talk about.

A recent NZ Herald article reports that around 4,000 first-home buyers may now owe more than their homes are worth after property values fell from their peak.

That doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve made a bad decision.

If you can comfortably keep making your mortgage repayments and you’re planning to stay in your home, negative equity may simply be something you ride through as the property market changes.

But the risk becomes much more important when life changes unexpectedly.

A relationship ends. You need to relocate. Your income changes. Your family grows. Or you need to sell sooner than you planned.

And this is why, when someone asks me:

“Can I buy with a 5% deposit?”

I don’t think the conversation should stop at yes or no.

We should also be talking about what you’re buying, what you’re paying, how much financial buffer you’ll have afterwards, what your repayments will look like and what could happen if property values fall.

Interestingly, today’s first-home buyers are also buying into a very different market from those who purchased around the 2021 peak.

So this isn’t about frightening people away from buying.

Quite the opposite.

💜 It’s about buying with your eyes open and having a plan.

If you’ve got 5%, 10% or 20% and you’re wondering whether you’re actually ready to buy, let’s run the numbers.

You might be closer than you think — and I’d rather help you understand the risks before you buy than discover them afterwards.

💜 Ask Mel

08/09/2026

🏠 Could Wellington be giving first-home buyers an opportunity we haven’t seen for years?

This one really made me stop and think.

Some Wellington house values are now back around levels we haven’t seen since 2017.

Nine years.

But here’s the really interesting part…

Your income hasn’t gone back to 2017.
Your KiwiSaver hasn’t gone back to 2017.
And hopefully, your savings haven’t either.

For someone who has spent the last few years thinking, “I’ll never be able to afford a home in Wellington”, it might be time to take another look.

You also may not need a 20% deposit to buy your first home.

That’s why I wouldn’t automatically assume you’re not ready just because you haven’t reached that magic 20% number.

The Wellington market has changed considerably.

Sellers may be more willing to negotiate, there can be more choice for buyers, and some properties are selling at prices we simply haven’t seen for years.

Does that mean every house is a bargain? Absolutely not.

Does it mean we know where the bottom of the market is? No.

But could it mean there is an opportunity sitting in front of some first-home buyers right now?

I think it’s definitely worth running the numbers.

If buying your first home is something you’d like to do, even if you think you’re still a year or two away, come and have a chat.

We can look at your income, KiwiSaver, deposit and borrowing position and work out what may actually be possible.

You might be closer than you think. 💜

I’m based in Wellington, but I can help first-home buyers anywhere in New Zealand.

📞 021 429 854
💜 Ask Mel

07/09/2026

🏡 House prices are falling… but is that actually bad news?

When you hear that property values have had their biggest drop in two years, it’s easy to think:

“I’ll just wait.”

But falling prices can create some pretty interesting opportunities too.

💜 If you’re a first-home buyer, you may have more choice, more negotiating power and potentially a lower entry price.

🏡 If you’re thinking about upgrading, don’t just focus on what your current home might sell for.

You might sell for less — but the more expensive home you want to buy could have dropped by considerably more in dollar terms.

📈 And if you’re a property investor with equity, this could be a time to start looking at what that equity could actually allow you to do.

That doesn’t mean rushing out and buying a property just because prices have fallen.

And it definitely doesn’t mean trying to guess exactly where the bottom of the market will be.

It means running your numbers.

What can you afford?

How much usable equity do you have?

What would the repayments look like?

And does buying now make sense for YOUR longer-term plans?

Sometimes opportunity looks very different depending on which side of the market you’re standing on.

If you’ve been sitting on the sidelines wondering whether now could be your opportunity, let’s have a chat and run the numbers.

📞 021 429 854
💜 Ask Mel

06/09/2026

🏡 29% of homes purchased last quarter were bought by first-home buyers.

That’s a pretty powerful reminder that first-home buyers are still getting into the market.

You don’t necessarily need to have everything figured out before you start. What you do need is a plan.

How much could you borrow?
How much deposit do you actually need?
Could KiwiSaver help?
What would your repayments look like?
And what should you be doing now to put yourself in a stronger position?

Even if buying is still 6 or 12 months away, getting those answers early can make a huge difference.

If buying your first home is one of your goals, reach out and let’s run your numbers and build a plan to get you there. 🏡💜

📞 021 429 854

06/09/2026

💜 September is Wills Month

Here’s a question I think we should all ask ourselves…

If something happened to me tomorrow, would my family know what to do?

A will isn’t just about who gets the house.

It can be about your property 🏠
Your savings and investments 💰
Your KiwiSaver 📈
Your personal belongings
And, most importantly, the people you love. 💜

But there’s another question that often gets forgotten…

👉 When did you last actually read your will?

Life changes.

You might have bought or sold property, had children or grandchildren, separated or remarried, started a business, built up investments or simply changed your mind about what you want.

Yet the will sitting safely at the lawyer’s office might still reflect your life from 10 or 15 years ago.

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September is a great little reminder to check:

💜 Do I have a will?

💜 Is it still up to date?

💜 Does my family know where it is held?

💜 Is the executor I chose still the right person?

💜 Do my wishes still reflect the life and family I have today?

Getting these things sorted isn’t about expecting the worst.

It’s about making things easier for the people you love if the unexpected happens.

I’m not a lawyer, so your legal advice should come from the appropriate legal professional.

But as a holistic financial adviser, I can help you look at the financial picture around your estate — your KiwiSaver, investments, property, insurance and wider financial planning — and help identify the things you may want to discuss with your lawyer.

📞 Ask Mel — 021 429 854

A little planning today can save your family a lot of uncertainty tomorrow. 💜

05/09/2026

🏡 Thinking about helping your child buy their first home?

It’s an amazing position to be able to help them ❤️

But before you transfer money, use equity in your own home, or agree to help with the mortgage, there’s a bigger question to ask…

What’s the best way to help?

💰 Is the money a gift or a loan?

🏠 Are you borrowing against your own home to provide it?

🤝 Could you be asked to guarantee some of their lending?

❤️ What happens if their relationship changes in the future?

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 And if you have other children, how does helping one affect your wider family and estate plans?

Sometimes the deposit is only one part of the conversation.

Before Mum and Dad borrow another $50,000 or $100,000, or hand over savings they may need later, it’s worth looking at everyone’s numbers first.

The goal should be to help your children get ahead without putting your own financial future at risk. 💜

If helping your children into their first home has been coming up around the dinner table, have a chat with me before you make any decisions.

We can look at the lending, your equity, their deposit and borrowing position, and what the different options could look like.

And where legal or relationship-property advice is needed, I’ll always recommend getting the right legal advice too.

📞 Ask Mel — 021 429 854