Increasingly, an alarming number of people earning over $100,000 are struggling to make ends meet.
They're spending more than they earn or living from pay-cheque to pay-cheque.
Auckland psychologist and accountant Lynda Moore, of Money Mentalist, says she frequently finds people spending all they earn.
"Everything we spend money on, everything we do in life is to fulfil needs that we have. What's happening now is it's so much easier to fulfil those needs by spending money when you could either spend less money or spend no money and still meet that need," she says.
"It's been around for a very long time, it's just that with Auckland house prices getting out of control this sort of thing is becoming a lot more topical because there's a lot more pressure on people."
She says the rich are relying on the housing boom to fund their spending.
"The values in tour properties have gone up significantly," she says.
"People are using the equity in their house - rather than saving and creating wealth for the future - they're spending it on the here-and-now and not worrying about the future."
Ms Moore says many become trapped in a keeping-up-with-the -Joneses lifestyle -and are turning to credit cards to manage.
"What's happening is the more money you earn, the easier it is to spend it, and therefore the less you take note of what you are actually spending," she says.
"So even though your income keeps going up you still want more - the bar keeps going up, keeps getting higher. And we live in this amazing age of credit so we can do it. Then we're living pay-cheque to pay-cheque."
Newshub.
