In this Australian Finance Podcast episode, your host Gemma Mitchell is joined by Jason Leong from Pocketsmith to dive into real-world spending data to explore how households in Australia, New Zealand and the United States are adapting to rising costs.
Using insights from PocketSmith’s Global Spending Map, they unpack how much people are actually spending on housing, utilities and everyday expenses • and what the data reveals about the cost-of-living crunch.
They cover:
- Why Australian mortgage costs have surged faster than other countries
- How rent increases compare across the US, Australia and New Zealand
- What the data shows about utilities and energy spending
- How households are adapting their everyday spending habits
If you like this Australian Finance Podcast episode on real household spending data, you’ll love our series. Don’t forget to subscribe for weekly shows on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts!
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Topics Covered
- What is PocketSmith and how does it track spending data?
- Understanding the Global Spending Map
- Mortgage spending trends in Australia vs NZ vs US
- Why Australian mortgage costs have doubled in five years
- Fixed vs variable mortgages across different countries
- Rent increases and housing pressures in the US
- Institutional landlords and rental markets explained
- Are renters under more pressure than homeowners?
- Utility spending trends across Australia and New Zealand
- Why NZ energy costs swing more seasonally
- How geography and energy infrastructure affect power bills
- Everyday spending trends since 2021
- Why Australian spending is tracking inflation
- Why New Zealand households are “trading down”
- What trading down looks like in everyday life
- How households adjust spending when budgets get tight
