There's a lot of work to be done lifting Maori women's financial capabilities.

A report into Maori women's money management makes grim reading, but behind the words lies a more uplifting story.

Spending Habits of Maori Women by Dr Pushpa Wood from the Westpac Massey Fin-Ed Centre reveals the spending habits of 51 women, mainly from South Auckland.

It found 60 per cent had never saved money. The same proportion didn't routinely track their spending. 68 per cent weren't in KiwiSaver.

ROB STOCK/FAIRFAX NZ Rising housing costs mean Maori women have to be far better with money than they did in years past, says financial capability expert Priscilla Taiapotereu.

Just over half said "major purchases" weren't planned, but were made "spontaneously", and only half could survive a month if they lost their job.

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Many were stuck in a "crisis mode" of living, Wood found, often having to borrow for necessities like food and power, often from finance companies.

SUPPLIED Dr Pushpa Wood from Massey University's Financial Education and Research Centre is searching for a way to help Maori women lift their own money skills.

Nine in ten of them feared for the future.

But many of the women who took part in the research, which involved keeping spending diaries and undergoing a financial health check, said their lives had improved from the skills they'd learnt.

One, speaking in a Hui at the Te Whanau Rangimarie centre in Mangere, said she'd cut up a Q Card on which the limit had been lifted without her permission.

Many continued to keep spending diaries, and were now putting aside money each week, often as a result of having cut some "wants" from their weekly shops.

One had stopped smoking, and consuming energy drinks regularly.

In Maori households women faced challenges not shared by their peers in Pakeha households when trying to apply newly learnt money skills.

Duties and obligations to whanau could trump household needs when it came to money, Wood reported. Money was considered less the property of an individual than in Pakeha families. The expectation was there that savings were available to be given or leant in moments of whanau need.

Making changes to money habits required getting whanau on board, both immediate partners, as well as extended family, the women said.

"It's a huge challenge," said Wood. "You can't talk about individuals changing. You have to talk about the whole extended family changing as well."

Helping Maori women develop strategies they can use to improve their money lives needed to recognise that, Wood said.

One of the research participants said she still lent money to relatives when asked, but after taking part in the research, she began setting a repayment date, after which the sum to be repaid was higher.

Another of the women reported being able to better guide relatives, such as being able to show them how to work out the full cost of buying things using credit.

It's a vital skill in poorer neighbourhoods, which are the hunting ground of the mobile shop trucks that the Commerce Commission has been cracking down on.

Priscilla Taiapotereu was one of Wood's researchers in the project. She has spent 30 years in the budgeting and financial capability sector, and her dream is of a Maori women building the financial skills they need to thrive, not just survive.

"For me, that would be a dream, to have our people financially manage ourselves. In a perfect scenario we would be a booming ethnicity from Aotearoa."

Taiapotereu said times had got tougher in South Auckland where a dearth of building has seen rents spiral up- some by as much as $100 in just the last six months. That was sucking money out of households who were already doing it tough, and resulting in houses becoming more crowded, and even with people living in garages.

Woods agreed. "The challenge is that living costs including housing have increased dramatically, whereas the income for these women hasn't kept pace."

While women's experiences showed lives could be improved, it was hard to get Maori women interested in learning about money, Wood said.

"We do not know enough about young Maori women in relation to their lack of interest about upskilling themselves in taking financial responsibility for their future."

The research provided some clues as to how they may be persuaded to learn.

Many of the women in Wood's study were recruited by women they knew and respected, including by Taiapo.

Woods said the Te Reo word whakawhanaungatanga captures that idea, roughly translates as "connection through relationships".

That concurs with another of the researchers' findings. The number one source of information in making a major financial decision is friends and family.

There was also resistance to being lectured to by non-Maori. The women who took part in the study Spoke of their experiences with budgeting services, which the women felt dictated to them, rather than help them build knowledge and skills.

There is financial capability in Maoridom with around 26 per cent of people identifying as Maori having high financial knowledge, though nearly half of Maori have low financial knowledge.

"That group exists, and somehow the bridge that is needed between these two groups still hasn't been fully built yet," Wood said.