121. The Missing Will

Today, we hear from Petra, whose life has taken her from the UK to Australia and then to New Zealand, with a few moves back and forth along the way. Auckland is home for now, but aged 60 and widowed about five years ago, Petra is still rebuilding her life without the love of her life beside her. She shares the deeply personal story of losing James suddenly at just 53, and finding herself forced to untangle a complicated financial life while grieving. For decades, they did what many ordinary families do: worked hard, raised children, bought houses, carried big mortgages, spent money as it came in, and often “jinked and jived” financially without any real long-term plan. It was only after James’s death, through life insurance, superannuation payouts, years of accumulated assets, and the difficult discovery of a missing will, that Petra began to understand the bigger financial picture. This was never how she imagined financial freedom would arrive. Her story is about far more than money. It is about love, loss, resilience, wills, insurance, investing, family, and learning, often far later in life than expected, how to create security, confidence and choices when life changes.