MONEY MONTH • AUGUST 2026

Money Month is coming.

What are you doing?

Every August, Te Ara Ahunga Ora Retirement Commission runs Money Month, a nationally coordinated campaign to build financial resilience, with a focus on emergency funds in 2026.

Crayon gives you three plug-and-play options, including one that's completely free.

A national movement to build financial resilience.

WHAT IS MONEY MONTH?

In early 2026, Gallup polled people in 107 countries about the world's most important problem. The answer: Personal economic circumstances. Money concerns ranked above conflict, climate, and social cohesion, both globally and in New Zealand.

Money Month is your chance to show your people that you’re invested in their financial future.

55%

of New Zealanders worry about money daily or weekly

Financial Services Council

1 in 3

Kiwis live paycheque to paycheque

Finder | BNZ | Kiwibank

$70,700

is the cost of financial stress to employers for every 10 FTEs

Crayon Cost of Financial Stress Calculator

Pick what works for your team.

We handle the rest.

THREE WAYS TO SHOW UP FOR YOUR TEAM THIS AUGUST

MONEY MONTH STARTER

Free Resource Guide

Best for organisations that want to support Money Month without a budget commitment

$0

Download today. Deploy in August.


WHAT’S INCLUDED

  • Money Month HR guide: everything you need to know in one place

  • 5 weekly copy-and-paste email and Slack templates with Crayon-designed tools to move your team closer to their financial goals

  • Follow-up call with the Crayon team

MOST POPULAR

MONEY MONTH ESSENTIAL

Seminar & Learning Module

Best for teams that want a live experience without building it themselves

$2,000

+ GST


WHAT’S INCLUDED

  • 45-minute live seminar on a topic from our full range

    Including emergency funds, KiwiSaver, investing, budgeting, insurance, first home purchase, consumer debt and understanding economic headlines

  • Customise the presentation with your brand and employee benefits

  • Self-paced learning module on the seminar topic

  • Post-programme attendance and engagement summary

  • MONEY MONTH BONUS: Crayon Pulse Survey (valued at $500, included free for Money Month), an independent employee financial wellbeing survey, so that you know exactly what your people need and can target your resources accordingly

MONEY MONTH COMPLETE

Full Month Engagement

Best for organisations that want Money Month to feel like an integrated part of their wellbeing initiatives

$5,000

+ GST


WHAT’S INCLUDED

  • Two 45-minute live seminars on a topic from our full range

  • Customise the presentation with your brand and employee benefits

  • Two self-paced learning modules covering both seminar topics

  • Post-programme attendance and engagement summary

  • MONEY MONTH BONUS: Crayon Pulse Survey (valued at $500, included free for Money Month), an independent employee financial wellbeing survey, so that you know exactly what your people need and can target your resources accordingly

  • MONEY MONTH BONUS: Crayon-facilitated employee engagement activity to create buzz and get people participating throughout the month

GETTING STARTED

Up and running

in four steps

01

Download or book

Grab the free pack instantly, or book a 15-minute call to find the right option for your organisation.

02

We brief you

A quick follow-up call to walk you through deployment. Even the free tier gets this.

03

You send the comms

Use our templates to let your people know what's on.

04

August runs itself

Crayon delivers the content, runs the sessions, and reports back.

Fully independent, world-class financial expertise

WHY CRAYON

We know finance.

Crayon was founded by Stephanie Pow, a former UBS derivatives trader with a Wharton MBA and a Harvard MPA, because we believe the very best of financial expertise should be applied to the one thing that affects all of us: our personal finances.

We know people.

We've coached hundreds of employees through real financial decisions, and our ability to help people make informed trade-offs is why we have maintained a 92% Net Promoter Score across our financial wellbeing programmes. We know the difference between the theoretically correct answer and the real-life one.

We have no conflicts of interest.

We don't sell financial products, earn commissions, or have partnerships with banks, KiwiSaver providers, or insurers. Our only revenue comes from employers. That means we can hand on heart say that every piece of information your employees hear from us is genuinely in their interest.

Leading employers partner with Crayon to raise the standard of financial care

FAQS

What HR leaders ask us

  • We do the heavy lifting on the content, you do the logistics.

    Month Month Starter (free):

    • 30 minutes upfront to read the guide and decide on any extra activity

    • 10-15 minutes to send each of the five ready-to-go Money Month email templates

    Money Month Essentials and Money Month Complete (paid):

    • 15-minute scoping call to pick your topic and agree on timing.

    • 30 minutes to book meeting room, send communications and calendar invites for the event(s)

    After that, we facilitate content delivery and reporting. You stay in the loop, but we handle the execution.

  • Not at all. The free pack is designed for organisations doing this for the first time, with no setup complexity.

  • The Commission provides public resources that are consumer-orientated.

    Crayon contextualises resources for your specific workforce, delivers them as a live experience, and weaves in your organisation's benefits and policies. We also bring NZ-specific workplace financial wellbeing expertise.

  • Yes, this is standard in Money Month Essential and Money Month Complete. We weave in your EAP contacts, relevant policies, and employee benefits. Employees leave knowing exactly what support is available through your organisation.

  • For paid programmes, we provide a summary report covering attendance, engagement data, and employee feedback from each session, as well as the Crayon Pulse Survey before and after Money Month so you know what’s important to your team.

August is coming.

Let’s make it count

Grab the free pack or book a quick, no-obligation call to explore options for your team