Each week the NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB's Cooking The Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it's how to master interest rates to better look after your money. Hosted by Frances Cook.

Interest rates are one of those sneaky things that sound boring, but actually impact every single decision you make with your money.

They can make it harder or easier for you to buy a house, better or worse for you to save your money, harder or easier for you to get out of debt, and also push you towards different types of investments.

They change everything with money, and so it's a little concerning that interest rates are acting so oddly right now.

They're at historic lows, and word on the street is that they could even go lower.

Now before you start stuffing your money under the mattress, as always, the big thing is preparation.

There are good things about this, for sure, but because this is such an unusual situation, there are lots of fish hooks that can catch you out if you're not prepared ahead of time.

For the latest episode of the Cooking the Books podcast I talked to David Boyle from Mint Asset Management.

We discussed how the current low interest rates impact your term deposit and your mortgage, and what people need to know before trying out an investment that could earn more.

If you have a question about this podcast, or question you'd like answered in the next one, come and talk to me about it. I'm on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/FrancesCookJournalist/ Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/francescooknz/ and Twitter here https://twitter.com/FrancesCook