How to do KiwiSaver Right!

Your 65 Year Old You Will Be Thankful.

How are you planning to fund your 29 years of retirement?

Statistically, we’re living much longer these days – men can now expect to live until they’re 90, and women until they’re 94. So considering we could be retired for 30 years, we are going to need some money coming in.

So, how do we keep our cushy lifestyle in tact as we start to put down the tools? From the age of 65 most New Zealand residents receive the NZ Super every fortnight. A great start, but it’s likely that the Super rate won’t be enough – let’s look at some figures;

What will I get from my Super?

The new NZ super rates were released in April – which now makes the magic number $437 p/w for individuals ($22,724 annually). Keep in mind, that is the maximum you can receive from our pension scheme per person. If you are married, in a civil union or a de facto relationship and both qualify – it might be even less (see latest super rates here).

Getting Kiwisaver right now has the potential to add hundreds of thousands of dollars to your retirement years with very little work. We see too many people wait too long to begin thinking about their retirement – it’s easy to do, we know. “Oh that’s ages away” or “ Live while you’re young” – well the reality is – too often those quotes turn into “Man, I wish I sorted this earlier” and well, you need to live while you’re old, too.

All that being said, we are beginning to see a change in interest from the general public. More and more people are wanting to talk about their Kiwisaver. Why? Because their funds are growing – we see it every day and as that happens, people realise just how powerful and significant this tool can be for them.

Enter KiwiSaver

For most of us Kiwisaver is the biggest, easiest and most affordable opportunity to prepare for our elder years. The voluntary savings scheme established by the government to be an easy way to save for our retirement years, but it actually acts as a personal investment fund (yes you read that right – not a savings account but an investment fund).

Getting Kiwisaver right now has the potential to add hundreds of thousands of dollars to your retirement years with very little work. We see too many people wait too long to begin thinking about their retirement – it’s easy to do, we know. “Oh that’s ages away” or “ Live while you’re young” – well the reality is – too often those quotes turn into “Man, I wish I sorted this earlier” and well, you need to live while you’re old, too.

All that being said, we are beginning to see a change in interest from the general public. More and more people are wanting to talk about their Kiwisaver. Why? Because their funds are growing – we see it every day and as that happens, people realise just how powerful and significant this tool can be for them.

So, how do you know you’re in the right fund?

First and foremost; ask yourself if you’ve ever had advice. And we mean real, professional advice. Not, “do you want to see your fund on your banking app” advice. Getting professional, unaligned advice will help you establish your ambition and land in a fund* that reflects it, with a provider* that shares your values.

  • Provider:
    The establishment that manages the fund.
  • Fund type:
    Default | Conservative | Moderate | Balanced | Growth | Aggressive

Don’t know where you fall? That’s okay, time to take action.

Quick last point… what is unaligned advice?

It’ll usually come from a 3rd party group or someone who doesn’t manage the product themselves so they have the ability to look at the market. 

Historically kiwis have entrusted the bank with the majority of their financial lives – this really shines through when we look at how many people still have their kiwisaver with their bank. We think that should change. Generally speaking, the banks aren’t the best place to be.

Like any product provider in any sector – They can only sell their own product. It’s highly unlikely that when you go into the bank the nice young lady/fella behind the counter will tell you that their competitors are performing better, so go down the road and chat to them.

Our final 2 cents…

We’ll make this quick and easy to digest;

The sooner you get it right, the better.

The right fund + time & the power of compound interest = Happy, financially free old kiwis.

Don’t let 65 year old you down.

The Money Men.

Want to learn more about KiwiSaver?

Let us know a bit about you and how we can help you – and we’ll be in touch as soon as we can!

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