Hi all, so another year and a bit closer to retirement. So I've decided I need to do something and have been looking at some Kiwisaver options. I'd be interested to hear anyone's experience plus if anyone's been in a scheme for a few years how they feel it's performing. Many thanks
pauln: Hi all, so another year and a bit closer to retirement. So I've decided I need to do something and have been looking at some Kiwisaver options. I'd be interested to hear anyone's experience plus if anyone's been in a scheme for a few years how they feel it's performing. Many thanks
I am only in it to get the government contributions, and have it in a cash fund. eg you don't lose anything if the stockmarket crashes, it only goes up. I may change depending on circumstances. I would get in quickly to get the $1000 kickstart as they may remove that in the future.
Hi robbyp, thanks for your reply. If you don't mind me asking what percentage of your income do you contribute? Happy if you tell me it's none of my business
If you are under 65 and an employee you should definitely enrol in kiwisaver as it's the equivalent of a free 2% pay rise from your employer contributed to kiwisaver scheme.
I currently contribute 4%, I'm <30 I don't really notice the "loss". If I was older I might just do 2% as this is max the employer has to match.
The government gives you a tax free $1000 kickstart when you first enrol, this is effectively free money which is a nice bonus.
Cash fund or conservative is the way to go if you are somewhat near retirement.
Still over 20 years to retirement (but not by much!) and considering the options. Very keen to hear from anyone who is enrolled in a medium or higher risk scheme and how that is performing. Obviously with a timeframe of approximate 20 years if I can get some good returns early on then that can make a big difference
I have a lack of faith in NZ financial companies, I think the unit pricing used by the majority of providers lacks transparency and is probably bogus which makes trying to compare performance meaningless (eg: morningstar kiwisaver perf report and interest.co.nz).
Currently I'm in Gareth Morgan's Kiwisaver scheme on the conservative option. I consider a retirement scheme something I don't want to take risk with so I'm happy with performance that is around the same as the current term deposit rates.
It's easy to transfer, if performance in GMK doesn't meet my expectations bad I'd probably change to a cash fund.
I've been with Gareth Morgan Kiwisaver for just over three years with a growth (i.e. aggressive) investment plan which probably sounds like a recipe for disaster given that I joined it right at the start of the financial crisis. Fortunately in reality it has worked very well for me as the value of my portfolio is about the same as the total contributions so I really haven't lost anything, and the financial crisis created an opportunity to pick up a lot of undervalued assets which should appreciate over the next ten years or so. I'll switch to a more conservative plan at a later stage, but I'm still 35 years away from retirement so I'm comfortable with a growth plan for the foreseeable future.
Originally I was contributing 4% to it, but my new employer has a separate subsidised superannuation scheme so I've decided to contribute the minimum 2% to Kiwisaver and 2.5% to my employer's scheme in order to get maximum kickbacks from both the government and my employer.
As someone who is part of the generation that's locked out of the unaffordable housing market I have decided that it's much easier for me to put $10k a year into super funds and end up with about $1m at retirement age, rather than struggling my way through saving a house deposit and paying enormous interest costs on a mortgage in a very uncertain housing market.
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