If you are 65 or over, from July 1 you can join or rejoin Kiwi Saver, a lack of information currently on how the Kiwi Saver providers will market this change!
Susan Edmund’s provides some thoughts on Kiwi Saver generally.
KiwiSaver: Should it be your retirement savings plan?
Susan Edmunds April 02 2019
New rules introduced this week mean you have more Kiwi Saver options.
As of Monday, you are no longer limited to automatic contribution rates of 3 per cent, 4 per cent or 8 per cent of your pay. You now also have the option of 6 per cent or 10 per cent.
But just because you can save more – should you? And is Kiwi Saver the best way to save for retirement?
FOR
It is a truth universally acknowledged that putting money aside for retirement is a *good thing*.
The earlier you start, the more you will save by 65 – and the more compounding will do the work for you, reducing the proportion that actually has to come out of your pay.
KiwiSaver has some clear advantages over most other schemes.
Your employer has to give you a contribution of at least 3 per cent of your pay if you’re in the scheme and you’ll get the member tax credit of $521 if you put in at least $1042 a year.
Fees are generally lower than other managed funds. Economies of scale, and more competition, should push them lower still.
The contributions are managed out of your pay before you see them and then investment decisions are made by a fund manager whose job it is to get you the best return for your risk profile. You do nothing.
If you’re looking for a way to save, KiwiSaver is a pretty cheap and efficient way to do it.
Should you put aside more money in KiwiSaver each payday? Switching to a higher contribution rate will make a big difference.
Aidan Vince, head of KiwiSaver at ASB, said a 30-year-old earning $50,000 who shifted from 3 per cent to 4 per cent contributions would end up with more than 10 per cent extra saved at 65.
Someone who switched to 6 per cent would end up with $24,000 a year in income from KiwiSaver compared to $17,000 at 3 per cent.
Your money is locked away and is hard to access. Unless you’re buying a first home or in serious financial hardship, you can’t touch it until you are 65, so there’s no temptation to dip in.
AGAINST
But hold on, there’s been nothing to stop you putting extra, voluntary contributions in to your Kiwi Saver account already – and how many people actually do that?
Kiwi Saver money is locked away, so allocating too much of your pay to the scheme could be seen to be a bit risky.
Moving to 10 per cent contributions might be intimidating if you know the money is inaccessible for years to come. You could instead continue saving 3 per cent and put the remaining 7 per cent somewhere else.
Why put away more of your money into the scheme than your employer will match? If you have a mortgage, you might be better off diverting any available cash to paying that off. If you have high-interest consumer debt, that should definitely take priority.
The Government has rolled back lots of the original incentives to being in the scheme, anyway. And while employers say they offer 3 per cent contributions, increasingly that’s being negotiated as a “package” so if you aren’t in Kiwi Saver you end up with 3 per cent more money in our bank account.
It’s hard to get as much individual control over your money in Kiwi Saver as you’d have if you invested in something such as direct shares or a rental property. Craigs Investment Partners offers a “select your investments” option – but this isn’t common.
VERDICT?
Get some personalised advice on the right thing to do with your money to help you end up better off in the long-term.
Any money or time you can spend now on preparing for retirement should leave you better off post-65.
Posted by Alec Waugh 10 June 2019
The government’s annual contribution ends when a person reaches to the age of 65 years of age.
Is this Correct or Incorrect ?
The government doesn’t contribute at all, unless you are referring to the member tax credit of up to $521. And remember it “used to be” $1024 until Teflon John got in. Or as I prefer to refer to him… the Smiling Assassin. Didn’t get “that” nickname for no reason.
Thank you for your response.
I guess he didn’t touch MP’s superannuation funds as a result of this reduction for members of the public.
To change tact, I see carears could be paid up to $25.50 next year.
A number of contributors have asked why we, as superannitants, don’t get the minimum wage / tax relief. Instead, Nicky Kaye is going increase the Gold Card benefits. We will wait and see what this contains but the irioney is that some superannitants carn’t even survive on buying the basics so how is her new policy going to benefit those in need.
Ah yes, Governments of all stripes, they love to fiddle to their hearts content. Remember when there was a super scheme and piggy canned it?
Remember employers were to have increased their contributions over time? But Key canned that.
And how about those who are on low wages, whether first jobs or lack the educational/physical skills to leap into better paid employment, who get shafted by employers who just don’t even automatically sign employees up, or ask if they are in Kiwisaver? Complain? ONLY the employee can do that, a family member can’t. How idiotic is that? My son lost 3 years of contributions because of that and it only changed when I dragged him to Kiwibank and had him sign up on the spot. I told him just hand it to your boss, they can’t sack you for it. If they’d tried I’d have sued the pants off them. Ironically, not only is he the longest serving employee he is now their most values employee.
Time to change the rule that joining Kiwisaver is mandatory. It is compulsory in Australia, although their system is fundamentally flawed in that it is controlled by the employers and their is no arms length between the employer and fund manager. Failed businesses often raid the contributions in the schemes. But that’s another story. I know personally 2 people who have lost everything they contributed due to employer raiders. Both of them are now having to work into their 70’s just to live.
Great response, Paul.