All in KiwiSaver
A super quick blog post this week because I thought you might find it interesting. My last blog post, Share Market Shocker, shared that our investments had dropped $25,000 between August and October 2023. I said I’d give you an update in a year. Well, just to show how fast and volatile the share markets are, it's only been three weeks, but I have an update for you. The point of this post is to share how comfortable Jonny and I feel with these fluctuations.
In the first seven months of 2023, the combined balance of our investments increased monthly, helped by two factors: the share markets had risen, and we have invested a portion of every paycheque we make. But, it was not to last. As the year has rolled on, between August and October, and despite continuing to invest throughout that time, the total value of our investments dropped $25,000. Am I concerned about this recent drop? Not one bit. Give it time, and it will come right.
KiwiSaver Annual Member Statements were sent out recently, and I found myself having to defend KiwiSaver in the face of comments like this: “KiwiSaver is a waste of time; my balance dropped!” I’m sharing my Annual Member KiwiSaver Statement for the financial year - from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023. I’m moving beyond a sound bite and explaining why my balance is down. And why I’m not bothered by it. I use my statement to look at my investment and make changes if necessary. This is the point of receiving a statement!
In my last blog post, where I was giving away a bunch of books on personal finance, I gave you two ways to enter. You could either just click enter and get on with your day, or you could take a moment to answer my wide-open question, “Tell me in 100 words or less how you have improved your financial situation”. I honestly thought most people would just enter to win the books without taking the time to write a response. Gosh, was I wrong! My inbox quickly filled up with over 260 fantastic responses, and I’m sharing all of them below. Yep, all of them.
My KiwiSaver provider Simplicity has made some changes, and several people have emailed me about my opinions on these changes. I thought I’d share how I process new information when it comes my way and what you might want to keep in mind if you are faced with new options for your investments.
This week I thought I’d give you a quick update on our work situation this year. I have mentioned it in passing, but I think it is worth putting more detail around it so that you know a little more about how Jonny and I work, what we earn, and that our unusual situation could be an option for you too.
This week's blog post got started because I received a random Instagram message from KiwiSaver provider kōura asking me to sign a petition they have launched. Although I chose not to sign the petition, reading it did get me thinking about the gap in retirement savings between men and women and that tinkering with KiwiSaver legislation won’t really address two of the critical findings of an earlier report from the Te Ara Ahunga Ora Retirement Commission.
I believe it is essential that we don’t just teach our tamariki to ‘save’, but we teach them to become ‘investors’ as well. That’s where the money is to be made over time. Since taking part in the Sharesies Kids and Investing webinar, one conversation thread has stayed with me. It was about whether it is worth signing your tamariki up to KiwiSaver or not. I am firmly in the YES camp.
I’m a giant jumble of competing thoughts as I sit down to write this final blog post of the year. I’m not much into the generic inspirational end of year content that gets pushed out, so instead, I’ll just keep this one real, and it’s a bit of an insight into my life during the first two weeks of December. I’ll try (and fail) to be brief.
