Our online security is increasingly at risk. Ben Creet, policy manager at InternetNZ, explains what’s happening and what we can do to protect our security. Cybersecurity is so hot right now. Here in early 2019 there’s already been a major hacking and theft in the news (police are still investigating). This comes at the end … Read more
President Trump has been compared with Shakespeare’s autocratic Richard III. New Zealanders watching their diminishing KiwiSaver balances should take note. The first thing you’ll notice is this is the business editor writing about Shakespeare. It may be a summer rush of blood to the head; I prefer to think of it as a perk of … Read more
The pension probably will still be around when today’s youth retire, but refusing to change the system at all will mean a tougher working life, writes Jenesa Jeram. It’s hard to make young people care about New Zealand Superannuation. I should know. Even when confronted with David Seymour’s warning that “NZ baby boomers are building … Read more
Savers around the country let out a collective ‘shit!’ this week as KiwiSaver balances took a plunge across the board. What happened, and is this the end of your retirement dream? Reddit user /u/Muter explains. My money is disappearing? What happened to it! Before getting into this, it’s important to understand KiwiSaver and the investment … Read more
In the first instalment in the Money Talks series, Alice Webb-Liddall and Henry Oliver face up to their finances. As a culture, we’re not very good at talking about money. Financial literacy is hard enough as it is and it’s only made harder by our silence around money issues. We are afraid of discussing our … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Government secures bigger than expected surplus, NZ not on track to meet climate change targets, and most immigration crime going un-investigated. The government has found itself in possession of a much higher than expected surplus, reports Interest. Not only has tax revenue grown faster than spending, the government … Read more
As Australian banks make more and more money in New Zealand, they contribute less and less to the economy, says Sam Stubbs. Here’s what we can do about it. The Australian banking inquiry has been the greatest scandal in Australian corporate history. Heads are rolling, fines being handed out and criminal charges laid. And it’s far … Read more
KiwiSavers like you and me are the benefactors New Zealand’s infrastructural development is looking for, says Simplicity’s Sam Stubbs. The government is signalling that New Zealand’s infrastructure build, apart from anything rail related, will go slower than expected. Increases in core funding, let alone mouldy surprises at Middlemore, are draining the national coffers of monies that any … Read more
Last year Kiwis paid about $340 million in KiwiSaver fees, but who knows if it was a good deal? David Boyle from The Commission For Financial Capability says changes to our annual statements should make it easier to understand what we are paying for. When your KiwiSaver annual statement lands in your letterbox, or inbox, … Read more
When should you start you children’s KiwiSaver? Simplicity’s Amanda Morrall says it depends on how much you can contribute. When someone offers you $1,000 for free, you’d be an idiot to say no. Kiwis aren’t dumb and this sweet incentive was key to KiwiSaver’s early success. The additional $1,000 a year in matching funds from the … Read more
The effects of the gender pay gap don’t only last throughout a woman’s working life – they carry on into her retirement. But there are ways to soften the blow to your KiwiSaver, writes Merewyn Groom. If my recent article Super screwed: How the pay gap wrecks women’s retirements was all a bit depressing, for … Read more
The key to better jobs, more money and a successful economy for all New Zealanders? Investors need to quit thinking like shareholders and start thinking like stakeholders, says Simplicity’s Sam Stubbs. Let me start by declaring my bias here. I’m a capitalist. I believe that competition and markets are the best way to maximise wealth … Read more
With over 2.8m members, KiwiSaver is the most successful financial product in New Zealand since the chequing account. Simplicity managing director Sam Stubbs looks at its potential for New Zealand. Since 2007, KiwiSavers have amassed $45 billion. That’s a lot of money, with a lot of potential payoffs for New Zealand. Already, we are starting to … Read more
The causes of the gender pay gap can be subtle, but their effects can be dramatic and long-lasting – to retirement and beyond. The gender pay gap in New Zealand is often discussed in terms of hourly wages or represented by the idea that women effectively work for free from 14 November until the New … Read more
Fletcher. The name is synonymous with construction and building in New Zealand, and has been since, well, forever. But it’s been in the news for all the wrong reasons lately – here are ten numbers that sum up the company’s bad news streak. $660 million This morning, Fletcher Building announced losses from its Building and … Read more
Welcome to the Cheat Sheet, a clickable, shareable, bite-sized FAQ on the news of the moment. Today, we take a wild ride with global share markets. There’s carnage on Wall Street! Well, not exactly. Carnage means of the flesh, and while it’s nice to imagine corporate fat-cats sliced and diced 70 ways, no-one has actually … Read more
There is a rising global movement towards responsible investing, but how can new KiwiSavers know how to invest without causing harm? Rebecca Stevenson caught up with Kiwi Wealth’s Steffan Berridge to discuss the ins and outs of ethical investing. First things first. What is responsible investing? And why should anyone care about it? Many Kiwis … Read more
The Financial Markets Authority has launched an interactive tool that let’s you access, and compare, basic fund information. Rebecca Stevenson extracts herself from KiwiSaver ennui to take a look at the numbers. I have a confession. I have a KiwiSaver, and yet for the first two years or so I didn’t realise I had it. … Read more
Investors are increasingly taking more power over how and what their KiwiSaver funds are doing. Today, the Financial Markets Authority’s Paul Gregory introduces their KiwiSaver Tracker, which gives investors a clearer picture of what providers are really offering. At 25 years old, 65 can seem like a lifetime away – why save when you can spend … Read more
One of the originators of ‘nudge’ theory – the idea that small prompts can have big effects on behaviour – was this week awarded the 2017 Nobel prize for economics. But not all nudges are created equal, argues the New Zealand Initiative’s Jenesa Jeram. What is the difference between automatically enrolling workers in KiwiSaver and … Read more
For the first ever World Investor Week, the Financial Markets Authority wants Kiwis to learn some home truths about investment. Richard Meadows gives consumers some advice on how to take the power back. The thick and seemingly impenetrable fog that swirls around KiwiSaver is one of the great frustrations of being a financial journalist in New Zealand. … Read more
The Financial Markets Authority wants Kiwis to learn some home truths about investment. For the first ever World Investor Week, FMA’s Paul Gregory shares some tips on being a smart investor. As New Zealand’s financial markets regulator, the FMA is both guard dog and guide dog. The guard dog is how we regulate and investigate … Read more
‘Via their KiwiSaver accounts, ordinary New Zealanders are beginning to buy back New Zealand. They deserve to have a say in how the companies they own are managed.’ Sam Stubbs, GM of Kiwisaver provider Simplicity, and economist Shamubeel Eaqub – a Simplicity board member – explain why they’re putting Simplicity’s funds to good use. KiwiSaver … Read more
After a clear decade running one of the country’s best-performing investment funds, and two writing one of its best-read business columns, Brian Gaynor is stepping back from day-to-day fund management. Duncan Greive asks him why. I don’t know when I first started reading Brian Gaynor. It would have been a decade ago at least. Probably … Read more
In the fifth instalment of our Money Talks series, freelancers Tess Nichol and Alice Webb-Liddall talk about retirement, and having enough money squirrelled away to enjoy it comfortably. For two young writers only a few years into their careers, the thought of being on the other end of their working life seems almost unimaginably far … Read more
Things might be very bleak internationally, but as we close out 2016 there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about our own economic future, as Sam Stubbs explains. In spite of recent earthquakes, real and political, I’m as bullish on New Zealand’s economic future as I’ve ever been. Setting aside the deeply troubling social … Read more
Over the past month, buried in the finance and markets pages of the Herald and elsewhere, there’s been a war brewing over KiwiSaver. The cause is the arrival and quick success of Simplicity, a not-for-profit Kiwisaver scheme. Simplicity’s Sam Stubbs responds to the latest, most aggressive attack from the sector. Something strange is happening to … Read more
Rapid divestment decisions by funds with money in nuclear weapons, landmines and cluster bombs is a credit to people power. But the battle is far from over, writes Grant Bayldon If you like a good David and Goliath story, you’re in luck. News broke in August that millions of New Zealanders had unwittingly invested in … Read more
NZ has been a world leader in eradication of cluster bombs, landmines and nuclear weapons. Where today are the moral principles the National government has shown before, asks Amnesty International’s Grant Bayldon. On the 16th of April this year, in a village in Yemen 10 kilometres from the Saudi border, two brothers aged 9 and … Read more