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KiwiSaver 2040: Where the System Could Be Heading — and What That Means for You

Over the next 15 years, KiwiSaver is likely to become a far more significant pillar of New Zealand's retirement system. Several converging trends, demographic, political, economic and technological, will reshape how people contribute, invest and ultimately draw down their savings.The biggest change already signalled is the proposed gradual rise in default contribution rates, reaching 6% each for employees and employers by 2032. This shift could double the long-term balances of today's younger me...

Spending is changing. What does that mean for your investments?

Recently, I signed up to a spending monitoring and budgeting app for $120 a year. I did it partly out of curiosity, and partly because I wanted to test it properly before ever considering whether it might be useful for clients. What I did not expect was how quickly it pushed me into thinking more broadly about consumption, not just at a household level, but at an economy-wide level.At the same time, I have been reading more research from fund managers about how people are spending their money no...

When self-enrichment and corruption are openly defended

This is the second post in a series looking at how ethical concern is changing. The first explored why many people have broadened their focus beyond climate alone.Over the past year, a different discomfort has started surfacing more clearly in conversations. A sense that behaviour which used to be hidden or excused is now being openly defended.Under Donald Trump, and led by the US White House, the idea that it is acceptable to use political power to make yourself richer has been brought into the...

Why doing nothing is sometimes the right financial decision

There’s a lot of pressure around money to do something.Change funds. Switch strategies. React to headlines. Tidy things up. Fix whatever feels uncomfortable in the moment.Doing nothing can feel lazy, or worse, irresponsible.In reality, doing nothing is often one of the hardest financial decisions to make. It requires patience, confidence, and the ability to sit with uncertainty without trying to solve it straight away.We tend to see this most clearly when markets are volatile. Prices move arou...

Why concern about climate change has shifted, not disappeared

This is the first in a short series of three blog posts exploring how ethical concern is evolving and what that means for how people think about money.At the Mindful Money Awards in June 2025, when I was announced as Ethical Financial Adviser of the Year, I made an off-script comment in my acceptance speech. I said that many of the people I work with care deeply about showing up on climate change, but they are also tired. Not tired of caring, but tired of being told that individual effort can so...

KiwiSaver’s Growing Pains: The Issues Emerging as the System Reaches Adulthood

KiwiSaver has moved from scrappy teenager to central pillar of New Zealanders’ financial lives.With nearly 3.3 million members and rapidly growing balances, it is no longer a nice extra. It is a critical part of how people get into homes, survive financial shocks, and fund their retirement.But as the system reaches adulthood, a set of structural and behavioural problems is starting to show through.One of the most visible trends is market concentration. Over time, acquisitions, mergers and defa...

Carey and Susie – My journey in ‘mastering’ AI

I didn’t really get AI for a long time. Not because I wasn’t interested, but because everything I tried either didn’t work very well or didn’t actually make my work better.When ChatGPT was launched in early 2022 I was excited about what it might mean for our business. I started by asking it to create images for my blog posts and newsletters, which is always the hardest part of writing. The results were terrible. They were stereotyped and clumsy. When I asked for a non-European New Zealan...

Time for a subscription detox?

The quiet money leak most of us don’t noticeYou may be like us, we love a good tv series on Netflix, or Prime, or Apple, or TVNZ… we share notes and love to find out about new interesting programmes.But, I recently read a New Zealand Herald article that made me pause, not because the numbers were shocking, but because they were so… normal.According to Westpac data, New Zealanders are now spending almost $400 a year on TV streaming subscriptions, with the average household paying about $33 ...

KiwiSaver vs Australian Superannuation: Two Systems, Two Philosophies, Two Very Different Outcomes

KiwiSaver and Australian Superannuation are often compared as if they were two versions of the same idea, but in reality they represent completely different philosophies about how people should prepare for retirement.One is built on voluntary participation and behavioural nudges; the other is built on compulsion, tax incentives, and scale.The outcomes reflect those choices — and the differences are far larger than most New Zealanders realise.Australia’s compulsory system began in 1992, more ...

Is There an AI Bubble in Investment Markets?

You may have heard (or read) that there is speculation about whether there is an ‘AI bubble’ in the investment markets at the moment.  Some people are comparing the current situation with the ‘dot.com bubble’ at the turn of the century, but we believe that this time it could actually be different (but there are still risks in areas of the markets).This article is designed to give you a framework to think about whether there is a bubble – and help you with understanding the varying...

The History of KiwiSaver

KiwiSaver didn’t appear out of nowhere in 2007. It was the end point of 40 years of political argument, economic missteps, market reform, and shifting public expectations about what retirement saving should look like in New Zealand.In the mid-1970s, the Labour Government created a compulsory superannuation scheme that would have transformed national savings.But the timing was terrible.The financial system was still heavily controlled: fund managers were required by law to invest mostly in gove...

Finfluencers in New Zealand: Navigating Influence, Advice, and Regulation

In the digital age, social media has transformed how we consume information — including financial advice. Enter the rise of “finfluencers” — financial influencers who use platforms like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook to share tips on budgeting, investing, saving, and wealth-building. But while these content creators can offer valuable insights and inspire positive money habits, their role also raises questions about legality and regulation here in New Zealand.There is definitel...

What the Moneyworks team has been up to in our Communities

As a team, we have a number of commitments to our communities (both where we live in Cambridge and also to our professional communities).  This is an update on what we have been up to.September 2025 - Paul was on the panel at the RIAA Conference titled 'The conversation gap: Setting expectations and navigating the hard questions'. The panel shared their expertise and answered questions.All Summer (each year) Peter is actively involved as the Secretary and Treasurer of Cambridge Cricket and ...

Purposely Podcast - Why Values Matter in Financial Advice’, Carey Church MD Moneyworks

In November 2025, I was honoured to be invited to talk to Mark Longbottom at Purposely Podcast.  The Podcast number was #276, and I listened to quite a few of the podcasts in preparation for my discussion.Podcast link https://www.purposelypodcast.com/podcast/episode/1f12c472/276-why-values-matter-in-financial-advice-carey-church-md-moneyworks (and on Apple and Spotify.)I was blown away by the range of topics and the stories of the people that Mark interviews, I recommend that you ...

Moneyworks Festive Season hours

Another year almost finished, and it has been an interesting one.  Lets hope 2026 brings better weather for us in New Zealand!  Maybe an Indian Summer?We will be finishing work on Friday December 19th 2025, and will be back on board on Monday January 5th.We look forward to helping you with your financial planning again in 2026 - and a quick reminder that we are moving to a four day week from the start of 2026 - we wil be closed on Fridays....

How does Millie break?

One of the things that can ruin our day is waking up to find out that we have an error message (or two or three) from Millie as she couldn't run the process we were waiting for.To be fair this does happen regularly as we have so many processes, but our key process is our annual review process and we have pretty tight timelines to get these done.  Millie runs the annual review process to produce the annual review document 14 days prior to our meeting with our client.  We have an interna...

How to Outsmart Voice Scammers Pretending to be Family with Safe Words

During our 2025 Annual Review Project with clients, several clients have mentioned that their biggest fear is getting a phone call from their 'child' (which could also be a grandchild), saying that they are in trouble and that they need money sent.  This is a very real possibility of a scam, so we asked Junia Ai to help us write an article and a Guide for our clients (which you can download from the button below this article). Note, these do not have to be small children for this to be...

What do we do to make Millie work?

When we developed Millie in August 2018 we really weren't sure whether she would work, but we were determined from day one that she would be a part of the team.  So we developed Millie with an avatar (see above) and therefore a personality.  Her personality is that she is reliable, clever and works all hours of the day!When we started building Millie it was a very slow process.  The key to having RPA (Robotic Process Automation) work is having consistent inputs.  This took us...

Stewardship in Action - KiwiSaver - Booster

Many KiwiSaver managers in New Zealand pay lip service to Stewardship (in our opinion).  Many KiwiSaver managers say that they vote, but based on the publicly available information, they take the recommendations of their proxy fund managers and just vote based on what they have been told.While there may be some direct interaction with companies and issuers when looking at specific issues and offers, there is a dearth of information on what KiwiSaver managers do in terms of active engagement...

The Billionaires Playground

Each year in May, my mother and I head up to Auckland to the Auckland Writers Festival (this year was our sixth visit).  It is always a sensation overload with all the people and the fantastic choice of speakers.This year we feasted on sessions called - Trump: The next 4 years, The Ranks of the Rich, A.C. Grayling - Making Peace in the Culture Wars and How Tyrants Fall: And How Nations Survive (amongst others).One of the other sessions that we attended was called '2025 - The Billionaires Pl...

Meet Saravanan - the brains behind Millie

When we started on our process of building Millie in August 2018 we had no idea what we were doing.  We were fortunate that Q4 - a specialist company in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) took a chance on us and gave us a fixed price for building the Annual Review process with Millie.From day one - we were allocated Saravanan Sankar as our developer.  When Q4 were sold to EY, the owner of Q4 recommended that Moneyworks work directly with Saravanan (in August 2022).  Since then, Sara...

Stewardship in Action - Magellan Global

According to Google - this is what Stewardship means:Stewardship refers to the responsible allocation and management of capital to create and preserve long-term value for clients and beneficiaries. It involves investors actively using their rights and influence to promote sound corporate governance, sustainable business practices, and positive environmental and social outcomes. Essentially, it's about being a responsible owner and guiding companies towards long-term value creation by c...

The climate crisis and investing

We have been hearing about the Climate Crisis and Climate Change for years now and are realising that we really are going to have to work out how to live with cyclones, flooding, heatwaves, fires and work out how to adapt.While there will always be climate change deniers, our fund managers are all believers and all of them take into account climate change impacts when assessing a company for investment.  They don’t want to invest in a company that is not aware of the risks to their busine...

New Deposit Compensation Scheme from 1st July 2025

BackgroundBeginning in  2007 – New Zealand had a string of finance companies fall over (they were over leveraged (too much debt) and in hindsight had been playing tricks with their valuations.Following this, in 2008 – the global financial system was rocked by the collapse or near collapse of major banking organisations and (including other triggers), these global events led to the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 – 2010.The mainstream banks in Australia and New Zealand fared well durin...

Rates Rebates – could you be eligible? – You might be surprised if you have a SuperGold Card.

If you own your own property you may be eligible for a partial discount on your rates bill – if you are on a ‘low’ income.  This becomes more relevant when you have retired, and your income is based on your New Zealand Superannuation plus any investment earnings.  There is special treatment for people who have a SuperGold card (there is a lower cutoff of household income than if there is no SuperGold card.)In Budget 2025 – the Government announced that the threshold of income f...