KiwiSavers now sitting pretty on a $58 billion pile

Sunday, 12 May 2019

The amount of money people have saved in KiwiSaver rose 16.5 per cent to top $58 billion at the end of March.

The average saver is now sitting on a balance of $19,246.

Financial Services Council chief executive Richard Klipin said the growth – which was due to $5.7b in contributions, investment returns and a 2.9 per cent increase in members in the scheme – was encouraging.

'Recent changes introduced by the Government, including the changes in contribution rates, new options for over 65s and 'savings suspension' are all contributing to improving the scheme.'

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Website Sorted showed annual returns from 'growth', balanced and conservative funds averaged 6.4 per cent, 5.5 per cent and 4.2 per cent, respectively, after fees over the five years to the end of December.

Analyst MorningStar said all the funds it surveyed had made positive returns during the first quarter of this year, with 'aggressive' funds returning 10.1 per cent growth on average, and conservative funds 3.6 per cent.

That reflected an 11.7 per cent rebound for the NZX50, a 10.1 per cent bounce on the Australian sharemarket and a 'remarkably strong' 11.1 per cent rally in the MCSI World Index which tracks international equities. 

ASB's growth fund was up 9.1 after tax and fees at the end of the quarter, following an 8.1 per cent decline in the previous quarter.

Financial services firm Kiwi Wealth published a report last week that found a quarter of 2100 people surveyed reported feeling less wealthy than they did a year ago, with a third struggling financially or 'just getting by from pay cheque to pay cheque'.

'Confidence in New Zealand's economy, financial and property markets is quite strong, but wealth isn't evenly distributed,' customer manager Joe Bishop said.

'In fact, the gap between the 'haves and have-nots' is widening fast and our young people, renters and those living in the regions are missing out most,' he said.