Meet Liz!
She’s a 40 year old, Auckland-based Kiwi (but soon to be a New Plymouth local!) and works as a Consultant. Liz has been a KiwiSaver member for a long time but hasn’t always been contributing money towards it (lucky for her, an old employer used to match her contributions up to 8%, which helped her build up a healthy balance that has been generating returns ever since).
Planning for retirement by calculating her weekly retirement income
She’s saving to retire at 65, which means she has 25 years of contributions to come! Having moved between permanent full-time employee roles and working as an independent contractor, Liz has always changed up her KiwiSaver contribution rate depending on her role and income. At the moment she’s contributing 3% of her salary. Using kōura’s digital advice tool Liz can see that she’s just shy of having the weekly retirement income she’s hoping for, so is considering upping her contribution rate.
Liz joined kōura back in 2020. Before then she didn’t really know much about KiwiSaver or that there were lots of KiwiSaver providers outside of big banks. And so, when asked “what’s the best piece of KiwiSaver knowledge that you wish you knew sooner?” her answer is:
“Research KiwiSaver providers early on!! Don’t just make the assumption that because your provider might be an old, institutional bank that they’re the best place to have your KiwiSaver. The sooner you take it seriously and make the move to a KiwiSaver provider that you align with, the better.”
Realising that banks don't always know best
Liz admits that she also thought having her KiwiSaver with her bank would be good so that she could see her KiwiSaver balance in her online banking. But after making the switch to kōura, she’s changed her mind.
“Seeing my KiwiSaver in my online banking seemed convenient, but it didn’t actually give me any value. Now I have a super cool portal through kōura which provides way more information like graphs, statements and future balance predictions that are all really easy to understand, and so I get way more value out of it than when it was with my bank”.
Now that Liz is schooled up on all things KiwiSaver, she says that for her, a provider that has good returns, invests her money ethically and sustainably, and helps her to make the right decisions about her KiwiSaver account is what matters to her.
Customising her KiwiSaver to suit her high-risk appetite
Liz never used to consider herself much of an ‘investor’ but like a lot of Kiwi’s she’s now learning more about the share markets and is dabbling in other investing platforms outside of KiwiSaver. When it comes to KiwiSaver, she has a high risk-appetite, meaning she’s comfortable seeing her balance fluctuate as the markets do better and/or worse. And so one of her favourite things about kōura is that she can adjust the types of funds her KiwiSaver is invested in just by logging in to her kōura portal.
“I’m comfortable with more risk, and so I decided to move 10% of my KiwiSaver portfolio that was invested in lower-risk investments into to equities, and I didn’t have to call anyone and could do it all online.”
“To me, kōura makes my KiwiSaver feel more like a valued investment rather than a forgotten savings account like it did with my bank.”
