This will be the last year that we are going above and beyond with voluntary contributions to our KiwiSaver. I had been pushing up to $500 per month into both my husband and my funds but last week we reached my tipping point...
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This will be the last year that we are going above and beyond with voluntary contributions to our KiwiSaver. I had been pushing up to $500 per month into both my husband and my funds but last week we reached my tipping point...
Now, we Kiwi’s don’t like to self congratulate, it’s frowned upon. But stuff it, I’m going to… This week marks one year since I started this blog! Cripes, I can’t believe it has gone by so quick AND that I have managed to dream up something to discuss each week.
All your working life you are trying to increase your net worth so that when you finally stop working you start to slowly spend it to live on. If upon retirement each year you take 4% out of your pot of savings it will take about 30 years to boil the pot dry. So what can you live on a year? Do you need to invest $100K, $200 or $500K?
Is it just me or are people confusing saving for a house with saving for retirement? I keep hearing about first home buyers all the time and how difficult it is to get into the market. But the question I keep asking myself is “why do people use their KiwiSaver as their primary mode of saving for a deposit?”
Investing is like shopping for toothpaste. There is a range of companies offering a very similar product. There are differences, most of which are minor and you just have to cut through all the jargon and choose an option. If you get too bogged down in the detail it just all becomes too difficult and you will end up doing nothing.
On the 13th of April I received an email telling me I had just received some moolah. Yippee, great timing! At the time I was just packing the car up to head away for five days over Easter, a bit of spending money would be great.
Back in July 2016 I helped Mr Happy Saver hook up with some SmartShares. He only bought a very small amount because it was always my intention to use it as an experiment to blog about. Today is sale day!
Having a common goal helps. We equally don’t want to be broke now or broke in retirement. We want to work less now, enjoy family life now, be prepared when things go wrong and not be so reliant on other people to create an income. These goals keep us on the straight and narrow and they are something that we openly discuss.
Significant moments help to shape the people we are today and that got me wondering why I’m a saver and not a spender. This is one of my significant money memories that influenced me for ever after and hopefully helps me to do things right, more than I do things wrong.