Q&As: It’s great if you pay more tax than you get back; Why should I bother to save?, readers asks; How tax proposals would affect KiwiSaver — and rule of thumb for retirement spending; Reader thinks CGT should decrease the longer you hold an asset. A note about your questions about tax.
Q&As: Is mortgage interest as ‘dead’ as rent?; $1 million needed in retirement, says reader…; …But here’s how you can do well with half that.
Q&As: A good reason to have a high credit card limit; One reader fires his bank…; …While another is fiercely loyal; Why I prefer managed funds over shares for most; Rules about income for recipients of rest home subsidy.
Q&As: Calling all KiwiSaver providers: Please let us know if you have plans to offer annuities or similar; Other payout possibilities for retired KiwiSavers; Couple who have returned to NZ but still own UK house should sell it, buy here and get on with enjoying life; Dwindling children’s KiwiSaver accounts possible but unlikely.
Wanted: better insurance against outliving our savings. Imagine you’re heading into retirement. You’ll get NZ Super, but you also have savings in KiwiSaver or elsewhere. You would like to spend that money over the rest of your life and leave the house to the kids. But — not knowing how long you will live — how can you decide how much to spend each year?
Excerpt from The Complete KiwiSaver: Which Assets Are for You? This week, Mary Holm’s Q&A column is replaced by an excerpt from her latest book, “The Complete KiwiSaver”. The principles she discusses here apply not just to KiwiSaver but to investing in general. Her Q&A column will resume next week.
Q&As: Tips for retired couple whose interest income has halved; Savings accounts may pay more interest than term deposits — but take care; Tax on foreign shares seems tough in current environment.
Retirement payments likely to make a comeback. Annuities — which are typically monthly payments to retired people, over and above NZ Super — may be on their way back onto the New Zealand scene.
Q&As: A tax on house sales, to subsidise first home owners, is a lovely idea that wouldn’t work; Renting and saving elsewhere can leave you better off than home ownership; Semi-retired couple who sold their home and rent are probably doing fine.
Q&As: Many elderly, and others, could benefit from rates postponement schemes; Why floating interest rates might be better — for home equity release schemes and ordinary mortgages; A not-so-dumb question about the $50,000 exemption for international tax changes, and a new source of info on the changes.