Q&As: NZ gets good value from many NZ Super recipients; How parents might help their adult children with the two items that cost more now; Last week’s correspondent should leave the country, or change their thinking; How to calculate KiwiSaver tax credit in your first year in the scheme; Some KiwiSaver providers help members with tax credit; A welfare payment by any other name…
Q&As: Reader could do with a re-think; Economist calls for in-depth look at NZ Super; Easy way to make KiwiSaver contributions; Should we use KiwiSaver money to repay student loans?; How about starting to charge interest on student loans?; 3 readers remember what tertiary tuition fees were like in their day.
Q&As: One retired reader is fed up with a younger person’s attitude to superannuitants…; While another is amused, and thoughtful; Effect of a mortgage rate rise on house prices being underplayed; An overseas landlord must, by law, have an agent here; Bank gives wrong info on deposits into KiwiSaver.
Why a reader advises his son against KiwiSaver… …and why I disagree. A reader’s letter explaining why he’s advising his 18-year-old son not to join KiwiSaver has not convinced me.
Q&As: Should reader buy a NZ house now — while still overseas — or later?; 3 readers’ varying views on student loans; 2 readers seem to be a bit muddled about the new KiwiSaver tax credit.
Q&As: Best ways to play the KiwiSaver game if you are an employee with a mortgage; 2 readers argue — convincingly — with my comments last week on student loan repayment; Why a reader changed her attitude to repaying her children’s student loans.
Slow and steady not always the way to win. Slow and steady isn’t always best when it comes to regular investing. We’ll look at making annual investments, to keep it simple. But the same principle applies to contributing to KiwiSaver or other investments in which you make more frequent deposits of the same amount.
Q&As: Students get a good deal by world standards, and shouldn’t dodge student loan repayments; How come the bonds in a balanced KiwiSaver fund report losses?; Winning the tax game if you have a home and a rental property; Where to get free budget advice.
Q&As: Is it better to go for the most expensive house you can, or the cheapest?; Adult son in sheltered workshop should keep up with KiwiSaver; Slight risk of holding back on using student loan repayment bonus.
A big year for KiwiSaver. In the annals of KiwiSaver history, 2012 will be notable for two things. It will mark the start of a two-year shift away from government input and towards more employee and employer input, and it will be the first year in which members can withdraw their savings in retirement.