Help needed for retirees to live it up a bit. I’m disappointed. Retired people have been gaining access to their KiwiSaver money for several months now, but there’s no emergence of good new products to help them manage their savings.
Q&As: The big question: does the doom merchant use banks?; Why NZ banks are not beloved; How couple close to retirement might be able to get a mortgage; When saving beats repaying a mortgage; Low-income reader lives a good life; Housing NZ offers help to retired people too.
Q&As: Time to check a reader’s challenge about banks and gold; And let’s hear it from the reader himself; Why 1-person retiree households spend so much less than 2-person households; Should NZ Super be more for older retired people?; Income manipulation to get student allowances is now curbed; Not every reader agrees with aggressive ones.
Q&As: The extra money retired people can get from the government, above NZ Super; 2 Q&As about information on spending in retirement; People don’t literally invest student loans — so how do they do it?; Reader finds this column not worth reading!; People who make the most of student loans are “not morally bankrupt”.
Retirement spending puzzle solved. It was a question that got people thinking. Massey University senior lecturer Claire Matthews had just finished a presentation at the Workplace Savings NZ conference on how much people spend in retirement. “How come most of the spending totals for two-person households are more than twice the one-person totals?,” somebody asked.
Q&As: 3 readers are upset about morality and student loan repayment strategies; Is it better to take advantage of the student loan repayment bonus, while it lasts?; Low retirement spending figures challenged.
KiwiSaver graduates face some choices. It’s decision time for the first KiwiSavers “graduates” — those over 65 who have been in the scheme for five years. But there’s no rush.
Q&As: Reasonable and unreasonable expectations about NZ Super and people’s retirement savings; People need to think beyond their own needs, says reader; Better or worse then or now? Just different; Just how high are — and were — tertiary fees?; Oops! I got it wrong about foreign exchange and interest rates.
Q&As: Teen busker should be filing a tax return; Reader shows how not to choose a KiwiSaver fund; Voltaire quote last week hit the spot; Researcher reports on surprisingly high chance of ending up in a rest home.
Q&As: Is it wise not to save because if you do you’ll lose some government subsidies — and to spend the money on cars instead?; Our chances of ending up in a rest home. And could there be insurance to cover the costs?; Last week’s “oily ragger” should do her own thing; No bargain is quite so good when you consider how much you really had to earn to buy it; Update on a reader’s predictions of NZ’s exchange rate and gold and silver prices.