Introduction to Kiwimonster on Wednesday, 29 January

Kiwimonster free service now available to Quotemonster users.

Check out free KiwiSaver scheme and fund data comparisons at  www.kiwimonster.co.nz - if you already have a quotemonster login then you can get immediate access. Explore the free comparison tools and let us know how to keep improving the reporting. Soon KiwiSaver research will be available bringing comparisons in categories such as service, support, and facilities research to financial advisers to support your advice process.

If you’re interested in learning more about Kiwimonster, we have an in-dept training session scheduled on Wednesday, 29 January 2025 12:00 pm-12:20 pm, please email us on info@quotemonster.co.nz if you are interested in joining us.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Accessing our Terms of Use and Privacy policies

If you have any questions about our terms of use or privacy policies, find out how to access them here.

How much do you need to save for retirement?

There are many differences in opinion in how much people need to save. Here is a run through some excellent current resources:

This article calculates that if you want a ‘choices’ lifestyle (income of $60,000 - $87,000 a year) you’ll need to have between $890,000 and $1,360,000 saved depending on if you are a single person or a couple. If you want a well-off lifestyle (income of $100,000) a year, you’ll need to have saved somewhere between $1,929,000 and $2,640,000.

Some advisers like to exclude ‘lifestyle assets’ such as a mortgage-free home, caravan and boat from calculations, basing retirement calculations solely on cash and liquid investments. Other people may have downsizing to a smaller home to release some equity as a key part of their retirement strategy.

Retirement Commissioner Jane Wrightson advocates for people to start saving for their retirement as early as possible

“How much you need to save will depend on your own circumstances, but the sooner you start, the better the position you’ll be in when you stop working.”

Mercer Financial Advice launched a retirement income simulator late this year. If you haven’t already checked it out, we recommend you do. This is quite a comprehensive calculator that lets you estimate your projected retirement savings and how long it may last in retirement. What I particularly like about this tool is it lets you factor in the impact of a career break or move to part-time work, something a lot of parents decide to do at some point. It shows you the results in today’s dollars (having deflated the projected dollar amounts based on the rate of wage inflation of 3.2%).

Sorted also have their retirement calculator you can check out. Simply add your current age, the age you’d like to retire, whether you’re planning on your own or with a partner (and their current and retirement ages), whether you want to live in a main centre or the regions, whether you want a no frills, choices or custom weekly allowance, plus your expected KiwiSaver balances at retirement and any other savings, investments, inheritances, sales of a business or other income. You can also choose to include or exclude NZ Super, depending on whether you think it will still be around by the time you retire.

A useful guide for planning how to spend your savings nest egg when it comes time to retire is The New Zealand Society of Actuaries’ Drawdown Rules of Thumb. It sets out different strategies you may like to use depending on your priorities and risk level, whether you intend to leave an inheritance or whether you want to front-load your spending. They have also published Spending patterns through retirement: implications for retirement planning and drawdown which urges those planning for or managing income in retirement to consider how spending patterns can be expected to change throughout the duration of retirement. Their analysis suggests a typical scenario for New Zealand retirees is that real spending reduces by around 2% a year, which would significantly reduce the amount needed to be saved compared to commonly used benchmarks that assume spending stays level in real terms. Though it’s important to note that the data doesn’t show whether the lower spending is because people become less active during retirement and choose not to do things or become constrained by their resources and must give up such options.

All these reports could be used to build a sound basis for the KiwiSaver and wider Superannuation planning services you may offer.

As always, when it comes to something as important and complex as your retirement savings, if you are reading this and you are not a financial adviser, we encourage you to speak to an adviser about your retirement – and while you are at it, your life and health insurance too.

But you probably are a financial adviser, in which case – why not check out Kiwimonster? Our new, free, data service for advisers to help support your KiwiSaver advice process. You can find it at www.kiwimonster.co.nz

Research deep dive session - Thursday 24 January at 11am

This session is not for everyone! We have our research team live most months. In this session we cover: FAQs, legacy product research, rural IP rating, and roadmap. It is usually a very small group, so if you have any other questions you want to ask the research team, this is a great opportunity. If you would like to join us, please drop us a line to kim.oliver@qpresearch.co.nz

Menopause in the news

Menopause, where oestrogen levels drop and menstruation stops, has been in the news a lot recently. While people are starting to talk about it more, there is still a lack of understanding and even misdiagnosis of symptoms. One survey found a third of respondents waited at least three years for their menopausal symptoms to be correctly diagnosed, and a further 18 per cent visited their doctor six times before they received the help they needed.

While hot flushes may be the symptom most people first think of, brain fog has been found to be more common. Other symptoms can include night sweats, mood swings, joint pain, low energy, memory problems, sleep problems, low mood, low libido, irritability, nervousness, headaches and more.

Dr Lisa Mosconi says “Menopause changes the brain’s structure, functionality, and even its connectivity in fairly unique ways.” Dr Louise Newson even suggests it should be reframed as a neurological condition instead of a gynaecological one.

So what can be done to help improve menopausal symptoms? Eat a mediterranean-style diet filled with whole foods, avoid alcohol, get regular physical exercise, challenge your brain (puzzles, learning a new language or playing a musical instrument are all good), get quality sleep, try stress management techniques such as yoga and mindfulness, discuss hormonal and non-hormonal options with your doctor.

Some workplaces have started to hold workshops to encourage dialogue about menopause, or implement menopause policies. AIA NZ has produced a Menopause toolkit, to help employees understand and support people going through menopause.

More information can be found at The Australasian Menopause Society website.

Researchmonster Demo

Watch our video that takes you through how to use Researchmonster, including some of the time saving enhancements we’ve added to make it even easier to use.

The future of NZ Superannuation

Interest.co.nz ran a very interesting series of articles by Andrew Coleman around NZ’s superannuation system. He takes readers through the history of NZ super, how it differs from most overseas pension schemes, different ways schemes can be taxed and more. In particular, I though his bathtub metaphor was an excellent illustration of the difference between pay-as-you-go and save-as-you-go schemes.

Coleman advocates for a revamp of NZ’s superannuations scheme, including a compulsory savings scheme he dubs KiwiSaver 2.1. He makes the point that NZ super was designed so long ago it may not be fit for purpose for kiwis today and going forward into the future. He argues that New Zealanders under the age of 45 (those who were too young to vote in the 1997 referendum) should consider a fundamental restructure of the NZ government’s retirement income scheme.

All in all, a very interesting, easy-to-understand read – check it out if you haven’t already. Andrew Coleman joins The NZ Tax Podcast to talk more about KiwiSaver 2.1 here, if you prefer to listen.

Retirement, tax and preferences: Understanding New Zealand’s most intractable problem | interest.co.nz

A history of New Zealand’s retirement policy | interest.co.nz

Could NZ change from pay-as-you-go funded pensions to save-as-you-go funded pensions? | interest.co.nz

How much tax you pay versus what to expect to receive in pensions, and why when you were born matters | interest.co.nz

Making the transition from PAYGO to SAYGO | interest.co.nz

Death, taxes, and wealth inequality | interest.co.nz

New Zealand Superannuation, behavioural economics, and investment choices | interest.co.nz

New Zealand’s unusual tax system | interest.co.nz

New Zealand’s odd taxation of retirement savings is bad for the country | interest.co.nz

Taxes and the housing market | interest.co.nz

Survey evidence on what New Zealanders want from retirement policy | interest.co.nz

KiwiSaver 2.1: why compulsory savings would be great for young New Zealanders | interest.co.nz

New Zealand's retirement income policy time warp | interest.co.nz

How health innovations have increased life expectancy - and could continue to do so

I am a big fan of health innovations. I owe my life, and the lives of my wife and three children, to excellent modern health care systems. I am going to link to an excellent post about new treatments that are emerging at the end of this piece. This is a good news post to focus on what is going well, and some optimism for improvements.

Before I do that, I want to highlight some of the innovations of the last 100 years that have had the most dramatic effect on life expectancy. The early part of the 20th century - from 1900 to roughly the end of the second world war, saw a series of catastrophes. The first world war, the Spanish ‘flu pandemic, the depression, the Holodomor, and then the second world war, including The Holocaust. Life expectancy took a beating - google charts of life expectancy for Western Europe - you will see the dips especially in France. In some places you see long periods where there is an absence of data, which perhaps tells an even more horrific story. But over the last 100 years there have been some incredible innovations which has enabled a dramatic improvement in the life expectancy across developed nations - and substantial improvements in virtually all nations, some developing nations, and even in many that remain desperately poor.

Historical Context: Top Interventions of the Last 100 Years

Sanitation and Clean Water (Early to Mid-20th Century) - Municipal water treatment and widespread adoption of sanitation systems dramatically reduced deaths from waterborne illnesses like cholera and typhoid.

Antibiotics and Infection Control (1940s onward) - The discovery of penicillin and subsequent antibiotics revolutionized the treatment of bacterial infections, which were major causes of mortality in the early 20th century. Advances in surgical antisepsis and sterile techniques further reduced infection-related deaths.

Vaccines (20th Century onwards ) - Immunization programs virtually eradicated diseases like smallpox and drastically reduced others, including polio, measles, and tetanus. Widespread childhood vaccination campaigns have saved millions of lives, particularly in developing nations. It is a shame that vaccination rates in this country have been falling for some time – bringing a resurgence in diseases such as whooping cough.

Improvements in Cardiovascular Health (Mid-20th Century onwards) -Advances in understanding heart disease and hypertension led to effective treatments, such as statins, beta-blockers, and minimally invasive surgeries like angioplasty. Lifestyle interventions and public health campaigns reduced smoking, significantly decreasing cardiovascular deaths. If only we could push on and work on our obesity epidemic, we could continue to make rapid progress in this area. Some of the new weight loss medicines (see below) offer some help in the battle of the bulge – which has a huge effect on cardiovascular health, and cancer rates.

Cancer Screening and Treatment (Late 20th Century onward)
The development of chemotherapy, radiation, and surgical techniques, combined with early detection through screening, significantly improved cancer survival rates. Now we have a whole new suite of cancer medicines which look set to dramatically improve survival rates once again. But more on those later.

Advances in Maternal and Neonatal Care (20th century)
The introduction of prenatal care, safe delivery practices, and neonatal medicine has dramatically improved survival rates for mothers and infants, contributing to longer average lifespans globally. A nod should be given to safety improvements in care of children here too, which has helped not only in the first year of life, but also in the first five years.

It is hard to say exactly how much – as combinations of factors (positive and negative) have created the great outcomes we have today. In aggregate, the shift has been incredible - expectations for life expectancy at birth in the UK were about 48 for males and about 52 for females in 1900. Today they are about 82 years, about a 78% improvement. In New Zealand, the shift has been similar. I haven’t event talked about quality of life yet. Estimates vary, but the big ones have been estimated, in the UK, to have had the following contribution ranges in impact (estimates are as a percentage of the total gain in mortality).

·       Sanitation and Hygiene: 20–25%

·       Cardiovascular Disease Treatments: 15–20%

·       Antibiotics: 10–15%

·       Vaccination Programs: 10–12%

·       Maternal and Neonatal Care: 8–10%

Can the rate of gains continue?

Absolutely, yes. We did a piece of work in 2023 estimating how many deaths, annually, could be saved by bringing our health system performance up to either a) the OECD average or b) the OECD leader. The gains are substantial, and are not just about later life treatments – but saving hundreds of deaths, for example, of women in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, from breast cancer.

Plus, there are so many great new innovations. For that, I want to link to this external article, which details some incredible new discoveries, which are worth reading about:

(1) Five medical breakthroughs in 2024 - by Saloni Dattani

If you would like to read the biography for Saloni Dattani, you can find a brief one here: Saloni Dattani - Our World in Data

Overall, for most people, life has become longer, better, and wealthier. At the same time, it remains true that there is much more to be done. Even just improving access

Antimicrobial resistance poses major global health threat

The World Health Organisation (WHO) categorises antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as one of the top global public health threats. Antimicrobials (that is antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals and antiparasitics) being overprescribed and misused is contributing to the development of drug-resistant pathogens. AMR happens over time as pathogens (including bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites) mutate – those resistant to the antimicrobials they were previously susceptible to survive, multiply and spread. The more microbes are exposed to pharmaceuticals, the more likely they are to adapt and develop resistance. This happens in all areas and at all income levels and has global ramifications. Infections become harder to treat, surgeries become riskier and more people die. Modern medicines that were once able to quickly and effectively treat a raft of ailments from tuberculosis to urinary tract infections become progressively more ineffective. In 2019, AMR was estimated to be directly responsible for 1.27 million deaths and a contributing factor in 4.95 million deaths.

Paul Murray, CEO Life & Health Reinsurance at Swiss Re, has written about this ‘silent pandemic’. He calls out the overprescription of antibiotics during the other pandemic, with a reported 75% of patients hospitalised for Covid-19 being treated with antibiotics despite only 8% having bacterial co-infections. He highlights that the impacts are unequally distributed, with those in more vulnerable regions being disproportionally affected, with death rates in sub-Saharan Africa double those of developed countries. Climate change and its accompanying extreme weather, climate-driven migration and warfare are all  vectors expected to intensify exposure to drug-resistant pathogens.

In addition to health impacts, AMR is increasingly causing significant financial impacts. In the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has calculated antibiotic resistance can add as much as $1,400 to hospital bills for patients with bacterial infections. When standard treatments regiments for infections don’t work any longer, complex, often costly, treatment regimens need to be explored. Last resort antibiotics tend to be particularly expensive.

If you want to read more, Swiss Re has published ‘Antimicrobial resistance: a silent threat to our future’, available here.

Thoughts from advisers

We reached out to some advisers and other experts in the industry for their thoughts and opinions on the job, advice they’d give to people looking to get into the financial services industry, what they’re looking forward to and steps people can take to set themselves on the best financial path at different stages.

Wilhelmina Eveleens, Financial Adviser – Risk at InsuranceBASE

What is the most rewarding part of your job?

Supporting clients to make better financial decisions.

If you could give one piece of advice to someone looking to get into the financial services industry, what would it be?

Align yourself with the best people in the industry (and sign up to QuoteMonster!). 

What is something you are looking forward to about the industry over the next 10 years?

Seeing the quality of advisers and advice improve.

What steps can people take to set themselves on the best financial path in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s?

Save, save, save … and make sure your KiwiSaver is appropriately invested.

What’s the last book you read?

Stolen Focus - Johann Hari.