Smart Money

Tensions are high for everyone right now, and I know most people will either be nervously checking their KiwiSaver balance on the daily, or completely ignoring it until things calm down a bit.
The most repeated advice advisors will be giving right now is to simply ignore your balance for the time being - that by the time the first bomb dropped, it was too late to change anything. But is that really true?
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From April 1st, the KiwiSaver minimum default contribution rate will move up to 3.5%.
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We've all found ourselves day dreaming about where we'd spend a big Lotto win at one point or another.
Realistically, many of us will come into a major windfall - but it's likely to come in the form of a bonus at work, or an inheritance.
Is it okay to buy a new car and go on holiday? Or should we invest it all?
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Ethical investing seems to be a hot topic when it comes to choosing an investment fund or KiwiSaver provider.
I've often heard providers boast that their fund is ethical - they avoid weapons manufacturers, focus on renewable and sustainable energy - you won't feel a possible sense of guilt around where your money is going.
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We've started to see spots of what looks to be recovery in our economy over recent months.
It's not consistent, but it's frequent enough to give us some hope for the year to come.
Westpac is picking a whole lot of OCR hikes from the end of this year, and other forecasts seem to set a similar scene - a better economy is coming, and rates will have to reflect that when the time comes.
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