The Spinoff talks to Rupert Carlyon and finds out how young Kiwis are missing out on billions in their KiwiSaver accounts.

Think you’ve got your KiwiSaver sorted? Try kōura’s ‘Robo-advice’ questionnaire, and you might be surprised.

If a person who looks like they know about finance asks you whether your risk appetite is low, medium or high, what do you say? The problem is most Kiwis don’t understand what the question means, or the consequences the answer has for their savings, says Rupert Carlyon, co-founder of new KiwiSaver scheme Kōura. 

“When it comes to investing, people don’t understand the definition of high, medium and low risk. To them ‘high risk’ means ‘would I be willing to lose all my money?’”

KiwiSaver providers are not having the right conversations with their clients to make sure they are aware of the decisions they need to make for their retirement, he says. As a result, New Zealanders are missing out on crucial savings. Kōura has done research which shows that more than half of KiwiSaver investors are in a fund that is not the right type them. This includes the 20% of people who are languishing in low-return default funds. It’s now been 12 years since KiwiSaver launched and the industry is not working quite as it should, Carlyon says. 

Read the full article here.

The Kōura difference

Does KiwiSaver make your brain hurt? At Kōura, we keep things simple. We ask you a simple set of questions and assess your risk appetite to generate a KiwiSaver portfolio that's entirely personalised to you. Our calculators allow you to see just how much you will have in your KiwiSaver balance based on what you're saving now and will even give you a weekly retirement income prediction. This enables you to get a realistic picture of much you can rely on your KiwiSaver fund for your retirement and what levers you can pull to give you the retirement you want. Give Kōura a try now and see what your retirement will look like.

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