Retiring happily with KiwiSaver

Nine years after starting her KiwiSaver, recent retiree Janet McFadden is enjoying the retirement lifestyle she always wanted.

You’ll be lucky if you find Janet home these days. In between last year’s trip to Mongolia and planning next year’s one to Iran, the retired librarian helps kids at the local school learn to read, teaches patchwork and quilting at a women’s prison, hikes once a week and works on the garden of her new townhouse.

Packing her retirement full with the things she loves was exactly what Janet wanted to be able to do when she opened her KiwiSaver.

“The first 10 years of retirement are the most active and expensive. It’s when you’re the most physically and mentally able and when you want to do things like travel,” she said.

After reviewing old bank statements, Janet calculated how much money she could survive on once retired and then she started saving around one third of her income.

“I decided to save more than the minimum knowing that if I didn’t see the money and I didn’t touch it, it would just build up until I retired.

“The great thing about KiwiSaver is it’s like invisible savings because your contribution is taken out before it hits your bank account,” she said.

Janet also benefited from the $1,000 kickstart, employer contributions, annual member tax credits and investment returns.

Once she retired early last year, Janet set up a monthly withdrawal from her KiwiSaver to supplement her Government Retirement Income and other investments.

“Not taking into account any investment returns, my KiwiSaver should last into my early 80s.”

While admitting saving one third of her income in the lead up to her retirement was hard, Janet says an earlier experience of living on a very tight budget to pay a mortgage off was very helpful.

“It took awhile before I could focus on saving for retirement, so that effort I made in the last nine years has been really worth it.”

Janet McFadden