[Arclite]

Do most companies have company pension schemes in NZ ?

or not ?

or do most people have private pensions and rely on those ?

or do we just rely on the state pension ?

any thoughts guys ?

cheers

Arc

[marcia]

Personally we stopped paying into any pension scheme a few years ago when a few started going belly up.

We discussed it in depth and our feelings were that we wanted to be in control of our own money, so we started banging as much as we could afford each year into high savings accounts and class this as our pension.

The other deciding factors for us were that if both you and your spouse die who gets the pension you have so carefully invested in???

We have total control and have access to OUR money when we want to. Ok we don't get the tax allowances on it as you do for pensions but we made a decision and are happy with it.

Just my thoughts. sorry it doesn't answer your specific question, but its a 'strange' area now especially with the UK government changing the retirement ages too!

[Danny & Julie]

My Hubby has a company pension with his job in NZ. His employer told him the company has a pension scheme because it's an Australian company.
He did get 2 other job offers with NZ companies but no pension.
I'm sure I've read somewhere that NZ are bringing in a similar scheme to the UK where every employer has to offer a pension but I don't know when that starts.
If you have a pension already in the UK there are lots of companies which can transfer it to NZ.
Hope this helps.

[Avalon]

Company pensions are available - BUT most companies will not pay contributions into them because they have to pay Fringe Benefit Tax to the government in order to do so.

Also, any contributions YOU make are done AFTER you have paid income tax on the money earned. So you do not even get that tax benefit.

Most NZ pensions invest only in NZ/OZ funds, so Im told, so they tend to not do as well as they could (and are overly exposed to Telecom screw-ups of which theres currently a biggun!)

About the only benefit is that when you finally DO take the pension out - you arent taxed on the income.

The new scheme is KiwiSaver. Dont know much about it other than charges are high, the Inland Revenue is in charge ( :uhoh ), you have to "opt out" rather than "opt in" :mad: and I wouldnt touch it with a barge pole!

But then Im with Marcia - but doing something a bit different. An awful lot of Kiwis seem to go it alone with investment planning. Property is big - shares not so much. Value Investing seems to be quite big here. If you choose to do this - there are certainly losty of ways - but it will pay you (literraly) to become familiar with how money works. Not the easiest thing in the world to do - but certainly for us - better than relying on pension fund managers.

HTH