Jessica

Wants to enjoy a great OE and start saving for later life

"I went straight into my job from uni, and it’s been a few years now so I’m starting to get itchy feet! I want to go on an OE, but I’ve used all my savings setting up my flat. So now I’ve got to find a way to live comfortably on my $30k a year, still pay off my student loan and get some money together."

"Also, I mustn’t forget what mum and dad have always said about starting to save early for retirement. So, where to start..."

Budget:

• Income after tax: $30,000 a year
• Expenses: $18,000 a year
• Leaves me $12,000 to save or invest

Action plan:

Short-term goal - OE

1. Save $10,000 in the next year for my OE.
2. Open a high-interest National Bank eSaver account to earn Premium interest if I make no withdrawals and deposit at least $20 per month (not including credit interest).
3. Set up a fortnightly automatic payment to go into my eSaver Account every payday.

Long-term goal – retirement

1. Contribute 4% of my gross income to the National Bank KiwiSaver Scheme.
2. Get the one-off $1,000 Government contribution and tax free employer contributions.

More information about National Bank e-Saver, including fees and terms.

The National Bank KiwiSaver Scheme Investment Statement (including the application form) is available as a PDF.

You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to read the PDF version. If you don't have it, don't worry - it's free. Just follow this link to the Adobe site to download a copy.

Matt and Vanessa

Want to buy their first home in three years time and enjoy life in the meantime.

"Now we’re married we need to start thinking in terms of our household income, rather than our individual incomes as two working professionals. So what’s the best way to get the most out of our collective $90,000 a year? Not forgetting we’d like to head to Fiji this winter and save at least $70,000 over the next three years for a house deposit. We just signed up for KiwiSaver so should we still save for our retirement and a house deposit?"

Budget:

• Income after tax and KiwiSaver contributions: $56,700 a year
• Expenses: $36,000 a year
• Leaving $20,700 to save ($1,725 a month)

Action plan:

Short-term goal – Fiji!

1. We need $5,000 for the holiday
2. Open an eSaver account
3. Set up automatic payments into our eSaver account totalling $1,000 each month for 5 months

Medium-term goal – Buy our own home

1. Continue to contribute 4% of Matt and Vanessa's gross income to KiwiSaver – that way we can benefit from the one-off Government contribution, the $1,040 tax credits p.a. and tax free employer contributions
2. After three years of saving with KiwiSaver, we can use our individual and the employer contributions as part of our deposit on our first home*. That way we can either save a bigger deposit or get to our goal faster.
3. Open another eSaver account to save further for our house deposit – separate to the account for Fiji.
4. Set up automatic payments into our eSaver acount totalling $725 each month.
5. Increase automatic payment amount by $1,000 once we’ve finished saving for Fiji. We can also increase it if we get any pay increases while we’re saving.
6. Join The National Bank Home Ambition package to get some practical help and incentives towards saving for our deposit.

*This is subject to the house meeting certain conditions and is plus any gains or losses on entire account and after fees.

More information about National Bank eSaver including fees and terms.

The National Bank KiwiSaver Scheme Investment Statement (including the application form) is available as a PDF.

You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to read the PDF version. If you don't have it, don't worry - it's free. Just follow this link to the Adobe site to download a copy.

Steven and Sarah

Want a comfortable retirement with no nasty surprises.

"We can’t quite believe it – the mortgage will finally be paid off next year! Then we can start putting some decent money into our retirement fund and build on the $5,000 we’ve already saved. We’re planning to retire at 65 with a retirement income that’s around 70% of our current $100,000 gross income.

One thing we do need to address is setting up a small ‘emergency fund’ in case we need to get our hands on some cash fast. The family car is pretty old and gets well-used for running the kids around, so you never know when it’s going to pack in! "

Budget:

• Income after tax: $75,000 a year
• Annual outgoings: $63,000 a year
• Leaving $12,000 a year ($1,000 a month) to invest.

Action plan:

Short-term goal – emergency fund

1. Create a $10,000 fund.
2. Put our existing $5,000 savings into a National Bank Call Fund so we can get competitive and tax effective returns and access it when we need to.
3. Set up an automatic payment of $1,000 per month into the Call Fund. After five months our emergency fund will be complete!

Long-term goal – retirement on 70% income

1. Using a retirement calculator, we’ve worked out that to have 70% of our income in retirement we need to save around $1,400 per month – more than our budget allows. As a start, we could put 4% of our gross salaries into KiwiSaver and then back to the drawing board for the rest.
2. Our choices include:
   Reviewing our budget to see if more savings are possible
   Seeing if there’s a way to increase our income
   Accepting a lower income in retirement
   Investing in a more aggressive retirement fund.

The National Bank KiwiSaver Scheme Investment Statement (including the application form) is available as a PDF.

You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to read the PDF version. If you don't have it, don't worry - it's free. Just follow this link to the Adobe site to download a copy.

Alan and Mary

Want their money to last so they can kick back and enjoy life

"Life’s taken on a new perspective now the kids have flown the nest, there’s no work stress and the mortgage is paid off. It’s time to kick back and just enjoy life!

We’ve retired with $300,000 in savings and we’re both getting the National Superannuation benefit, which covers our basic expenses. The interest we earn from our savings supports our lifestyle, but we’d like to be able to dip into our savings for added extras such as holidays. However, we still need to protect our savings against inflation, so we need a good return with relatively low risk."

Budget:

• We receive $22,870 a year from National Superannuation
• We expect our $300,000 savings to last for another 20 years

Action plan:

Short-term goal – have access to our savings for lifestyle extras

1. Set aside $20,000 in a National Bank Call Fund to give competitive and tax effective returns, and access any time.
2. Invest a further $180,000 in Term Deposits, due to mature at different times. As each Term Deposit matures, we can transfer it to our Call Fund if we need to or reinvest.

Long-term goal – grow and protect our savings for the longer-term

1. Invest the remaining $100,000 into a Thoroughbred Conservative Unit Trust. It invests in primarily cash and fixed interest, as well as shares, property and other assets. This should help to protect our savings against inflation in the longer-term.