Last year’s policy change means New Zealanders will soon see more flowing into their KiwiSaver plan. From April, employer contributions rise from 3% to 3.5%, giving the nation’s retirement savings a significant boost. Financial Adviser Liam Robertson joins Ryan Bridge to unpack what this change means, and provide effective, easy ways to maximise the performance and long term value of your KiwiSaver plan.
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Bridge talks Business: 27 January 2026
Episode Transcript
Ryan Bridge
Kia ora and welcome to Episode 60 of Bridge talks Business with Milford. Now I know lots of you who listen to the podcast have KiwiSaver accounts – this one’s for you. Liam Robertson from Milford is back again. He knows his way around KiwiSaver and he’s got top tips for maximizing your returns for 2026 because, let’s face it, if you’re gonna do it, you might as well do it right.
First, your top five business bits:
1. As expected, the Greenland geopolitical saga blew over after Trump backtracked tariffs on Europe post a quite constructive meeting with the NATO boss. Accordingly, share markets breathed a sigh of relief and rallied to close the week.
2. More optimism in global market surveys. This is the big business, the big corporates. A notable pickup as well in sentiment in the UK, Australia, and Japan. Global economic growth is heading in the right direction.
3. Australian economic data continues its hot streak, as employment data released last week saw the unemployment rate drop back to 4.1% – a big improvement on the 4.5% seen in September. Investors are now on alert for the RBA to hike rates at their meeting next week, a pricing in interest rates to rise by half a percent by the end of the year.
4. Back home, CPI for the fourth quarter came in at 3.1% for the year – above market and RBNZ expectations. Shouldn’t be too concerning as the measure of core inflation remains pretty contained. But, it cements the fact the RBNZ is done cutting and the next move will likely be a hike, albeit after a long period of hold.
5. All eyes this week on the US Federal Reserve Meeting where interest rates are expected to hold. Australian fourth-quarter CPI will be closely watched ahead of the RBA next week. We also get earnings reports from the big US tech companies.
Ryan Bridge
Alright, it is 2026 and time to figure out how you can get the most out of your KiwiSaver plan, whichever one you might be on. Joining us to discuss is Liam Robertson. He’s a Financial Adviser at Milford. Just a reminder, this segment is informational only and should not be considered financial advice. Liam, welcome back.
Liam Robertson
G’day, mate. So I didn’t think you’d have me back a third time, but here we are.
Ryan Bridge
Do you know, when someone comes with information – good information – it doesn’t matter how much I dislike them, they come back on the podcast.
Liam Robertson
I guess I’m proof of that! No, it’s good to be here, mate – good to see you.
Ryan Bridge
Good to have you back, Liam. Alright, let’s talk about KiwiSaver 2026 for people who might be not even a member of KiwiSaver or looking to switch it up. What do we do to make the most of our KiwiSaver?
Liam Robertson
Well, I think the first thing to think about is there’s two levers you can pull, really. The first is you can contribute more, and this year we’re going to get a bit more of an incentive to do that. From the 1st of April, our employers will be obligated to contribute at least 3.5% of our income to KiwiSaver, provided we match it. Then from the 1st of April 2028, that will increase to 4%, again, so long as we’re putting in 4% ourselves. That’s an increase from the current 3% setting, which is great.
I think the other positive is that it’s sounding like it’s going to be a bit of an election issue this year. You’ve got National campaigning to increase contributions to 6%, plus 6% – that’s from both employer and employee. That would take us more or less in line with how Australia does things at the moment. Then I think I saw the other day that Winston Peters is talking about perhaps 10% matched contributions, which would take us well beyond Australia. I’m still waiting on a policy setting from Labuor, but it’s shaping up to mean we’re going to get a meaningful improvement one way or another.
Ryan Bridge
So with Winston, is that 10 plus 10? He’s talking 20%?
Liam Robertson
That’s the article that I read, yeah. That would be fantastic once bedded in, but perhaps a little bit painful to get there because, of course, 10% is quite a lot for an employer or an employee to give away. But what you see with these sorts of things is if it is done in a staggered, measured approach you can plan for it over say 10 or 15 years, then it could be something worthwhile.
Ryan Bridge
So 1st of April, 3.5% – but that’s the minimum, right? You could contribute more than that, it just won’t be matched by your boss.
Liam Robertson
You’re exactly right. And that would be one of my key messages: don’t worry about the government settings. An increase is great for you, it’s icing on the cake, but actually have a think about what numbers do you need to put away to have the retirement that you’re aiming for.
To give you an example: if we took a 35-year-old earning the average wage of about $75,000 and they have the average KiwiSaver balance at that age of about $25,000. If they contribute 4% each year, then they’ll retire with about $320,000 in their KiwiSaver. Which would give them $260 a week on top of Super from age 65 to 90. Okay? If they contribute 10%, then they’re going to end up with about $550,000 in their KiwiSaver – enough for a top-up of $450 a week. Now, when you think that the average Super annuitant who lives with another person receives about $414 a week, a $450 top-up is pretty material.
Ryan Bridge
It’s massive. So every little bit now is gonna count in the long run.
Liam Robertson
Absolutely. And look, I appreciate contributing more it’s easier said than done. The other thing you can do straight away – and costs you nothing – is make sure that you’re in the right fund. It’s about making the money work as hard as you can for you. In the example I just gave you, I based those numbers off of a growth fund. Someone contributing 4% into a growth fund, they end up with $320,000. If they were in a conservative fund, then we’d estimate they’d end up with $90,000 less at 65, which translates to $70 less per week, every week, from 65 to 90. So again, it’s quite a material change and it costs you nothing to move from a conservative fund to a growth fund. I’m not saying that’s advice, but typically – and we’re talking about someone who is 35-years-old and they have 30 years until retirement – a growth fund could be suitable.
Ryan Bridge
Yeah, I’m in the aggressive fund – I forget the exact name, but Milford’s most aggressive fund – because I’m relatively young.
Liam Robertson
Are you?
Ryan Bridge
(Laughs) I’m 38. So I’ve got plenty of time, so it makes sense for me. But the nearer you get to retirement, I’m assuming you’d probably want to pull back and go a bit more conservative.
Liam Robertson
That’s the general trend. It’s all circumstantial, and that’s where advice comes in, which I’m sure we’ll get onto at some stage as well.
Ryan Bridge
Talk us through the compound returns, because this is the basis of what you’re talking about. How much you get at the end depends not only on how much you put in now, but the fact that it adds on top of each other.
Liam Robertson
(Laughs)
Ryan Bridge
The scientific way to explain it!
Liam Robertson
You’ve done it. Einstein said that he called it the eighth wonder of the world, and I tend to agree. Think of compounding returns like a snowball rolling down a hill, and maybe think of your timeframe as the size of the hill. If you’ve got a long timeframe, like you do, you’ve got a big hill the snowball is rolling down. The longer you give it to roll, the bigger it’s going to get. All of your returns they remain invested and they start generating returns of their own. Through no extra effort of yourself, it’s just letting it do its thing. The longer you leave it before you start investing, the smaller your hill is in this example, and the less ability for your investments to compound for the returns to generate returns of their own, essentially. The best day to invest was yesterday; the second best day is today, essentially.
Ryan Bridge
Liam, you mentioned a specific example of a 35-year-old, but everyone has their own circumstances, goals, incomes – all that sort of stuff. Where do you get good advice like you’re giving but tailored to an individual?
Liam Robertson
Well, there’s two forms of advice out there. And what I would say, is there’s no excuse not to get advice because it’s never been more accessible and, in many, many, many cases, it’s free. You can go out there and get what’s called robo-advice or digital advice. It takes you 10 or 15 minutes. You work your way through a questionnaire. You’ll be asked questions about how comfortable you are with volatility – the idea that your investment will fluctuate depending on what’s going on in the world. And it will talk through your goals and your timeframe, and it will provide you with a recommendation based on your inputs – not just based on your age or your gender or anything like that. So that’s accessible – you can do that in your bedroom at night. You don’t have to worry about actually talking to someone. However, if you would prefer to talk to someone, then many providers, including Milford, do offer personal advice. So you do sit down with someone and they talk you through. They explain everything and then come up with a plan for you.
Ryan Bridge
When you do that for people, how often is it that the number that suits them or that meets their needs, happens to be the government contribution number – or is it more often than not that people want or need more than that?
Liam Robertson
I would say almost never are they contributing enough at the government’s current settings. What we’re trying to do in most cases is replace your income when you retire. Maybe not like-for-like, because often when you retire you are hopefully planning on lower expenses. Hopefully you’ve got somewhere mortgage free to live, perhaps you’re not spending as much commuting to work – that kind of thing. So your expenses may lower when you retire, but you want to be able to replace the majority of your income so you can actually start living and doing the things you didn’t have time for before. And for most people, 3% or 4% matched by their employer is not going to get them there. It is closer to that 10% figure, I would say.
Ryan Bridge
Because it’s kind of dangerous, isn’t it? I think most people’s default assumption is if this is what the government has mandated that we must put in, then that will be enough.
Liam Robertson
That’s an easy jump to make, right? For some people it might be. We all have different tastes and expenses and what-not, but my message would be run your own numbers and check, just to have that peace of mind. What I would say, this isn’t fear-mongering; if you find out you’re not contributing enough, it’s not the end of the world. It’s something you can perhaps work towards increasing your contributions to a level that you need. Over the next few years, for example, as maybe you get a pay rise or maybe you have a child leave daycare, go to school, you’ll have some savings perhaps. There are all these lifestyle changes that come along where we can perhaps consider saving more for retirement. So, it’s not something you have to do tonight.
Ryan Bridge
What about the choice of provider – because there are loads of options out there. Does it actually matter, or are all providers created equal – like chuck it in and it will do the same thing?
Liam Robertson
There is a lot of choice, you’re right. There’s more than 30 providers out there and when you look at all the funds that they offer, there’s more than 300 funds that you can choose from. It can be quite tricky to figure out where you want to be. What that means is there will be a provider and a fund out there for everyone. They’re not all the same – they are very, very different. So some things you want to consider are:
1. Strong Track Record: We can’t say that past performance is going to be a reliable indicator of future returns. Absolutely cannot say that. But, a strong track record can give you peace of mind that you are partnering with a provider that has done well in the past and is endeavouring to do well in the future.
2. Ownership: You might want to align with a provider that is Kiwi-owned. That keeps profits in New Zealand.
3. Support: It might be really important to you that they do have human advisers that can meet with you and help you set up a plan. It might be really important that they have great reporting and great apps that you can keep in touch with your investments really easily.
4. Ethics: You might also be really interested in the way that invest ethically / sustainably – that kind of thing.
So there are lots of different variables. And it is worth figuring out what’s going to be the best for you. I wouldn’t encourage people to be changing every six months or every year. It is something that generally once you get it right, you can stick with it. But they are certainly not all the same. If you look at the historic returns – go somewhere like Morningstar, they’re an independent research firm who actually grade all of the KiwiSaver providers based on their returns after fees, you’ll see there’s a big variance there.
Ryan Bridge
People might also appreciate and get value from really informative, smart podcasts that are produced by some of these providers, right? Value add.
Liam Robertson
Yeah, people could be looking to tick that box, absolutely right.
Ryan Bridge
Hey Liam, good to see you.
Liam Robertson
You too, mate.
Ryan Bridge
Happy New Year
Liam Robertson
You too!
Ryan Bridge
That was Liam Robertson, Financial Adviser at Milford, talking to us about how we can maximize our KiwiSaver balances for the new year in 2026. It’s great to be back with you. Just a reminder that you can like, follow, and subscribe this podcast wherever you like to listen. Share it with your friends, share it with your family. Until next time, don’t forget to invest in yourselves.
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