Median KiwiSaver balances rose 62% over three years

Tuesday 12th March 2019

The median value of KiwiSaver nest eggs grew to $13,000 at June 30 last year, up 62 percent or $5,000 from three years earlier, Stats NZ says.

The growth reflects employee, employer and government contributions as well as any investment gains.

“KiwiSaver is still a relatively young superannuation scheme and median values should continue to rise as the scheme matures,” the government statistician says.

Unsurprisingly, those aged 15-24 had the smallest KiwiSaver accounts and are the only age group where men’s accounts are about the same size as women’s at about $3,000. In all other age groups, men’s accounts are larger than women’s.

Those aged 55-64 have the largest holdings, although men’s accounts were larger at about $30,000 compared with those of women at about $23,000.

“Lower income and breaks in work can affect the build-up of retirement savings. This tends to affect women more than men,” says Emily Shrosbree, the wealth and expenditure statistics manager.

“Superannuation schemes are one way that people save for retirement. Our final nest egg may also include assets such as property, money in the bank and shares,” Shrosbree says.

Non-KiwiSaver schemes, such as the State Sector Retirement Savings Scheme and the Government Superannuation Fund, have existed much longer. They had a median value of $73,000 at June 30, up 37 percent, from $53,000, since June 2015.

Males aged 15-24 are now just as likely as females to be in a KiwiSaver scheme. But 59 percent of women aged 45-54 are in KiwiSaver, compared to 52 percent for men of the same age.

(BusinessDesk)

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