A fresh start!  
Your financial health check for 2025.

As the new year begins, many of us take time to reflect on the past and set goals for the future. This fresh start isn’t just about health or career aspirations; it’s also an opportunity to focus on your financial well-being. Do you believe that wise stewardship of your resources is an integral part of living faithfully? At Anglican Financial Care, we do! Starting the year with a financial health check can help you plan for the future, achieve your goals, and ensure that your resources are aligned with both your needs and the principles of good stewardship.

One essential part of your financial health is your KiwiSaver. The Christian KiwiSaver Scheme is designed to help you grow your retirement savings in a way that reflects your faith and values. Whether you are just starting your KiwiSaver journey or are already drawing on your savings, it’s vital to make sure your plan is working for you.

Reflecting on the past year

Before looking ahead, it’s important to take stock of where you’ve been. Here are some questions to help focus your reflection:

• Are you happy with how you managed your finances over the past year?
• Did you stick to your budget?
• Were you able to save or meet your financial goals?
• Were there any unexpected expenses, and are you comfortable with how you handled them?

When it comes to your KiwiSaver, ask yourself:

• Did I make regular contributions?
• Were there any changes in my life that might affect my savings needs?
• Is my KiwiSaver fund still aligned with my long-term goals?

Reflecting on these factors helps you understand what worked and what didn’t, so you can adjust your approach in the year ahead.

Planning for the year ahead

Once you’ve reflected on the past, it’s time to plan for the future. Set clear, achievable financial goals for the year. These might include paying off debt, building an emergency fund, or saving for a specific purpose such as a home, holiday, or electric bike. Maybe it’s time to start, or to increase, a monthly donation to a cause close to your heart. For many, a key goal will be maximising KiwiSaver contributions to ensure you’re making the most of the government contributions and preparing well for retirement.

The Christian KiwiSaver Scheme is more than just a financial tool; it’s a way to grow your savings in a manner consistent with your values. Take this opportunity to review your KiwiSaver settings:
Are you contributing enough to meet your retirement goals?
Are you in the right fund (Growth? Balanced? Income?) for your stage of life and risk appetite?
Check out the Our Funds page on our website to help you answer these questions, ensuring your KiwiSaver planning is aligned with your circumstances and aspirations.

The importance of budgeting

A solid budget is the foundation of financial health. As you plan your finances for the year, create or revisit your budget to ensure it reflects your priorities. To start the year strong:

• List your income and fixed expenses, such as rent, utilities, and essential bills.
• Allocate funds for savings, including your KiwiSaver contributions, and for giving back to causes or communities you care about.
• Plan for discretionary spending while ensuring it fits within your overall financial picture.

Remember, a budget is a tool, not a restriction. It allows you to focus your resources where they matter most, freeing you from financial uncertainty and aligning your spending with your goals and values.

Preparing for the unexpected

Life is full of surprises, and part of being a good steward is preparing for the unexpected. Building or maintaining an emergency fund is an essential step in financial planning. This fund can provide peace of mind and prevent you from needing to dip into your KiwiSaver savings for unexpected expenses. The best step to take is to decide on an amount to save each month and set up an automatic transfer from your normal account to your emergencies/savings account. Just do it!

In addition, review your insurance policies to make sure they meet your current needs. Whether it’s health, home, or life insurance, having the right coverage is another way to protect yourself and your loved ones in times of uncertainty. If you have an insurance broker or financial adviser, they can help you work out whether you have too much or too little insurance cover for your needs.

Making the most of KiwiSaver

Your KiwiSaver is one of the most powerful tools for long-term financial planning. For members of the Christian KiwiSaver Scheme, it also offers the added benefit of aligning your investments with Christian values. By regularly reviewing your KiwiSaver settings, you can ensure you’re making the most of this opportunity. Is it time to increase your contribution level, or are you able to make a one-off extra contribution? Your future self might thank you!

Anglican Financial Care’s Christian KiwiSaver Scheme team is here to help. Our team is dedicated to supporting you as you plan for a secure and meaningful financial future.

Moving forward with faith and confidence

As you step into the new year, take the time to reflect, plan, and seek guidance where needed. By doing so, you can approach the months ahead with confidence, knowing that you are taking thoughtful steps to secure your financial future.

Anglican Financial Care is here to help. Together, let’s make 2025 a year of purpose, growth, and wise financial choices.

Learn more about the Christian KiwiSaver Scheme and view our Product Disclosure Statement: https://christiankiwisaver.nz/documents/

We all go through difficult financial times, when bills and commitments increase, and we wish there was a way to relieve some of that financial pressure.

Luckily with KiwiSaver, there is an opportunity to pause your contributions for a while, depending on how long you have been in KiwiSaver.

What do you need to know about a Savings Suspension and what are the risks? In this blog, we give you a brief overview of the main points and risks, to help you navigate your decision.

• What is a Savings Suspension?
  A Savings Suspension is when you stop your employee contributions to KiwiSaver for a period.
• How long do I have to be in KiwiSaver, before I can take a break?
  If you have been in KiwiSaver for a year or more, you can ask for a suspension through your employer. If you have been in for less than a year, you will need to apply for a suspension from IR and prove financial hardship.
• How long can I take the Savings Suspension for?
  You can suspend your contributions for three months to a year, but you can take more than one break, and they can be back-to-back.
• Will my employer keep contributing?
  No, if you suspend your contributions your employer will too, unless your employment agreement covers this situation.
• Can I still make contributions to my KiwiSaver scheme even though I am on a Savings Suspension?
  Yes, you can still make direct contributions to your KiwiSaver scheme even if you are on a Savings Suspension. If you cannot afford to make the minimum contribution required by the KiwiSaver Act, then making some smaller contributions voluntarily during the Savings Suspension period is a way to still save for your retirement, just at a lower amount.
• Will I receive the Government Contribution?
  Yes, you will receive the annual Government Contribution if you contribute at least $1,042.86 between 1 July and 30 June each year.

What should I consider before I take a Savings Suspension?
Before you decide to take a break, there are a few points you will want to consider:

1. Investigate whether you can reduce, not stop your savings. If you are currently contributing 4% to KiwiSaver, try dropping to 3%.
2. Save something if you can. While you might stop your employee contributions, set up a voluntary, automatic payment instead, for a smaller amount. By keeping your savings going, you can rest a little easier, as you are still ‘chipping away’ at your goals.
3. Make a commitment to start again. If you stop altogether, set up an automatic payment 6 months from now. Make this $100 or $200 per month, to begin with, and increase this 6 months later. Then start up your employer contributions again.
4. Do some homework and know the long-term consequences of stopping. Try putting this scenario into the Sorted KiwiSaver Retirement Calculator. KiwiSaver calculator » Sorted

   Example
   A person aged 45, retiring at age 65, with a balance of $70,000 today. Their pay is $50,000 a year before tax, and they contribute 3% to KiwiSaver and so does their employer. They are in the Growth Fund.

   If they don’t stop saving over the next 20 years, they may have just over $200,000 saved by age 65.

   If they pause for one year, their balance would be around $196,000 by age 65.

   If they pause for two years, their balance would be around $191,000 by age 65. *

   *Please note, these numbers are not guaranteed and do not constitute financial advice. Your situation will be different, and we recommend you seek independent advice from a licensed financial advice provider.

While we don’t want to stop our savings, sometimes we need to focus on paying our bills, or clearing some high-cost debts. At those times, taking a Savings Suspension for a short time can give the ‘breathing space’ we need financially and mentally.

Just remember, there will always be an excuse to ‘start again tomorrow’, and before you know it, tomorrow is two years from now.

The Savings Suspension is a nice KiwiSaver feature to have and can relieve some pressure when we need this most. We should have a plan to start again, even before we decide to stop, and we need to understand the impact stopping can have on our savings if we delay restarting contributions.

Do you like to skydive, but you freak out if you see a decrease of $1,000 in your KiwiSaver value? Do you fear the money is gone for good?

Do you like to stay firmly on the ground, but it doesn’t bother you to see your KiwiSaver balance drop by $10,000? Are you confident that it will bounce back up when the markets recover, even if that might take a while?

The risks you are happy to take in life don’t always equal the risks you can cope with for your savings. Everyone has their own level of comfort, or what is known as their ‘risk tolerance’, when choosing the KiwiSaver investment choice that is right for them.

In our latest blog, we delve a little deeper into the risks we face when we invest our money.

When we think about risk and investing, there are a few fundamental truths.

• We only ‘lose’ money when we take money out of our investments – Like owning a home, we only gain money when we sell the house for more than we paid, and we lose money if that value is lower. The same applies to our investments. The fall in value is not ‘real’ until we withdraw our money from that investment.

We hope that in the long term, the value of our house and investments go up. In the meantime, changes in those values are simply numbers on a page.

• Volatility is the risk we care about – Volatility is the measure of how much our investment rises and falls in value over a period of time. For example, an investment that rises and falls by 5%, has a much lower volatility than one that moves up and down by 40%. The second one carries a higher degree of risk—especially if we need to start withdrawing funds from the investment in the near future.

If our investment is worth $100,000 and drops to $95,000 we might be comfortable, because this only needs to rise by just over 5.25%, to recover. However, if this falls by 40% to $60,000, that could be a lot scarier. We would have to see a rise of over 66%, just to get back to the $100,000 again. Can the investment do that, and can our nerves handle the ride?

When thinking about our risk tolerance, we consider how much volatility or uncertainty we can bear, before we start having sleepless nights.

• Diversification matters – Putting all our money on one stock is what we term ‘putting all of our eggs in one basket’ and is a risky strategy with our life savings. That is why we want to spread this around, to investments that move differently over different market cycles. Good diversification reduces the risk of losing our money.
• Perception is not always reality – You may know the saying ‘this too shall pass’.

Markets will always move up and down and our investment balances will follow. The trick is to understand that what we see happening in our investments today is only a snapshot in time. What matters more is how our investments behave over the long term, i.e., over more than seven years. Our perception is not always the reality and while we may have short-term uncertainty, we can still have a good long-term investment.

So, the next time you are looking at your investment options, remember the four fundamentals:

1. Your risk tolerance is what you are comfortable with over the long term.
2. What is happening in the markets today, might not represent the future.
3. Diversification matters.
4. The highest return is not always the best, if this comes at the cost of too much risk.

Focus instead on the goals you wish to achieve and choose the investment that can achieve those goals.

*Nothing in this blog constitutes personal financial advice nor a guarantee of success when investing. We recommend you seek independent professional advice, prior to investing your money.