Whopping 92% say Kiwis need to save more

Kiwis know they need to save more.

In a current HorizonPoll on compulsory savings policy options, a  whopping 92% so far are saying that generally there is a need for New Zealanders to save more .

Only 4% disagree and 4% don’t know.

After 300 responses (margin of error +/- 5.7%), it's too early to call a reliable result yet, but there also looks to be majority support for making  savings from income compulsory.

We'll publish more results shortly.

The survey launched on August 24 and you can have your say on this major issue which could affect most income earners and businesses if savings are made compulsory.

What are HorizonPoll members saying on the issue so far?

Here’s the raw of the crowd:

• As a current superannuitant I paid tax in the 1960's & 1970's at a rate almost double the rate I retired on and then was told that the super fund was not set aside in the consolidated fund. I also paid into a private superannuation fund but was made redundant before I could qualify and was paid out an amount equivalent to what I had paid in. This makes me suspicious of any move the government makes. Unfortunately I invested my total savings made to fund my retirement in an investment company which went into receivership before the Government decided to guarantee the investment.
• Being a low wage economy it is rather disingenuous to compel the majority of the workforce to contribute to a savings scheme when the average wage is barely enough to enjoy a stress free life.
• Everyone should have a private pension scheme to supplement their super one day
• Everyone’s circumstances are different. Most would like to save-- you have to get enough to be able to put aside-- others will always blast it-- others will invest in themselves businesswise, not always entirely successfully! Employers are called upon for an awful lot, especially medium to small operations, where you have so much unpaid time spent tax collecting, accounting, form filling, supplying statistical figures to a whole dearth of govt departments-- they (the govt) often can’t figure out what they should pay their own employees and use private enterprise figures on which to base their figuring!!
• For many people, and I know of several examples of this, if they have access to excess money they will spend it. They wouldn't have the self-control to save for retirement because they would always be taking money from the account. If they government made saving compulsory and didn't allow access to the money except for specific situations then these people wouldn't be able to waste their savings.
• How much is enough? And for what purpose?
• I have always believed in personal retirement savings and not to rely on the Govt of the day, however the retirement savings schemes need to be policed to 1. Ensure their fees are not over the top and 2 they provide reasonable returns.
• I think a lot of people consider debt as a way of life. So why would they save, why worry, it is a long time before retirement, and hopefully someone will be responsible for them.
• It comes down to the individual. I think financial planning should be taught at school alongside mathematics, start the thinking early instead of waiting until someone leaves home to have to deal with money.
• it is not just a problem of people not saving, but banks and other companies providing the means to get huge loans and overdrafts with little collateral or consequence for not paying
• It works in Australia it will work here Think of the money available for investment this country would have had if the NATIONAL PARTY hadn’t killed the Rowling Labour Party inspired compulsory super of the seventies.
  Thanks Muldoon and his followers
• New Zealand should start compulsory KiwiSaver in the near future - as we couldn't continued to borrow money from the World Bank to maintain our heavily debt laden lifestyle!!
• New Zealanders would be better off when they retire
• People are made to feel bad and a failure enough, when the cost of living is causing so much stress and hard ship in their lives. Wages are low and frozen also.
• People on low incomes may not be able to afford higher contribution amounts to KiwiSaver. The average income for people in New Zealand must increase.
• Sometimes a carrot is better than a stick. Give incentives to save, as you do not want to force people into a managed funds industry that they don't trust. Provide financial education for people that want it, to better manage their own savings.
• super should always be there
• The biggest disincentive to saving anything in New Zealand is the criminal act of taxing money that has already been taxed! This is why we don't save; better off to buy shares and houses and on-sell with capital gains that are tax free. Can't understand why the "brains trust" that call themselves parliamentarians can't get their tiny brains around this. Want us to save, then stop taxing our savings. What's hard there? Can't they see why people buy shares and houses as investments?
• The day to day living prices are so high these days and are a higher priority than a retirement savings fund we have to feed and clothe our families now not 30 years down the track. Make it easier for us by even putting up the prices of bad foods so we can afford to feed our families on good food for a good budget and maybe relook at petrol costs so people can afford to get to work and then people would have no excuse not to save.
• The economy is dead and real growth is nonexistent. Something needs to drastically change to this countries business environment before people can afford to save, there should be no tax of any sort on retirement savings.
• The government needs to realise that NZder's don’t earn enough to save and have a reasonable quality of life. We are taxed to the hilt now and it is expensive to live in NZ. John Keys saying we are on par with Aussie is so far off the mark its insanity. I know, I just came back from there. NZder's earn 1/3 less per hour on average and you pay more out.
• the last one that the Muldoon lot dismantled, employees had the option at the start to contribute up to 5% PAYE was deducted from the balance .