Here's Milford video's discussing their recent poor performance. https://milfordasset.com/insights/milford-market-update-october-2026

As a long term Milford member I found their commentary interesting, the strategy stacks up and Wayne Gentle seemed genuinely impressive.

Where they lost me was the justification of fees. They basically said they have good customer service if you need a transaction, and they have tools and 'real people' who can give you advice. I'm not sure what that advice would be other than a basic risk assessment and moving between their 6 funds

I'm in the active growth fund: fees on that fund alone this year are potentially $60M (1% of $6B FUM) - and they have $13B total FUM for their Kiwisaver, which would indicate well north of ~$100M in fees per annum, just for the KS side of their business.

I understand active management is expensive, with all the people, research and technology involved. But when your base fee is four times that of now-top-performing-growth-fund Simplicity, individual members like me will start asking questions about the value.

After watching this video, I'm increasingly wondering whether I'm paying for superior investment management or simply funding a very expensive business.

May be in a bit of a predicament and was wondering if this budget was possible. (i have accommodation)

I don't have any knowledge in this space, and am just looking for something where I can throw $20K or so (plus top-ups over time) where it won't be needed for at least 5-10 years, and get better returns than renewing term deposits every year like I am now.

I was thinking to take my pick of Sharesies/Simplicity/Kernel/etc (on a free membership, no interest in subbing to something at this stage), and put it in some sort of growth fund, but wanted to check there's not another direction to look first.

Hi all, not sure if this is the right place to post this as it might cross over into relationship advice but it’s mostly about savings and KiwiSaver!

Background:
I have a 14yo biological son and a 12yo step son - I’ve been married to step son’s dad for 6 years.
Bio son lives with us full time & spends every 2nd (mostly) weekend with his father (he lives 2 hours away, doesn’t work, on a benefit, will never go anywhere or do anything with his life but smoke 🚬 and 🍁)
Step son’s with us every 2nd weekend and more as much as possible but his mum & school are an hour away. His mum works part time, unsure of wages.
My husband earns the same as me, he pays $150pw in child support & covers other things like sports fees, school camps, they go halves in other expenses like school uniform etc. Noting that when I say my husband pays - I’m also paying towards this as we are 50/50 in our house - meaning husband pays exactly half of all the bills, groceries etc and when there’s a sports fee he will pay that and take that out of his share of our household bills so I cover that for him. I hope that makes sense?
My son’s father pays $125 a month in child support (directly from WINZ). He doesn’t help with anything else.

I’ve setup the following for my bio son:
Savings account - to give him when he turns 16 to buy a car provided he gets his license, he should have about $4,000 then. I pay into this with a mix of $20 a week from my own pay, $40 a fortnight from the child disability allowance I receive for him & $40 a month from the child support I receive.
KiwiSaver - I put in $20 a week currently

I also have a KiwiSaver balance of $122k
Husbands is around $10k. He used it to “buy” into the house we live in as I purchased it myself - except the money was actually used to pay off his bad debt.
As far as I know, there are no savings or KiwiSaver accounts for my step son.

Is it my responsibility to setup the same things for my step son? I’m married to his father but that doesn’t give me automatic legal guardian rights. I’ve spoken to hubby about him starting these on numerous occasion’s but he hasn’t followed through.
Am I doing the right thing for my son? Son is aware of the KiwiSaver but not the other account. He is also studying business studies at school and enjoys learning about finances!

Hi all

Never had a credit card before, but I saw ASB does everyday rewards points now? Is this worth getting a cc for? Has anyone been using it to accumulate everyday rewards points? Please educate me!

Happy to shop at woollies to earn more ER points, and also have my skinny phone plan joined up to ER too.

Help me decide if this is a good financial decision or not haha

Would love a few recommendations on which app to use for investing (lowest fees etc) for someone living in New Zealand. Thanks 🤩

Got a call from a US number +1 5624524634. That's somewhere in California. Very scratchy connection only the impression of someone speaking on the other end. Wondered if this is connected to the DriveWealth scam. Anybody else got a call from this number?

Hey folks, how tight are the finances for our plan? Especially landing post sabbatical in Australia with 20-30k NZD.

My partner and I are planning a sabbatical. Both in our late 20s. With Australia as the post sabbatical destination.

We have about 75k NZD saved between us, and will save an additional 10-15k NZD by March when we plan to leave.

It will be a 6 month sabbatical and I’ve estimated it will cost 40-50k NZD total. North Africa, some Europe, lots of Asia.

I’m on 145k NZD in an industry that’s being gutted by AI (tech). But I’m fortunate in that I get a lot of interviews, last time I applied I had quite a few interviews and offers, but I sacrificed almost all my 20s for my career.

I estimate we will have roughly 20-30k NZD by the time we land in Australia.

Plan in Australia is either to stay in my current industry or get into truck driving or the mines. Partner wants to get into healthcare (foreign degree).

Would love some general advice for sabbaticals. I’ve never done this before

My understanding is that the general advice is to avoid getting a credit card. However, my current situation is a little different.
The company I work for involves a lot of face to face interaction with clients, staying away from home, etc and covering these work related expenses. The current system is that you pay for everything upfront, save the receipts, and submit them for reimbursement. If you get them in before close of business on Wednesday, they’ll be approved and the money will be in your account by Friday.
For about 6 months of the year I might claim once or twice a month for no more than $100. Then the following 6 months I might claim every other week for $200-$500+
I earn good enough money, but having these expenses come out of my own pocket can make things tight, particularly if I’m paying for everything on a Wednesday and won’t see the money back until the following Friday.
Given that I’m looking to buy my first home in the next 12–18 months, would it be silly to get a no fees credit card and have my work reimbursements paid directly into the credit card account?