Investment returns
The investment returns for each of the investment options are shown below. Over the last quarter all options were positive. The same was not true for each of the months within the quarter. Each of the share and property sectors had at least one negative month in the quarter, highlighting the risk of these sectors.
The investment environment continues to be one of low interest rates, low inflation and low economic growth. We expect this environment to continue beyond 2020. It is therefore an environment where there is greater risk of negative returns over the short-term. This makes it important to focus on the longer term when making investment strategy decisions and not reacting to market headlines.
Over the last quarter, the dominant headline investment issue has been the weakening of the NZ dollar. The NZ:US exchange rate has fallen from a high of 88.2 cents (10 July 2014) to a recent low of 77.67 cents (30 September 2014) - a fall of 12%. The fall reflects, in our view, the rise in uncertainty in the investment markets stemming from political tensions and the global economic outlook. We suspect, once the political tensions reduce, the NZ dollar will continue its recent path of strengthening over the next few years. Details of the current trends in the NZ exchange rates are on the SuperLife website.
FINAL 2014 INVESTMENT SEMINARS
The remaining seminars for 2014 will be in October and held in New Plymouth, Auckland, Timaru, Christchurch and Nelson. Details are on our website. You can register to attend a seminar online, or by emailing us at info@SuperLife.co.nz. Details can be found here.
DID YOU KNOW...
Insurance
Under SuperLife, you can take out life insurance, disability income protection insurance and medical insurance to suit your needs. For a 30-year old male who doesn’t smoke, the cost of $200,000 life insurance is $1.73 a week. For a 30-year old female non-smoker, the premium is $0.77 a week. Depending on your other SuperLife benefits, a $0.63 a week administration fee may apply. All details of the premium rates are on the SuperLife website.
Individual returns
Your member statement shows the returns (after-tax and after-asset fees) that you received for the period of the statement and also the last 1, 3 and 5 year periods, where the information is available. The returns over the 3 and 5 year periods are the average annual return.
Saving for a child’s education - myFutureFund
myFutureFund, under SuperLife, lets you save for a child’s future education costs. If the child is also in KiwiSaver with SuperLife, the $33 administration fee in myFutureFund is waived. This gives you access to the full range of SuperLife’s investment options and you can save as little or as much as suits your circumstances. myFutureFund is often a good aloption for aunts, uncles, grandparents and parents to save as an alternative to birthday and Christmas presents.
Thinking about your retirement
SuperLife publishes on the website a range of guides to help you work out how much to save for your retirement, how to invest your savings and then how to manage your savings in retirement. We also publish articles on wills, power of attorneys and insurance. If you do not have access to the internet, phone 0800 27 87 37 for a copy.
Performance
