Back again for the October Monetary Policy Review. It's an interim one so we don't get a new forecast this time.

This came as a surprise to me - we might see swap rates dip. Had a chart ready to go with 3%, which was more expected but hey, it certainly keeps things interesting.

RBNZ commentary from the media release:

- Split vote 4 to 3 to hold. 3 members pushed hard for the 0.25% increase that was widely expected by main bank economists

- YoY inflation expected to increase to 4.4% in December quarter reflecting current fuel prices (lag) but RBNZ focused on medium-term

- "The pass-through of the initial surge in global prices to domestic price categories has so far been less than previously assumed. Impacts on short-term pricing behaviour appear to have been contained and medium-term inflation expectations remain well anchored."

- Further OCR hikes still very much on the table - "The Committee agreed that tighter monetary policy is likely to be required but remains conditional on the economic outlook." But higher global interest rates could drive a global downturn and "the global environment could shift abruptly" - which seems to have made them cautious about hiking rates today.

The underlying data:

- Q3 2026 CPI down 0.4% to 3.7% YoY from 4.1% in Q2. Heading in the right direction but still outside 1-3% RBNZ target band. Like before, global fuel price spikes and tradables inflation is driving this, with a weak NZD keeping imports expensive.

- Q2 2026 GDP was down 0.2% QoQ, and most recently has been 0.8% and 0.5%. Recovery is sluggish and fragile.

If you've got a home loan or going to get one, what do?

General thoughts same as last time basically:

- What does this mean for the timing of buying a home? if you’re buying a first home, it fits with your life goals and you’re borrowing within your means etc, then this is just noise. Prices are very regional but they’re probably not going to get lower, but likewise for many of the main centres they also aren’t going up fast (leaving Queenstown and the southland region aside...) either which means you don’t need to rush to get in. But if you want to buy, then I’d crack on when the right place comes up.

- If you’ve got the capacity and risk appetite to fix on the shorter end e.g. 1 year, then you don’t need to pay the large 'insurance premium' baked into the longer-term fixed rates. Buying any kind of certainty in this world is expensive. But you've got to have the buffer and/or cashflow to tolerate the handle the risk of rates going up sharply

- Because of the rise in wholesale rates through 2026, break fee quotes are usually coming in at zero. If you’re thinking of restructuring like getting/increasing an offset or revolver because you’ve got more savings but want to keep access to it while reducing your mortgage interest, then I wouldn’t assume you have to wait until the end of your fixed term. Get a break fee quote - it’s probably going to be zero or minimal. Same goes for looking at refinancing if you’re out of cashback clawback with your current lender.

Also shout out to [u/ionlyeatplankton](u/ionlyeatplankton) for the link in my previous post to this IMF article suggesting that inflation targeting doesn't even work: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-09/imf-economists-inflation-targeting-performance-after-2022/105975542.

Edit: Oh lord look at our exchange rate go. Exporters will be happy but I hope no one was planning a European christmas.

General thoughts no crystal balls etc.

I have a million dollars I want to park for the time being, don't want to use it for sharemarket directly or a 1 year TD because I may use it to buy a house potentially ... but likely not, TBH.

Keeping it in an ASB one month rolling term deposit is paying 2.1% pa, for comparison.

Considering Westpac Notice Saver which is PIE, currently at 3% pa :

https://www.westpac.co.nz/kiwisaver-investments/term-deposits-pie-investments/notice-saver/

Or Wedge Saving Fund which is PIE, currently at 3.25% pa :

https://www.wedgemoney.co.nz/

Presumably the Westpac one they're using it against their own mortgages like the typical bank term deposit, but I'm not sure about Wedge, what are they actually investing in?

I have other growth assets (VO) so I'm not gonna whack it in there, I want this to be as low risk as possible.

Suggestions welcome, thanks.

Hey all, slightly different Q than usual.

I'm looking to get a credit card with some Airpoints/travel benefits.

I'm already a Koru Platinum member as I travel regular long haul for business but me and my partner are looking to do some extra personal travel this year to the Islands, Japan maybe Singapore etc. so want to maximise our points for upgrades or even just booking the flights.

I've seen a few different offers with Amex/ANZ offering travel insurance or discounted Koru membership but given I'm already a Platinum member, is it worth the yearly fee and worse $ to points ratio vs just a $0 annual fee and lower $ to points ratio?

Just curious what other people do/have an if they think it's worth it :)

Cheers

Hello, I will be moving to NZD in Auckland, I will be probably flatting close to the CBD if possible so I can avoid a car, I'm looking for a flat with max 3 people (including me).
I'm on my own , with nothing attached aside from a 800NZD per month expense.

I'm trying to optimize and see how much I can save with the objective being over 2k NZD if possible.

I would like to make some trips on the week end but aside from that I make my own food, don't drink coffe and will have lunch at work for around 8NZD if I understand correctly (maybe breakfast as well that may be free idk, regardless it would be at home in worst case).

How tight is the budget, if it's even feasible?

Thank you very much for your patience and your help to everyone that has time to go through this with me!

My kiwisaver was with Mercer since forever and regret changing. In December after a lot of research switched to Milford for a better return. I have put more into this fund over the last year than the $1851 in earnings. That big dip where the Epstein war started I purchased independently through Sharsies $500 in the same Milford fund and $500 in Pathfinder Active growth. It was my first time trying a shares app. Milford is up 16%, but Pathfinder is up 27%! Clearly I made a bad choice with my Kiwisaver provider. Do I change? Will Milford get back on track?

Hello everyone. Mortgage will be ~230k in a crosslease detached home bought for ~650k 6 years ago during COVID times. Have two young kids. Should I sell and buy a 900k-1mill freehold home to live in as prices are down at the moment or save a cash deposit so we don't need to sell the first home and just rent it out (I would have to save a considerable amount because I cant service such a big mortgage + the mortgage on the first home). If we sell, we would have to buy and line up settlement dates so we don't have to double move but there is no guarantee we will find a suitable home within our price range during that time and don't want to be left homeless or rushing into buying another home/settling for another home I am not super happy with because I want it to be our forever home. I am early in my early 30s. Savings ~50k (no emergency fund)

Hey guy's, just wondering where do you guys find remote jobs working for US based companies while living in NZ?

Like any specific websites?

I only seem to come across listings where we can work remotely but need to be based in the US or be authorised to work in the US. Not roles where I can work as an independent contractor.

Thank you, guys, in advance :)

**TL;DR:** If SpaceX buys Tesla with shares, your Tesla cost basis resets to market value on the day of the swap. If that tips you over the FIF limit, you're taxed every year on unrealized gains/shares you never sold. The tax bill before Parliament is open for submissions and if enough of us whinge about it, we can have an impact.

So.... Hi PFNZ, I recently found out this merger could screw over my long-term goals. I really, REALLY, don't need to experience this impact to cash flow currently, and getting pushed into FIF without intending to, and being taxed on shares I haven't sold, is REALLY not something I need right now.

Seeing as Tesla has always been a retail favourite, and a popular logo for brokers to advertise their platforms (Hatch, maybe Sharesies too?), I realied this could hit a lot more people than I first thought.

What's happening

Tesla and SpaceX have both set up committees to look at a merger. If SpaceX buys Tesla with shares, your Tesla gets swapped for SpaceX shares.

Under the current rules

A merger is generally treated as selling your old shares and buying new ones. Hatch's FIF help page says it straight:

"Mergers and acquisitions: These are generally treated as a final sale of the old shares and new purchase of different shares for tax purposes" (Here: https://help.hatchinvest.nz/en/articles/6126072-understanding-fif-transaction-types)

So your cost resets to what the shares are worth on the day, not what you originally paid for your Tesla.

What that means

You don't need big gains for this to bite. If you're $2k under the FIF limit and your Tesla is up more than $2k, the swap puts you over, and you're taxed every year on shares you never sold. A yearly tax bill from a decision none of us made doesn't sit right, so I want as many people to know as possible.

Please let people you know with unrealized gains on Tesla know, before this turns into an issue for them!

Is there a fix?

It's a long shot, but the tax bill before Parliament is open for submissions (you know, the one currently proposing to lift the FIF limit to $100k).

The ask is simple: in a share-for-share swap with no cash, your original cost carries over. Parliament is asking for submissions by 4 November (no formal close yet). A few sentences is enough. The more of us submit, the better the chance.

Submit here: https://www3.parliament.nz/en/pb/sc/make-a-submission/document/54SCFIN_SCF_AE9D3517-66D6-4A30-C155-08DF0EED0D02/taxation-annual-rates-for-2026-27-fbt-simplification

Btw - I'm not a tax advisor, I've just done some research. If I'm wrong, someone please tell me. And then maybe hold me a bit, coz this makes me sad :(

I’m heading to China in November and wanted to check if I’ll be able to access my internet banking (via mobile app) in China? I’m on ANZ, and my partner is on Kiwibank.

Thanks

EDIT: Thank you for all the helpful replies!

Moving to AUS,

Current situation:

Salary will be AUD 115k plus 20% bonus, expected to rise each year.

NZ student loan of about NZ$20k

NZ$20k spare cash, separate from my emergency fund and about $10k already invested.

With the current XE am I better to invest this cash and use my Aus salary to pay off the student loan repayments. I will get 1 year interest free…

Will be putting away around 1.8k Aud a month in Aus in investing/saving/paying down SL.

Hi all, I (27 M) Live and work in New Zealand, investing for long-term wealth and also possibly buying a first home in the next 4 to 5 years with my partner.

Right now, my investing is all with Kernel and looks like:

- $4,000 Total World fund (VT)

- $900 Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND)

- $40,000 Kernel High Growth Kiwisaver

I keep hearing so much about the AI/Tech bubble and its chance of bursting - just today I saw a Reuters article about China's tech bubble already collapsing. Ive always considered myself comfortable with risk but all this is stressing me out.

My initial plan with investing in funds was to aim for 95/5 percent VT/BND, and I wasnt planning on switching my kiwisaver to a less risky fund till a bit closer to buying my first home. However with everything that im hearing im seriously questioning that.

I know we're not supposed to time the market or try and predict corrections. But what are everyone's thoughts around everything we're seeing in the news and how are you protecting yourself/reacting to the changes (if at all). Am I wrong in thinking i should move my kiwisaver to less aggressive a little earlier than planned and switching my fund investment going forward to maybe 80/20?

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!

FYI This comparison doesn’t take the cost of living into account

The conclusion is that you’d be around AUD $9.7k better off per year working in Australia

take home pay |🇦🇺 A$100k |🇳🇿 NZ$100k
Gross salary |100,000 |100,000
Income tax |−20,520 |−22,878
Medicare levy (AU) / ACC levy (NZ) |−2,000 |−1,750
KiwiSaver from your pay |0 |−3,500
Take-home pay |77,480 |71,873
Effective tax + levy rate |22.5% |24.6% retirement savings |🇦🇺 Super |🇳🇿 KiwiSaver
Employer contribution (gross) |12,000 (12%) |3,500 (3.5%)
Tax on employer contribution |−1,800 (15% contributions tax) |−1,155 (ESCT at 33%)
Your own contribution |0 |3,500
Government contribution |0 |260.72
Net into your account per year |10,200 |6,106 total annual value |🇦🇺 |🇳🇿** **
Take-home |77,480 |71,873
Net into super / KiwiSaver |10,200 |6,106
Total |87,680 |77,978
Difference |AU +$9,702 | and lets not talk about the AUD to NZD FX rate (A$100k ≈ NZ$123,600)...

The conclusion is that you’d be around AUD $9.7k better off per year working in Australia. Honestly, I don’t see why any young person would choose to stay in NZ when the financial upside of working in Australia is this significant.

KiwiSaver has been such a HOOOOOOT topic this year. We always talk about how nz needs to catch up with au (i mean it is a politically powerful talking point now lol) yet our retirement savings system is still nowhere near what au offers. The Blue, red, green they all talk about increasing KiwiSaver contribution rates, but without comparable tax incentives, it just feels more like another tax on workers.

Kia ora fam,

I'm deep into the interview process for a fully remote role for an Australian company. I was wondering whether anyone has done something similar and whether they have any advice around how to structure my contract or what I should negotiate for. They've indicated a rough salary band which I'm happy with but what I'm not so sure of is how to handle everything else. For instance, they offer 17% super - how would that work for me? Are there any other 'watch outs' I should be aware of or anything I should ask about?

Thanks in advance all, would appreciate any thoughts.

turning 18 next year, wondering what are some things you guys wish you would've done at my age financially?

cheers !

Here you reference it being from 2% of salary and 10% of IR3 filers, but that was only true till 2016, now it's everyone. Check on your link. https://www.moneyhub.co.nz/wage-salary-distributions.html

I’ve invested in this stock for just over a year and I have seen it go from +50% to now +21% since purchase. Im actually thinking if this is still a good investment due to how much they have changed within the company (increasing their investment in CDC ~ largest privately owned and operated data centre business, by reducing their Contact stake). The main reason why I picked this stock to invest in the first place as it is/was(?) one of the best NZX “ETF” stocks that advertise their responsible investments and avoid investments that harm the environment or society. (I literally quote from their website). It’s the only NZX stock I own and one that performs well. I really loved what they were doing… but now I’m really torn as 50% of it is now In data centres… I already hold QQQ as my heavy tech sector stock. I feel like this change kinda goes against what they are advocating for through their website and wondering if others feel the same hence the major drop these past months. All the ai makes me feel slightly uneasy, I try to use it as little as possible at home. Would this stock performance change majorly with the election (if Labour/Greens get in?) In your opinion, would you say Infratil is still a longterm hold?

Admin please delete if not allowed. I'm looking at changing my insurance broker and maybe looking at a different insurance company for trauma/ income protection/ TPD/ monthly mortgage etc. Anyone have any recommendations for any particular insurance companies or have switched brokers? I'm feeling a bit bad " breaking up" with my broker as feel I can't trust him anymore and feel he's just trying to keep me on my existing polices.

I was in Australia last week and did a split-payment comparison of these two cards, 14 AUD each.

ANZ: 17.37 NZD

Wise: 17.31 NZD

So in this case, the ANZ credit card was 0.35% worse off (I'm not completely sure why that is - maybe small FX difference depending on whether the spot rate or one from the previous day?)

But ANZ platinum card also has a rewards system that pays 0.83% - so ANZ came out slightly ahead.

I'll definitely keep the Wise card though. It's good to have a couple of payment options, and for budgeting (especially on holiday or while travelling), it is easier to see a single account being drained.

I’m 27 and it’s been on my mind for a while that it’s probably good idea to move my KiwiSaver fund.

I’m pretty new and uneducated so looking for some advice or recommendations.

It’s currently with Fisher Funds and I haven’t moved it since it was set up. It’s sitting at around 30k and I make the minimum 3.5% contribution, once I start earning more I will look at bumping up my contribution.

I’d like to use it to help buy my first home in 5 or so years so wondering if now is a good time to move it and maximise my investment.

Might pay to add that I’m also looking to move to Australia in the next couple years but will return to NZ to buy a home.

Edit: Yes I know the fisher funds is bad 😂 I have banked with kiwibank since I was a child and never really thought about it or knew you could switch. Better late than never tho hey!

I'm planning to move my investments and KiwiSaver from Milford Aggressive to Kernel, mainly into S&P 500 and global ex-US funds, or Investnow Total World Fund

My current returns have been pretty low lately.

Would switching now mean locking in a loss, or does it not matter since I'd be reinvesting straight away?

Should I wait for my funds to recover before switching?

Kia ora everyone,

We are first home buyers in Hamilton. We are struggling to figure out what to offer and what to be aware of.

We are looking closely at two places at the moment.

First one is on a cross-lease. Nice solid 3 bdrm, 1 bthrm home built in the 60s. Asking price is $799k, but last valuation in 2024 was $650k.

2nd is a potential leaky home. Built in 1997 with monolithic cladding. Its 3 bedrm, 2 bthrm with an office and 2nd living. Asking price is $759k. Last valuation in 2024 was $820k

If you were putting offers in on these, what would you offer? Would you even bother with the potential leaky home one?

Thanks

C

Hi Guys,

Wondering if I could get some insights from you learned folks on what the Aukland market would typically pay to someone with the below workex. Think I could work in big banks (derivatives sales, market risk), corporate treasuries of large agri/dairy commodity companies like Fonterra or energy consulting shops.

- Fornt Office Derivatives Sales at the largest Indian Bank - 1 year
- Oil Desk analyst at Trafigura Mumbai office - 3 yrs (current role)

Additional context - I'm a graduate of a top tier Indian MBA school, making INR 60+ LPA (nominally equivalent to NZD 115k in a relatvely very very cheap economy)

My wife has an option of joining as fully funded PhD researcher at the university of Aukland, providing me with unrestrcited working rights, in case we decide to go for it. Our concern is the money our AI research says I'm likely to make, showing a very grim scenario, equivalent to a career suicide, lol! While we'd absolutely love to live in Aukland, we don't want to kill ourselves counting every dollar we spend.

Thank you!

Hypothetically, if you had NZ$1.6 million to invest, what would you think of this split?

• $800,000 in bank term deposits, staggered across terms of one to five years.
• $800,000 in index funds, with 80% in a Nasdaq 100 fund and 20% in either a total-world fund or an ETF excluding US shares.

I’m also considering putting the full 100% of $800k to Nasdaq 100, given that half the overall portfolio would already be in term deposits.

Investment period 10 year minimum.

I’m no investment expert and want to keep things fairly simple. I believe AI still has significant growth potential, although I recognise the Nasdaq 100 isn’t a pure AI investment. I haven’t found a NZ-based equivalent to VGT, and SMH feels too volatile for me.

Does this seem like a sensible balance between capital preservation and growth, or would the share allocation be too concentrated? What would you do differently, and why? Thanks!

Afternoon all. Hope everyone's enjoying the long weekend.

Im looking for some advice and/or constructive criticism about my opinions as I see them at the moment. We're looking at buying a house or starting a business or possibly a hybrid of both? That's why im here. But a quick about me - chef 15+ years, variety of experience, avid gardener my entire life, work as gardener for Council gain horticultural cert lvl 2 and I also have cert in small business lvl 4.

Between my me and my partner we have a house hold income of around $1700 per week and a total out goings of around $1500 per week. Partner has been in her current job for a year now and is also studying part time, I've just recently returned to full time work after a back injury. We're currently renting, have no major debt, own both our vehicles (25k insured combined) have around 100k in kiwisaver an awesome mum willing to put her house on the line (700k?) And a 15 year old son.

Basically our ideal scenario is buying a house (katikati - thames stretch) with enough land to set up a small holding and eventually help support a Cafe veg shop set up possibly onsite.i know thinking about starting a hospo related business at the moment is kind of crazy but... me and my partner are and both feel like we're at a point in a our life where we need to make something ours. Plus im flexible with work, can do private events, catering, master classes etc. And now, after that hopefully relevant information dump, the question. How does us looking at using the house as a business ( both growing produce and being the registered kitchen site) effect our dealings with the bank in terms of home loans?

Still early on in things but we're both a little financially illiterate.

Thank you for coming this far, and to my Ted talk.

It's bloody hot out there,

Cheers 🍻

My mate put me onto it, I don’t see any downsides so far and is helping me increase my KiwiSaver balance without really noticing it, assuming their calculations are correct.

I’m 55 in November BTW.

I’m hopefully not breaking advertising rules, more wanting feedback if any downsides to using it?