Mt Albert Grammar School students Sam de Wolf, Jasjot Kohli, Nick Colling and Geetika Vanapalli. Photo / Dean Purcell
School leavers would be more enthused about KiwiSaver if they were told a little more about it, say economics students at Mt Albert Grammar.
"We're told it's good, but why is it good? We don't know," Nick Colling said.
Colling and Sam de Wolf, Geetika Vanapalli and Jasjot
Kohli, are 17- and 18-year olds in their final year of secondary school. They work part-time and will be moving on to university at the end of the year.
They have all heard about KiwiSaver know it takes a percentage of an employee's income and builds up a fund until retirement but they haven't been introduced to the scheme at school or by their respective part-time employers.
"Most of what we know is from what our parents have told us or what we have found out ourself," says de Wolf.
De Wolf's a bit of an anomaly amongst his peers he's thinking about his retirement already, because he plans to hit it early with a nice pool of cash behind him.
But he expects saving is low on the agenda of most of his peers, particularly those who have been well-supported by their parents at home.
Kohli says he tried to join the scheme when it was introduced but because he was 17, he was told to find his own provider and sort it out himself.
"It was all too hard so I decided to wait until I was 18."
Vanapalli, who has just turned 18 says she also plans to join the scheme, seeing it as a good kick-start to her savings and also a cushion of security to fall back on.
De Wolf is not so sure: "It restricts how much money you can take out as well, and as soon as I get out of school I will take a few risks, so I would like to go straight into investing rather than saving."
And Colling says he would like to know more: "Is it going to change if National comes in, what they are going to offer?"
The four students agree the information should be readily available to high school students.
And, they are also proposing a KiwiSaver of their own: "Instead of having it for retirement they should make one for students who start working at 14 to save up for university or something like that," de Wolfe says.
"And it could help pay for student loans," adds Vanapalli.
