Statement of Advice
Alex and Jordan Taylor
1 Your plan on one page
You are doing well. Between you, you earn a strong income, own your home, and have built over $200,000 in KiwiSaver. But your money is not yet working as hard as you are. About $1,800 a month of surplus is sitting idle, your mortgage is about to roll onto a new rate with no plan behind it, and neither of you has protection that matches what your family depends on.
Our recommendations fix those three gaps in a deliberate order. If you act on them, the model shows a realistic path to retiring at 60 with roughly $1.04 million of investable assets in today’s dollars, and a mortgage cleared about six years sooner than it is on track to be today.
2 Your situation today
| Assets | Amount | Liabilities | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Family home | $1,150,000 | Mortgage | $620,000 |
| KiwiSaver (Alex) | $128,000 | Car loan | $18,000 |
| KiwiSaver (Jordan) | $74,000 | Credit card | $4,000 |
| Cash and term deposits | $46,000 | ||
| Managed fund | $38,000 | ||
| Total assets | $1,436,000 | Total liabilities | $642,000 |
| Net worth | $794,000 | ||
Household: Alex (42) and Jordan (40), two children. Combined gross income $230,000. Monthly take-home about $13,900, living costs about $11,200, which leaves roughly $2,700 a month. Only about $900 of that currently reaches savings.
3 What you told us you want
- Choice at 60. The option to step back from full-time work, not a requirement to.
- A mortgage that is a plan, not a habit. Know what the number is trending to and why.
- A safety net. If something happened to either income, the family stays in the home and keeps its direction.
- Less money admin. A system that runs without monthly decisions.
4 What we found
$1,800 a month is idle
It lands in an everyday account and gets absorbed. Over a year that is $21,600 not working toward any goal.
One big mortgage decision, unmade
The whole $620,000 comes off its fixed term in four months. Without a structure, you will take whatever rate is offered that week.
KiwiSaver on autopilot
Both accounts sit in the default fund, set up years ago. Jordan’s contribution is below the level that captures the full employer contribution.
Protection does not match the risk
No income protection for Alex, and life cover that is well short of what the mortgage and two children would need.
5 Our recommendations, in order
Ranked by impact and urgency. Each shows what to do, why, and by when.
-
Put the idle surplus to work, automatically
Within 30 daysDo: split the $1,800 monthly surplus on payday: $1,300 to investments and $500 to the mortgage.
Why: money you have to decide about every month tends to get spent. A system removes the decision.
-
Reset the KiwiSaver settings
Within 30 daysDo: lift Jordan’s contribution to capture the full employer contribution, and review the fund for each of you against your timeframe and tolerance for ups and downs.
Why: an unclaimed employer contribution is the closest thing to free money in the system, and a default fund is a default, not a decision.
-
Structure the mortgage on purpose
Before the fixed term endsDo: split the loan across two or three terms and keep a portion flexible so extra payments are possible, rather than fixing everything for one period.
Why: it spreads rate risk, keeps the extra $500 a month useful, and avoids a single bad day deciding your next few years.
-
Protect the income your family relies on
Within 90 daysDo: review income protection and life cover, then take the quotes to a licensed insurance broker. We refer and take no commission.
Why: your plan is only as strong as the income funding it. Protection is cheaper and easier to get while you are healthy.
-
Build a proper cash buffer
Within 90 daysDo: hold three months of essential costs in a separate account, funded from existing cash, and clear the credit card in full.
Why: a buffer stops a surprise bill from becoming debt or a forced sale.
-
Tidy the legal foundations
Within 6 monthsDo: update wills and enduring powers of attorney with a lawyer, and confirm who is named on each KiwiSaver and insurance policy.
Why: a plan that cannot be carried out by the right people, in the right order, is not finished.
6 What it could mean for you
We modelled three paths so you can see the trade-offs, not just a single answer. Figures are in today’s dollars.
| Scenario | Investable assets at 60 | Investable assets at 65 | Mortgage-free |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stay as you are | $0.67m | $0.84m | Age 69 |
| Recommended plan | $1.04m | $1.35m | Age 63 |
| Plan with a 2-year career break | $0.95m | $1.25m | Age 64 |
Key assumptions: 5% a year investment return after fees and tax, 2% inflation, 5.5% mortgage rate held constant, contributions as described in the recommendations. Real markets, rates and tax rules will differ. The value is in seeing how much each decision moves the result, not in the exact figures.
7 The risks, said plainly
- Markets fall. Investment values can drop, sometimes sharply. We have matched your funds to your timeframes, and we stress-tested the plan against a bad first five years.
- Interest rates rise. Splitting the mortgage limits how much of the loan reprices at once.
- Income stops. Recommendation 4 and the cash buffer in Recommendation 5 exist for exactly this.
- Rules change. KiwiSaver, tax and policy settings move over time, which is why the plan includes a check-in.
8 Your action plan
Set up the payday split. Change KiwiSaver contributions and funds. Book a mortgage conversation.
Lock in the mortgage structure. Get insurance quotes through a broker. Fund the cash buffer.
Complete wills and powers of attorney. Confirm beneficiaries.
Review the plan together, update the numbers and reset priorities.
9 How we are paid and what we do not do
Your adviser is paid one flat fee, agreed before any work starts. There are no commissions, no product kickbacks, and no incentive to put you into anything. Insurance is referred to licensed brokers and MoneyPlan takes no commission from them. If a recommendation involves a product, you will see why it was chosen over the alternatives.