The cold air kept me partially conscious and the white fluorescent lights seared into the back of my skull as I staggered into, and around, food-ladened aisles. Hungover and grumpy as all hell is definitely not the best state to be in, when trying to organise my groceries. Standing in front of a brightly-lit chiller, I was considering a special on a six-pack of Hallertau’s Primal Descent NZ Wild Ale to help me get rid of my hangover. It was, unfortunately, at that point (and not after I’d left that stupid-market) that it occurred to me I had $23.16 to last me until payday, four days later. I had to choose between my immediate need of getting rid of my hangover or buying a week’s worth of sandwiches for lunch. With great difficulty, I rationalised that sandwiches were more likely to keep me alive than beers. This conclusion didn’t diminish my level of grumpiness. In the safety of the dimly-lit carpark, the poor trolley got an unwarranted but aggressive shove into the trolley bay*.

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Being forced to make decisions like these make it so much more difficult to think about handing my hard-earned, meagre disposable income over to my KiwiSaver investment fund – one that I have little control over, and won’t get my money returned to me until I'm at least 65 years old.

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But what I keep telling myself is that the Government also contributes to my KiwiSaver – for every $1 I contribute, they contribute $0.50, up to a maximum of $521.43 each year**. They call it a Member Tax Credit.

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I try to contribute enough each year to maximise the Government’s contribution – that’s about $20 / week, every week, throughout the year.

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So contributing $20 each and every week into my KiwiSaver, I get:

• my contributions: $20 x 52 weeks = $1,040 a year (as a full-time, salaried employee, the equivalent is being on $34,762 salary and contributing the minimum amount of 3%, which is about $20/week).
• government contributions (assumes contributing $0.50 for each dollar up to $521.43): $520 a year, and
• I'm also lucky that my employer is contributing 3% (an extra $20/week) to my retirement savings as well.

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So as an employee, for my $1,040 contribution, I get an additional $1,560 in contributions and my KiwiSaver has grown to $2,600 already. That’s 150% return on investment in one year!

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Now compare that to me putting $20 each and every week into my savings:

• my contributions: $20 x 52 weeks = $1,040 a year
• annual interest received on $1,040 @ 3% = $31.20.

So in this instance my account has grown to a whopping $1,071.20. That’s $1,528.80 less than my KiwiSaver (as an employee) over the same time.

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If you’re a visual person, like me, here’s a graph that helps highlight the difference in growth:

The only saving grace with a savings account (no pun intended) is that I can access my savings in times of emergencies. Like the situation I was in at the start.

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There have been weeks when the $20 hasn’t quite made it into my KiwiSaver account. But I can log in to get a breakdown of how much I've personally contributed between 1 July and 30 June each year. And top it up... if I’m not debating over whether to get beers or sandwiches for lunch.

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After all, getting someone else to contribute 50% of what I do, to fund my retirement lifestyle, is a pretty sweet deal. Even if I have to wait for it.

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But I’ll be watching it. With finappster I’ll be able to track both my KiwiSaver and my savings. Side by side. Even if they are with different providers.