Max Rashbrook

Well, I think this is a point that Shirzi has made as well, that the earlier you start the saving journey, the better, right?

That's the magic of compounding interest.

The longer you give it to do its thing, the more power it has.

And so the proposal that we put out as Idea as a think tank was basically to say, well, why don't we enrol every child in KiwiSaver

at birth with some kind of kickstart contribution from government you know like KiwiSaver had originally for adults and then try to create some kind of structure or incentive that encourages parents to keep saving for their children whether that's matching small amounts that they put in with contributions from government or direct contributions for poorer families

However you do it, roll that forward to 18.

You know, plausibly young people are hitting 18 with $10,000 to $20,000 saved for them in these accounts.

That rolls over into an adult KiwiSaver account, and then they're off on their savings journey.

Can I just add to that?

I think what's great, I think, is that there's – it feels like there's momentum behind these kinds of ideas internationally.

In the US, there's a lot of talk about what they call baby bonds, which are the same concept.

Essentially, there's one state, Connecticut, which has already got a fully funded –

scheme you know again you know they're putting the deposits away for all the children in the state those are going to be invested for 18 years you know big big compounding returns over that time and and it's all the same um instinct right you know you want a world where everyone's got that firm financial foundation right you know and i think about i mean my parents supported me with that in various ways

I think about all the young people in New Zealand who don't have that at the moment.

And, like, what a different country, you know, would it be if everyone had that foundation?

Well, I think you'd see a couple of things.

At the big picture level, obviously, you'd be helping build up national savings.

It all depends, obviously, what the amounts are and how much you think parents would contribute, but plausibly, you know, something in the order of adding another $10 to $20 billion to national savings over a couple of decades.

And at the individual level...

I think you could start to see things like really restoring that dream of widespread homeownership, which I think is really central to being a New Zealander, which obviously has been diminished in recent decades.