Saving for a house deposit? Grow your savings faster

Saving for a house in the post-covid age isn’t easy. With house prices becoming stratospheric, the Kiwi dream might start to seem more like a pipe dream.

A quick google will tell you that term deposit one-year returns are typically under 1%p.a. which isn’t going to get you anywhere fast. So if you’re talking about putting $50,000 in there, you’re going to earn LESS THAN $500 p.a. once you take resident withholding tax into account! The other issue with putting your money into a term deposit is that you can’t get it out again until the term is up, without paying additional fees which will all eat into that bottom line.

So there are a few barriers to tackle when you’re trying to make your money work harder for you:

1. You want a decent interest return on your savings
2. You need to be able to access your money before the term is up without paying fees
3. You don’t want to lose your savings in some dodgy get-rich-quick scheme, or be subject to the volatility that investing in shares can bring.

Squirrel term investments are a different way to invest. They offer returns between 4%p.a. and 7.5%p.a. with terms between 1 – 7 years. Does 7 years sound like a long time? That’s because it is. However, if you want to get your money out earlier, there is a way.

Squirrel offers a secondary market where you can pass your investment on to another willing investor at no cost to you. Meaning if you find your house before your investment term is up, you have a way to get your money out early (providing there’s a buyer, which past performance suggests there will be within a couple of weeks).

Is it risky investing your money in a non-traditional way?

Every investment carries risk and this one does too. But whilst we can’t guarantee the future, no Squirrel investor has ever lost a cent to date. We’re pretty proud of that.

Even better, there are no fees to invest, and there are no ongoing fees coming off the returns we’ve noted above. We’re focused on helping you grow your savings, not charging fees that dilute your returns.

Want to find out a bit more about how it all works and how we manage to offer our investors these kinds of returns? Watch this video.

And if you’re hungry for even more, check out the webinar that we ran last year, which delves into the detail about our risk modelling and all that technical stuff.

We’re all about transparency at Squirrel and would be happy to personally answer any questions you might have. Just give us a bell on 0800 21 22 33 or book a chat with Dave anytime.

The opinions expressed in this article should not be taken as financial advice, or a recommendation of any financial product. Squirrel shall not be liable or responsible for any information, omissions, or errors present. Any commentary provided are the personal views of the author and are not necessarily representative of the views and opinions of Squirrel. We recommend seeking professional investment and/or mortgage advice before taking any action.

To view our disclosure statements and other legal information, please visit our Legal Agreements page here.