April 24, 2026 • 9 mins
David Seymour's floating the idea of giving high school students 500 dollars each, to learn investing.
Students would be able to track earnings and losses, and will be tested on it.
Seymour told Matt and Tyler, "I just think, especially for poor children from poorer households, if you don't have someone in your household who knows how to invest and talks about this stuff, how would you learn?"
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talks'd be follow
this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
As Leader and Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour is floating
a new idea to boost financial literacy among young kiwis.
So that is giving every year eleven student five hundred
dollars to invest. As you can imagine, there are some
strings attached to that. So to discuss further, we are
joined by the Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour. Minister afternoon
to you, Hey a you good afternoon.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Tell us about your plan.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Well, we're definitely not just going to give them five
hundred bucks cash, but we might let them keep any
profit they make at the end of the year. What
the government would have to do as partner with a
company like Chasa's or Hatch or black Ball. There's a
few different companies that offer this kind of investment platform
(01:01):
and they would have five hundred dollars. It's real money
in term one they can invest and say some low
risk like a term deposit, learn about the benefits of saving,
and the idea that if you give it to a
bank and someone else uses it and makes a profit,
then you effectively get some of that bank in an
indirect way. In the second term, if they're passed a
(01:23):
few tests and showing their financial literacy is increasing, you say, look,
you can put it into a managed fund and a
little bit like key we savor. There's you know, there's aggressive,
there's conservative, there's growth, there's different options that invest in
different types of stocks, and you can learn about that.
And then maybe in three you say, look you can
actually invest in actual companies and you can invest in
(01:44):
the New Zealand and start asking yourself, if your flights
aren't on time, maybe people won't fly with you and
you won't make so much money. Or if jet fuel
goes up, that might have heard as well. So you
start getting a sense of why some companies go up
and some go down. And I just think, especially for
poor children from poorer household, if you don't have someone
(02:04):
in your household who knows how to invest and booked
about the stuff, how would you learn. And yet I
would like to see a society where everybody can have
an ownership and a stake. I think this could be
one of the most powerful things we can do using
real money to get kids interested, to bring about that
kind of change. Plus, we need more productive investment other
(02:28):
than housing if we want New Zealand to be wealthier,
and that requires cultural change.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
How dumb my young Kiwi's in New Zealand is around finance, David.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Well, you know, I've seen a few people who have
commented on Facebook and the like since I floated this
idea last night, and they've said it's all just gambling
and why would you encourage them to do this? A
lot of the comments I've seen have actually really emboldened
me and confirmed that we do need to talk about
(03:01):
why investment is not gambling. There's certainly an element of risk,
but you actually affect lending someone your saving so that
they can try and make money by investing in plant
and equipment, produce their products and pay their workers more.
And there's actually a virtuous circle up there. But I
think our culture is so anti business, it's anti entrepreneurship.
(03:24):
We teach people to work hard, and I fully agree
with that, but hard work only produces and if we
also have investment capital, and I don't think that side
of the equation has been taught in our education system.
I don't think it's part of our culture, and I
think that's made a support which has manifested itself as
a cost of living crisis because really, yes, prices are up,
(03:48):
but the real problem, I would argue is that our
wages are falling behind the rest of the world. That's
why we feel that there's a cost of living crisis.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
To go back to the gambling thing, there's a lesson
in that as well, because when I bought my kids,
you know, gave my kids some money to invest in stocks,
one of them was an idiot and sped them, you know,
on stuff that he was into, and the other one
thought about it. But there was a pretty heavy lesson there.
If you just see it blow up and disappear, then
then then that's a lesson as well, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Yeah, look what I think, what I think should happen
if we you know, we're just floating this idea. It's
not even a absolute policy yet, but is that some
some kids will just, through no fold of their own,
lose it. And it's a shame. But look, at the
end of the day, it's a it's a very small
amount of bunny. It's I sent what the government is
(04:37):
running and key we save the subsidies every year anyway,
but on the other hand, if they do well, then
we'll we'll take the fight the original five hundred principle,
put that probably into their key, we save it to
kickstart that, and then we'd take the take any extra
they make that if they want to, they can take
(04:58):
the cash out for the holidays, and I think I
think that could motivate it. But they might also say, look,
I'm enjoying this, I'm going to keep investing it. So
partly about that, and it's also about parents. They'll be
parents who won't have had this opportunity, but they'll get
interested in what the kids are doing. And it'll be
particularly households that haven't had a history of doing this
(05:22):
that for whatever reason no fold of their own, but
they won't have been introduced to it before. We should
make everybody interested in both sides of the economy that's
working and investing.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
So you've kind of you've thought about the costing obviously, David,
it's around about thirty million dollars if there's six hundred
thousand students, So where would that come from? Do you think?
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Well, at the moment, every year, we take about six
hundred million dollars and we put it into people's key.
We say, if you make a contribution through work, the
government will give you the top up of about five
hundred dollars. And I haven't dol maths down to the
last cent, but in round Vegas, five percent of five
(06:05):
hundreds about twenty five dollars, so you might four to
seven five instead of five hundred. The other twenty five
dollars go into into the key, into the kids investor
kids scant and without front of all of this on
the radio, there's about twenty times more key we Saber
(06:26):
members than there are children per year of school. So
you put that all together and basically everyone gets twenty
five bucks less, but everyone also gets five hundred when
they're a fifth former or year eleven.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
This probably comes from the probably unanswerable questions file. But
there's a lot going on in the world. Things are
changing fast. AI is changing the stock market. Will the
markets exist as they are by the time these kids
get old.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
I think it'll be a lot of things right, Like
if you learn how to write a letter when you're
at school, you're probably better prepared to write an email,
and you're probably in a bet a place when it
comes to typing questions and claw GPP these days. So
some things are kind of fundamental. You know, writing a question,
(07:19):
writing a letter, communicating an idea. You know, the technologies
to change, but the concept hasn't putting some money aside
and then effectively giving it to someone else who has
a use for it so they can make more money
and pay some back to you. I mean that is
going to exist in some form, So we can just
get that concept across, then I think we'll be much
(07:43):
much more resilient and prosperous society than if large amounts
of people don't have that knowledge. And unfortunately, if you
look at how many New Zealanders actually invest in companies
compared with say Americans, we're just not there.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
What would you suggest kids put their money in. I'd
put mine in Blockbuster Video, BlackBerry and Scotte.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Sounds like a smart stranging.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Well, I mean if you had a frontal the bottomy
and traveled backwards through time and then that's exactly what
you do. But look, I mean this is exactly the
sort of thing I think we need to teach. So
there's risky stuff like you could go with Elon Musk
and you're either going to become very RICHU or very poor,
very quickly, very difficult to know, or you might be
(08:32):
depending on your temperament. You say, Look, I'm just going
to go with a sort of a balance, a portfolio
of stocks that will probably not set the world on fire,
but my gains and losses will roughly balance out and
I'll end up a little bit ahead. So this is
exactly the sort of thing that you know, I never
learned at school. I mean, I think I got a
(08:52):
very good education. It's a good school, into a good UNI,
got an engineering degree, but I never learned any of
this stuff myself later in life, and I think it'd
be good for New Zealand if it was taught more likely.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Yeah, well, the Warren Buffett challenge is probably something that
people should be taught, you know, around indexed funds. Yeah,
but look, you'll like this text here. I think it
is the best idea that David Seymour has ever come
up with in his whole entire career. I applaud him.
That's from K.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Well done. Oh, thank you. K.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Pseudo was pretty good as well. Okay, I've just got
to say, but there you go. Hey, David, thank you
very much for catching up with us. I really appreciate it.
We'll catch up again.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
So yeah, thank you guy, have a great day.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
That is the Eight Party leader and Deputy Prime Minister
David Seymour's for more.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
From News Talks, ed B listen live on air or online,
and keep our shows with you wherever you go with
our podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to a podcast from News Talks'd be follow
this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
As Leader and Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour is floating
a new idea to boost financial literacy among young kiwis.
So that is giving every year eleven student five hundred
dollars to invest. As you can imagine, there are some
strings attached to that. So to discuss further, we are
joined by the Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour. Minister afternoon
to you, Hey a you good afternoon.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Tell us about your plan.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Well, we're definitely not just going to give them five
hundred bucks cash, but we might let them keep any
profit they make at the end of the year. What
the government would have to do as partner with a
company like Chasa's or Hatch or black Ball. There's a
few different companies that offer this kind of investment platform
(01:01):
and they would have five hundred dollars. It's real money
in term one they can invest and say some low
risk like a term deposit, learn about the benefits of saving,
and the idea that if you give it to a
bank and someone else uses it and makes a profit,
then you effectively get some of that bank in an
indirect way. In the second term, if they're passed a
(01:23):
few tests and showing their financial literacy is increasing, you say, look,
you can put it into a managed fund and a
little bit like key we savor. There's you know, there's aggressive,
there's conservative, there's growth, there's different options that invest in
different types of stocks, and you can learn about that.
And then maybe in three you say, look you can
actually invest in actual companies and you can invest in
(01:44):
the New Zealand and start asking yourself, if your flights
aren't on time, maybe people won't fly with you and
you won't make so much money. Or if jet fuel
goes up, that might have heard as well. So you
start getting a sense of why some companies go up
and some go down. And I just think, especially for
poor children from poorer household, if you don't have someone
(02:04):
in your household who knows how to invest and booked
about the stuff, how would you learn. And yet I
would like to see a society where everybody can have
an ownership and a stake. I think this could be
one of the most powerful things we can do using
real money to get kids interested, to bring about that
kind of change. Plus, we need more productive investment other
(02:28):
than housing if we want New Zealand to be wealthier,
and that requires cultural change.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
How dumb my young Kiwi's in New Zealand is around finance, David.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Well, you know, I've seen a few people who have
commented on Facebook and the like since I floated this
idea last night, and they've said it's all just gambling
and why would you encourage them to do this? A
lot of the comments I've seen have actually really emboldened
me and confirmed that we do need to talk about
(03:01):
why investment is not gambling. There's certainly an element of risk,
but you actually affect lending someone your saving so that
they can try and make money by investing in plant
and equipment, produce their products and pay their workers more.
And there's actually a virtuous circle up there. But I
think our culture is so anti business, it's anti entrepreneurship.
(03:24):
We teach people to work hard, and I fully agree
with that, but hard work only produces and if we
also have investment capital, and I don't think that side
of the equation has been taught in our education system.
I don't think it's part of our culture, and I
think that's made a support which has manifested itself as
a cost of living crisis because really, yes, prices are up,
(03:48):
but the real problem, I would argue is that our
wages are falling behind the rest of the world. That's
why we feel that there's a cost of living crisis.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
To go back to the gambling thing, there's a lesson
in that as well, because when I bought my kids,
you know, gave my kids some money to invest in stocks,
one of them was an idiot and sped them, you know,
on stuff that he was into, and the other one
thought about it. But there was a pretty heavy lesson there.
If you just see it blow up and disappear, then
then then that's a lesson as well, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Yeah, look what I think, what I think should happen
if we you know, we're just floating this idea. It's
not even a absolute policy yet, but is that some
some kids will just, through no fold of their own,
lose it. And it's a shame. But look, at the
end of the day, it's a it's a very small
amount of bunny. It's I sent what the government is
(04:37):
running and key we save the subsidies every year anyway,
but on the other hand, if they do well, then
we'll we'll take the fight the original five hundred principle,
put that probably into their key, we save it to
kickstart that, and then we'd take the take any extra
they make that if they want to, they can take
(04:58):
the cash out for the holidays, and I think I
think that could motivate it. But they might also say, look,
I'm enjoying this, I'm going to keep investing it. So
partly about that, and it's also about parents. They'll be
parents who won't have had this opportunity, but they'll get
interested in what the kids are doing. And it'll be
particularly households that haven't had a history of doing this
(05:22):
that for whatever reason no fold of their own, but
they won't have been introduced to it before. We should
make everybody interested in both sides of the economy that's
working and investing.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
So you've kind of you've thought about the costing obviously, David,
it's around about thirty million dollars if there's six hundred
thousand students, So where would that come from? Do you think?
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Well, at the moment, every year, we take about six
hundred million dollars and we put it into people's key.
We say, if you make a contribution through work, the
government will give you the top up of about five
hundred dollars. And I haven't dol maths down to the
last cent, but in round Vegas, five percent of five
(06:05):
hundreds about twenty five dollars, so you might four to
seven five instead of five hundred. The other twenty five
dollars go into into the key, into the kids investor
kids scant and without front of all of this on
the radio, there's about twenty times more key we Saber
(06:26):
members than there are children per year of school. So
you put that all together and basically everyone gets twenty
five bucks less, but everyone also gets five hundred when
they're a fifth former or year eleven.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
This probably comes from the probably unanswerable questions file. But
there's a lot going on in the world. Things are
changing fast. AI is changing the stock market. Will the
markets exist as they are by the time these kids
get old.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
I think it'll be a lot of things right, Like
if you learn how to write a letter when you're
at school, you're probably better prepared to write an email,
and you're probably in a bet a place when it
comes to typing questions and claw GPP these days. So
some things are kind of fundamental. You know, writing a question,
(07:19):
writing a letter, communicating an idea. You know, the technologies
to change, but the concept hasn't putting some money aside
and then effectively giving it to someone else who has
a use for it so they can make more money
and pay some back to you. I mean that is
going to exist in some form, So we can just
get that concept across, then I think we'll be much
(07:43):
much more resilient and prosperous society than if large amounts
of people don't have that knowledge. And unfortunately, if you
look at how many New Zealanders actually invest in companies
compared with say Americans, we're just not there.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
What would you suggest kids put their money in. I'd
put mine in Blockbuster Video, BlackBerry and Scotte.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Sounds like a smart stranging.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Well, I mean if you had a frontal the bottomy
and traveled backwards through time and then that's exactly what
you do. But look, I mean this is exactly the
sort of thing I think we need to teach. So
there's risky stuff like you could go with Elon Musk
and you're either going to become very RICHU or very poor,
very quickly, very difficult to know, or you might be
(08:32):
depending on your temperament. You say, Look, I'm just going
to go with a sort of a balance, a portfolio
of stocks that will probably not set the world on fire,
but my gains and losses will roughly balance out and
I'll end up a little bit ahead. So this is
exactly the sort of thing that you know, I never
learned at school. I mean, I think I got a
(08:52):
very good education. It's a good school, into a good UNI,
got an engineering degree, but I never learned any of
this stuff myself later in life, and I think it'd
be good for New Zealand if it was taught more likely.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Yeah, well, the Warren Buffett challenge is probably something that
people should be taught, you know, around indexed funds. Yeah,
but look, you'll like this text here. I think it
is the best idea that David Seymour has ever come
up with in his whole entire career. I applaud him.
That's from K.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Well done. Oh, thank you. K.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Pseudo was pretty good as well. Okay, I've just got
to say, but there you go. Hey, David, thank you
very much for catching up with us. I really appreciate it.
We'll catch up again.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
So yeah, thank you guy, have a great day.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
That is the Eight Party leader and Deputy Prime Minister
David Seymour's for more.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
From News Talks, ed B listen live on air or online,
and keep our shows with you wherever you go with
our podcast on iHeartRadio
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