Murray Harris: Milford Asset Management Head of KiwiSaver on the fluctuations caused by Donald Trump's tariffs

An urge for Kiwis to not worry about market impacts from Donald Trump's tariffs on their KiwiSaver. 

The US President's slapped import levies on Canada, China, and Mexico, and has signalled more for other countries. 

Trump says he's spoken with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over easing tariffs on the auto sector. 

But Milford Asset Management head of KiwiSaver Murray Harris told Mike Hosking it's a long term investment, and markets always go up and down. 

He says their advice is to ignore the market fluctuations, stay the course, and not panic. 

Harris says when markets go down, contributions are buying more value, and when markets recover, KiwiSaver users will benefit from those extra units, bought more cheaply. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The old key Saver chats back. Now that the good
days of the market are over and Trump is loose
in the house, wreaking have it with the Tower of Business.
Very topsy turvy, they say on key Save ahead of
Key Saber. At Milford Asset Management, Murray Harris's well us, Murray,
very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Good morning Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Is this a media thing because we have this discussion
every time the market goes a bit wonky and somebody
comes into power. I mean, do people ring you up
and go, oh my god, Murray, what do I do now?
Or not?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well, Look, there's one of the issues with kiv Saver
is that people can see their balance every day and
there are things to worry markets every single day. Markets
go up and down, and really the advice to people
with Kivsaver is that they should just ignore that, stay
the course and don't.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Pay it exactly. It's a long term savings plan. It
always has been what percentage off the top of your head,
because part of the whole debate around kivy saver is
the lack of interest in it and default funds and
all that sort of thing. What percentage of people you
deal with are actually interested knowledgeable and know what's going on.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Well, participation is actually quite good. There's three point three
million kiwis in it, and there's quite strong representation in
the younger cohort, so they do see you know, younger
people in particular said as a good scheme to well
first of all, say for the first home and then
longer term retirement. But yeah, the retirement question is much
further out for most people. But participation is good good.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
And these debate or difficult times that we're dealing with
with tariffs at the moment, do you see a breakout
result in terms of growth versus conservative or does it
keep on keeping on the way it generally does.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Whether it's tariffs or pandemics or elections, whatever it is
was markets are always going to react to those, so
your KIV saver balances are always going to go up
and down. The benefit with kivsavers you're making contributions every
single week or month or fortnite from your pay so
when markets go down, your contributions are actually buying more value.
You're buying cheaper units in your fune and then where

(01:45):
markets recover, your benefit from those more units that you
brought with your cheaper dollars. So that's why we say
stick to the plan, stay the course, don't panic, and
if you're really uncertain, get some advice. There's plenty of
good advice out there now for keV saving.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
English good stuff. Marrie appreciate it. Myry hair us out
of Milford, esset with us this morning.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
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