How to be financially average

Forget being the highest-earning, the most dedicated saver or the savviest investor. What if you just want to be average?

There can be something satisfying in being able to benchmark yourself against what’s “normal” for New Zealand.

If you’re on a quest for average, here are a few of the things you might consider.

Wages

For people working full-time, the average weekly earnings, including overtime, was $1612 in the year to June. The average per-hour rate was $41.52.

The public sector was being paid better than the private – at $1934 a week on average compared to $1528 for the private sector.

At $1612 a week, that’s about $83,800 a year – a little better than the UK’s reported average salary of £36,000 or NZ$77,320.

House value

The average house is worth about $805,000 – that’s roughly the sort of price you might see in Clover Park, Auckland, Welcome Bay,

Tauranga, Te Maraua, Upper Hutt or Hillsborough, Christchurch.

KiwiSaver balance

At 31 March of this year, the average KiwiSaver balance was $33,500. That’s up from less than $10,000 a decade ago.

In Australia, 40-year-olds had an average super balance of A$156,000. In New Zealand, the average balance for a 40-year-old is about $30,000.

Savings account

The NZ Banking Association said the average savings account balance in June was $15,800.

But Retirement Commission research showed 50 percent of respondents had less than $5000 in their savings accounts.

Home loan

NZBA said the average home loan was $318,151. First-home buyers are taking on mortgages of just over $550,000, on average.

Average credit card debt

The average credit card balance across the country is $3000 – with a weighted average interest rate of 19.7 percent on balances accumulating interest, and 10.5 percent across all balances.

Average credit score

New Zealand’s average credit score is 752, which is slightly down on the 755 of last year. Most people’s credit scores are somewhere between 300 and 850, and the higher your rating, the more creditworthy you are deemed to be.

Food bill

Stats NZ data shows a typical household spends on average just under $300 a week on food, of which $139.40 goes on general grocery items. Restaurant meals cost about $30 a week.

Households also spend about $23 a week on alcoholic beverages, on average.

Clothing

Stats NZ says the average household spends about $35 a week on clothes and $7.80 on footwear.

Rent

The median weekly rent in NZ in the year to June was $568, according to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

That is a bit less than the $640 a week that Trade Me says is the median asking price across the country but that may reflect new tenancies having higher rents than existing ones.

Power bill

About $200 a month is the average electricity bill in New Zealand, but there can be a lot of variance within that according to the season or your household use.

Powerswitch general manager Paul Fuge said 46 percent of households used gas for heating or cooking or both and 35 percent used firewood, coal or wood pellets for heating.

“This makes a big difference because water and space heating are a big chunk of household costs. Water heating makes around 30% or an average household’s fuel costs and, in the winter months, space heating around 25%.

“So, if you are an all-electric household, you will likely be paying more than the average figures.

“Another factor in how large a ‘normal’ monthly power bill is the occupancy of the house. In other words, how many people live there and how often they are home. Nationally, the average household size is around three people per household. If you have more people living in your house than this (and around 30 percent of NZ households have at least four people) your power bill will be above the average.”

He said having a spa pool could also add $30 a month and an EV would increase consumption by 20 per cent.

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