Finances after 50 is a new series in which we talk to New Zealanders in the second half of life about their relationship with money. Kicking it off is Liz Greive, the founder of Share My Super, a charity that invites superannuants to donate all or some of their benefit to a collection of charities associated with lifting children out of poverty.
I grew up in the north of England, and nobody had a lot of money. My parents were comfortable-ish. We did have access to a car and a telephone, and that was comparatively unusual, but they were not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination. And my grandparents, who we visited in Ireland, didn't have electricity or running water.
I'm very comfortable and fortunate. I don't buy $5000 handbags or swanky cars or anything super grand, but I do have very nice places to live, and I spend a chunk of time in Europe each year because I've got loads of family and friends over there and now a granddaughter in London, so that’s important to me.
I was born in 1952 so I'm a classic Boomer, and of course I was exposed to post-war rationing and poverty. I remember some kids at school, they were so thin and pale; they had no money, because their father had tuberculosis, and there was not really a safety net. They got free school meals, and we all got free milk, but they always looked cold, they were not properly dressed. That that made a quite an impression on me.
In the late 70s I moved to New Zealand with my then husband (a Kiwi) and began working in South Auckland as a social worker. In London I’d worked with all kinds of nationalities, but this was the first time that I’d really worked with Māori and Pasifika people, and that was a very rich and rewarding experience for me. I had one full-time and two part-time jobs just to keep the money coming in the door during that time, while my husband was studying for his degree.
The standard of living here seemed better than the UK then. In a way, life was easier for people because they generally had quite a decent-sized home, and a bit of land, and food was comparatively cheap. If people budgeted, they could pay the rent or pay off a mortgage and feed and clothe themselves and their children.
I was the major breadwinner in my marriage for the first ten or 12 years. We returned to the UK during the 80s and I had my own business there, training and consulting in social work, which provided us with quite a decent income. But the interesting thing was all of my tax affairs were addressed to my husband, because that's what they did in the UK – everything was addressed to the man
I had both my children while working full time. There wasn't any maternity leave. I had my daughter on a Saturday evening and by Monday, I was taking her to a group meeting with social work students.
We moved back to New Zealand in 1990. We had shares in what became a very successful business. It was quite exciting watching and seeing that, oh gosh, we've actually got some money coming in.
It was a relief to no longer have that anxiety about paying the bills. But because we were both reasonably educated, and I had a profession, we always knew that we could gradually improve our lot. Can you imagine what it’s like for people to live with that constant anxiety about putting food on the table, and working like mad, with no hope of improvement?
After my husband and I divorced about ten years ago we chopped the money in half and we had been very comfortably off. So when my pension started coming in I thought, this is not going to make a dot of difference to my life. I hadn’t worked in social work for years, but it never really leaves you. I thought, I just want to give my pension to these struggling families.
When I set up this foundation I put $10 million in a fund, a big chunk of my assets. And so that covers all the costs, so that all the money that's donated goes directly to the charities we support (listed at foot of article). I'm not a passive kind of founder. My CEO will tell you, I'm a bit of a nuisance.
I do go to the odd charity event or dinner but they’re not glitzy. Someone said to me the other day do you ever wear makeup? No, this is what you get. Hair gets washed, combed, and that's it. I'm fairly basic. I prefer to get down to the nitty gritty and be with the people that I'm working alongside or helping. It’s a privilege to meet some of these kids, a lot of them are amazing, exuberant and joyful. And we’re throwing them on the scrapheap.
You've got this cyclical thing happening, where people who are poorly educated will almost always have poorly paid jobs, and so they will bring up their children in poverty and it just keeps on going round and round. There are 180,000 kids living in poverty, having things like rheumatic fever for heaven's sake. Then, as a result of the stresses of poverty, you get alcohol and drug abuse, suicides. The chief driver of violence in homes is actually food insecurity.
My financial advice would be – to women especially – to make sure they know about money. And if they’re in a relationship to be engaged with their assets, investments or whatever. I didn't picture that I was going to end up on my own, but I have and I have enough financial literacy to make sure I’ve got all my ducks in a row. So really just do get involved, know what's in every account, be across it.
It's a very male-dominated area, money and investment. I know it is changing, but I think women have to take responsibility and look after themselves. I've been in rooms full of white men who stand up and ask questions, and I’ve been too intimidated to ask anything because of a fear of looking stupid. Gird your loins, ladies, and ask away.
Share my Super has earned close to four million dollars which, considering we're a comparatively new charity, is fantastic. You don’t need to donate all of your super, to contribute. But there are people who've donated one-offs of forty, fifty, seventy thousand dollars. People are really, really concerned about these children.
I appreciate an awful lot of people do need all their super, but about 1% of people don't even collect it. Can you imagine if they collected it and gave it to us?
This interview has been edited for clarity and concision.
Share My Super currently partners with the following charities: KidsCan, Women’s Refuge, Auckland and Wellington City Missions, Te Pa, First Foundation, CPAG, Ako Mātātupu: Teach First NZ, Hillary Outdoors, Variety, Pillars Ka Pou Whakahou.
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