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By Paul de Klerk KiwiSaver and Investment Specialist  Even in the face of doom and gloom forecasts from popular economists who predicted "higher for longer" interest rates, I predicted back in February that interest rates were likely to start falling by latest September 2024. And not just fall, but fall rapidly. And today ANZ has announced that they are slashing their short-term mortgage interest rates by as much as 0.40%. This should be good for the economy and the markets in which KiwiSaver funds are invested in. New Zealand is in desperate need of some good news and this certainly qualifies. But a word of caution: When markets start to turn bullish and interest rates start to drop, very often a sense of complacency enters as KiwiSaver accounts start growing faster. But the risk is that many KiwiSaver investors can be missing out on better growth prospects because they are not monitoring the wider KiwiSaver provider market. For example: Let's say your growth fund is sitting on 10% of annual growth at the moment. Does that sound good? Positive growth is positive growth after all. However, if you consider the current top 10 growth fund performers, even 10% annual growth is well off the pace. Three KiwiSaver Funds are currently returning over 15% annual growth. Be better informed and continue to monitor the performance of your KiwiSaver fund against what other providers are achieving in the last 12 months. The message is this: Do not neglect to review your KiwiSaver performance when times turn positive and markets become bullish. We all have a limited amount of time until we reach retirement. Time in which we may have been able to get even better growth towards a better retirement. As the saying goes: "time is money". So use it wisely.  Paul de Klerk (FSP110367) is a specialist investment adviser working for the Financial Advice Provider known as De Klerk Business Services Ltd (FSP1005978). For a disclosure statement visit www.pauldeklerk.co.nz/disclosure
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