Kiwisaver - ethical investment option

We have so far refrained from signing up to Kiwisaver, since Mark is self-employed so we're not eligible for employer-contributions. Also, we were not keen to invest our money in unethical things.

Then we worked out that even without employer contributions it was worth it, just to get the government contributions ($1000 just for signing up, plus $1014 govt contribution each year). But that still left us with the usual investment dilemma - what are we funding with our money?

Then, we got an e-mail from our financial advisor that just at the start of April a "socially-responsible" Kiwisaver option was started by Asteron. This is not a plug for Asteron by any means, but at this point this is the only generally available Kiwisaver option that is remotely trying to be 'ethical'. We like the fact that somebody is looking at more than just the financial bottom line. We don't actually know what industries they are investing in, but they avoid tobacco, alcohol, armaments and gambling. So that's an improvement on the usual.

They even allow non-earners and children to sign up, so that's all good. Done and done.

Info for non-kiwis: Kiwisaver is our nationally-administered, government subsidised retirement savings scheme. It is quite new and it is voluntary.