In my mind Singapore turned itself around when Lee Kuan Yew told them they all had to start saving 28 percent of their income.  

They did - and they got rich.

This tiny, little nation in the middle of Asia, with no real natural resources, turned themselves into an economic powerhouse through savings, and being a trading hub.  

Can you imagine if the Prime Minister of the day decided we need to save 28 percent of all we earn?  

We can't even deal with plastic bag charges without a verbal riot.  

And when we did finally dream up Kiwisaver, we have done nothing but mess with it ever since.  

The simple formula to retirement savings success, is stick a bit away over a long period of time and keep doing that and basically forget it.

Then 40 years later things will probably have turned out pretty well.  

The new head of our Super Fund on the show this week said pretty much the same thing as regards his fund.  

It is quite likely markets will correct soon, a trade war may break out, China may owe too much. A lot of things might potentially happen that will see returns on certain investments fall apart a bit. 

But the Super Fund will ride that, they will take the fact they have returned 10 percent a year since inception and see that as a buffer against  the days that don’t return 10 percent.

And that is a successful way to save yourself to financial independence.  

Meantime back at Kiwisaver, contributions have started and stopped, holidays are taken or not, they're now looking to cut them back.  

They dictate what you can contribute.

Employers participate and don't, they talk about opt in and opt out, they're looking at letting over 65 year olds join.  

You can use it for a house, you can use it for tough times and they mess with what tough times are.  

Your head spins at the amount of meddling that has gone on, and once again with this week's tax bill, the meddling they still have planned.  

It's all done of course with the best of intentions, but the fundamental premise has long been forgotten.  

Get in early, stay in, and leave it alone for a handful of decades.  

They don’t seem to have settled the fees row either, and the complicating thing around that is I bet you anything you, like the vast majority of people in Kiwisaver, don’t know what their fees are. 

And that’s before you get to the default funds of which thousands have ended up in.  

And they've ended up in them because they either don’t care because they only joined for the free cash, or don’t know what they're doing and didn’t get advice.  

Either way if I was reviewing this, and why wouldn't you given everything else at the moment is under review?

But if I was reviewing it I'm not sure I'd give it a pass.  

The basic idea is as sound as it ever was, the more people we have not reliant on the state in retirement the better.

But that’s sort of where the good news stopped, ever since it's been a mad hatters experiment of fiddling and meddling.

Breaking not just the savings rule, but the political rule. The more complicated and messy you make it, the more people can't be bothered.

And that ironically is the last thing we wanted wasn’t it?