Eight doors, and the five that opened

Start at twenty-five and put K100 a fortnight into a fund at 8 per cent, and you reach about K325,000 by fifty-five. Start at forty and you reach about K75,000. That is the gap I promised you yesterday. It’s round and illustrative rather than a projection of a real fund, and it shows how time can grow more than four times the balance on only twice the money.

The harder question was where to put it. A week of annual reports and rate schedules, hunting for where a Papua New Guinean who works hard can actually put money so that it grows. I expected a long list and I found eight doors.

Five of them opened when I pushed. In the order I tried them: the fund you already pay into, and the dial that most of us leave where we found it. A second fund for people who work for themselves, which opens for K100. The savings and loan society, where the rate in the news and the rate on your account are two different numbers. The exchange, twelve companies, two brokers and any amount at all buys a share. And Australia, where money Papua New Guineans have already earned sits waiting.

Start where I started, and where most of us keep our money. The bank is the room the doors lead out of. A bank pays you for the use of your money, and that payment is interest. Kina Bank's rate sheet for 21 September offers 90 toea a year for every K100 in a twelve-month fixed deposit, and that account opens at K5,000. Leave K10,000 there for a year and the bank adds K90 before tax. Bank of PNG projects inflation around 4 per cent for 2026, so buying what K10,000 bought last September now takes about K10,400. The money grew. What it buys shrank by about K310.

The same bank stands on both sides of the counter. It borrows your K100 at 90 toea a year and lends it out at about K8.30.

The fees sit somewhere other than I expected. Kina Tomorrow Savings carries no monthly fee at any balance, while the Statement Savings Account takes K10 a month whenever the average balance sits under K5,000. Two savings accounts, one branch, about K120 a year difference between them.

Door one is the super fund most readers already belong to, and I covered this on Day 2. The part I left out is the dial. The 6 per cent your employer deducts is the floor, and a Pay Variation Advice Form through your payroll team lifts it.

Door two is for the people door one forgets. Nasfund's Eda Supa is a voluntary super account for, in its own words, anyone earning an income. It names farmers, sole traders and landowner royalty recipients. K100 opens it. K20 a month keeps it, paid by mobile banking, internet banking or EFTPOS. Nasfund holds withdrawals closed and allows a housing advance after five years.

Door three is the savings and loan society, and I misread it the first time. TISA pays 2 per cent on its compulsory General Savings and 6 per cent on its Christmas, Hamamas and school fee accounts, which hold withdrawals until December. NCSL runs the same shape. The bigger rates in the news are bonuses declared each year on top, 5.4 per cent at NCSL for 2025 and 7 per cent at TISA for 2024, which Michael Koisen called the legislated maximum. Fees bite at this size. TISA General Savings costs K20 to open and K3.50 a month.

Door four is the exchange, and I am a stranger to it. Twelve companies, two licensed brokers, and PNGX states plainly that a person can start with any amount at all. In 2025 Credit Corporation returned 70 per cent and BSP 23, while City Pharmacy and Santos went backwards. Lars Mortensen of JMP Securities called that one of the strongest return profiles in the world, and he runs one of the two brokerages. One strong year describes one strong year.

Door five sits in Australia, where my own super sits as well, and that is a post of its own. I knew none of this a fortnight ago. The Australian Taxation Office holds A$14.2 million in unclaimed superannuation belonging to more than 30,000 former PALM scheme workers from nine Pacific countries and Timor-Leste. Balances run from three or four thousand dollars on a nine-month visa to sixteen thousand on a four-year one, and claiming it home costs 35 per cent in tax. Rob Whait and Connie Vitale found the barriers are ordinary. The forms come in English, the internet runs thin once people are home and the job of chasing it rests entirely with the worker.

Three doors stayed shut, and each one shut on a rule rather than on me. Bank of PNG sets the Treasury bill minimum at K100,000, and the 364-day bill paid 5.03 per cent at the 9 September auction. Property returned gross rental yields of 1.4 to 2.5 per cent when Business Advantage last measured them, on the roughly 3 per cent of PNG land that can be bought at all. Investing offshore needs exchange control approval and a tax clearance certificate, and Bank of PNG reported a continued backlog of foreign exchange orders in March.

I noticed four things missing while I wrote, so I am publishing my questions and making the calls this week.

At NCSL and TISA, does the declared bonus sit on top of the account rate or replace it, because that answer moves a twenty-year number by a factor of three.

At Bank of PNG, will a bank buy Treasury bills in smaller parcels for a customer, or does K100,000 stand.

At Nasfund, can a Papua New Guinean living in Sydney or Shenzhen pay into Eda Supa.

At PNGX, which two firms hold the broker licences, because their membership page and their own FAQ name three between them.

If you know any of these answers, write to me and I will publish them with the source.

And if any figure here sits differently on your own statement or member letter, send me the page. I read these off websites and published schedules. A statement beats a website.

One last one. If you came home from PALM with superannuation still sitting in Australia, I want to hear from you. I will keep your name out of it, if you like. I’ll share the piece for you to read before it runs, and you can decide what stays in.

Eight doors. Five opened, and the most accessible one opens for K100.

Best

Amanda

P.S. What’s your view on today’s newsletter? Did I miss something out that you’d like to share? Write to me, [email protected]. I may not get back to you, but I will try to read what you send in.

Wild Money is general information only, drawn from my own experience and research. It isn't financial advice, and nothing in it is a recommendation to buy, sell, hold or manage money in any particular way. What worked for me won't necessarily suit you. Please seek advice from a licensed financial adviser before making decisions about your own money.