The Listener 2025 collection: Our top business & finance stories of the year

Last orders? The crisis in New Zealand’s wine industry

New Zealand’s unique climate for grape growing meant it was once seen as the ‘France of the Southern Hemisphere’. Now, it’s a case of survival of the fittest, writes Michael Cooper.

Innovations in money management: Would you let AI powered robo-advisors control your finances?

Welcome to the future of managing your finances, where AI, automation and blockchain technologies work in the background to take the hassle out of it. New Zealand has a thriving fintech sector, which last year grew 16% to generate $2.9 billion in revenue, according to the Technology Investment Network. Around 60% of that sum was generated by one company, ASX-listed accounting software maker Xero, which recently launched JAX (Just Ask Xero), its AI assistant for small business owners trying to keep on top of their books. But AI-powered fintech services are in their nascent phase here.

How to keep Trump from derailing your retirement plans

When even penguins are getting walloped with tariffs, it becomes a little difficult for financial journalists such as myself to make predictions.

The old rules are out the window, as US President Donald Trump applies harsh new trading demands to friend, foe, and penguins on uninhabited islands alike.

So what’s going on and how much should you panic? Probably only a little. Even at times like these there are ways you can protect yourself from the storm.

‘I just want to work’: The reality of life after redundancy

As unemployment rises, highly skilled personnel across the country are trying to turn their redundancy into new beginnings – but the effects of job loss on workers, their families and communities is frequently devastating.

David Kirk: Three values you need to teach your kids to build good habits with money

“You’re on your own after school” sounds harsh to modern ears, but it was once the norm, wrote David Kirk on Listener.co.nz. You can read more here

The former All Black captain, now chair of Rugby New Zealand and co-founder and chairman of Bailador Technology Investments, also wrote about the role of gold in family wealth and investing today. You can read more here.

Kirk also considered what your investment style says about you, drawing on the work on philosopher Isiah Berlin. You can read more about investment styles – and whether you’re a hedgehog or a fox – here.

Rating NZ’s finance ministers from best to worst

Despite their privileged position as resident money bags, finance ministers don’t have an easy life. They must understand a problem, propose a solution, get support from their caucus, withstand attacks from the opposition, make the whole thing work in practical terms and hope it isn’t derailed by disasters from out of the blue, such as war, pandemic or tariffs. If New Zealand’s state finances comprise the good, the bad and the ordinary, they are models of enlightenment compared with the worst excesses of history. Read the Listener’s ranking of the best and worst finance ministers reveals the cavalier, the timid and those who just got lucky.

Could ADHD, autism, dyslexia and other neurodivergences provide a competitive edge at work?

Is it now okay to be neurodivergent at work? The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Survey, spanning 2023-27, states employers are increasingly favouring those who can bring to their businesses “cognitive capabilities” such as complex problem-solving and creative-thinking, along with technological literacy.

Then’s there the 2027 forecast by US technological research and consulting firm Gartner, which says 25% of Fortune 500 companies will actively seek out neurodivergent talent because their distinct strengths can help to achieve better business outcomes.

Even in the face of diversity equity and inclusivity rollbacks led by the Trump administration, many leading corporates and financial institutions are continuing with programmes improving their access to neurodivergent talent.

Meet the Kiwis finding neurodivergency brings them extra workplace firepower.

How childhood lessons on a North Otago farm are shaping new era of Kiwi financial literacy

Little did he know it at the time, but when Simon Brown spent childhood days with his dad, Doug, driving around the family’s 400-hectare farm in North Otago, he was getting an education few New Zealand kids have been privy to. Now he’s CEO of the financial education platform Banqer, which works in New Zealand and Australian schools to teach kids about money. It’s also one of the providers whose offerings have been used by the Retirement Commission, working with the Education Ministry, to develop the new financial education lessons, which will be part of the Social Sciences Curriculum for all school students from 2027. Brown hopes the lessons will help break what he calls a cycle of intergenerational financial literacy.

Dirty money: Why your KiwiSaver fund may not be as ethical as you think

KiwiSaver and other fund managers may aim to avoid fuelling hate, war and environmental loss, but responsible investing is becoming a minefield.

What if, when it comes to weapons, it was the “responsible” thing for a KiwiSaver manager to buy shares in companies producing defensive weapons? A recent Mindful Money survey found 80% of New Zealanders don’t want their money in weapons. But the moral landscape is shifting for some as the industrialisation and digitisation of warfare change the goalposts, with drones and anti-aircraft batteries protecting innocent Ukrainian civilians while chips meant for microwave ovens end up in Russian missiles.

In data released exclusively to the Listener, the responsible investment charity found that of a total $128 billion invested by 406 KiwiSaver funds, $11 billion is invested in activities that New Zealanders say they want their savings to avoid. Apart from weapons, these include human rights violations, environmental harm, animal cruelty, fossil fuels and social harms such as tobacco, gambling and pornography.