Inflation and investment returns: What you really earn after tax and fees

Opinion byRotorua Daily Post·1 Nov, 2026 03:00 PM4 mins to readMark Lister is investment director at Craigs Investment Partners‌When you’re investing, what you’re really trying to do is maintain (and hopefully grow) your purchasing power.Last week’s inflation figures fell back slightly from the previous quarter, but they’re still much higher than the Reserve Bank would like.The headline consumer price index (CPI) rose at an annual rate of 3.7%, which is some way above its 1-3% target band. We recently saw a hot inflation