Woeful Retirement Savings

We rank towards the bottom of the developed world for private retirement savings, saving only one quarter of what US citizens do.

One of our problems is that people believe the state will be able to provide them with everything they need in retirement, when the reality is that even with the Cullen Fund the level of state super is limited and not sustainable at age 65.

I’m surprised that the average age NZers start saving for retirement is 32 as the return is so much higher if you start saving from your 20s or even better from the age of 12 as I did 🙂

Since I started working I’ve been putting into superannuation funds a relatively high proportion of my income. I want to be able to have a fun retirement regardless of whether there is a state pension. In fact with acclerated mortgage repyaments and superannuation and insurance payments, I end up with less than 50% of my net income available for spending.