Who has the better life in retirement, the Aussies or the Kiwis? 

You may be surprised that according to the OECD 2017 Pensions at a Glance Report released late in 2017 that the Kiwis have a better life in retirement than the average Aussie.

According to the OECD, 1 in 4 Australians over 65 are living in poverty as compared to just over 1 in 10 Kiwis.

This is despite Australia having compulsory superannuation for over 25 years, whilst New Zealand has only had voluntary retirement savings for about half that time.

And, it has nothing to do with the pension as the Australian and New Zealand pension is about 43 percent of the after tax mean income for each country.

So why is this the outcome?

There are a couple of potential reasons.

1. Unlike the Australian pension, the Kiwi pension is not means tested. This means Kiwis have more incentive to work and save throughout their working lives.  In Australia, the current means test rewards spending over saving, which I have previously spoken about.
2. It is my belief that most Australian’s go about their daily life thinking all the need to do for their retirement is for their boss to contribute to super for them. So they have in my personal opinion, a misplaced belief that they don’t need to do anything else. So they don’t.  And guess what, not long into retirement, once all the super is gone, they are now living on the pension below the poverty line.

Whatever the real reason, the sad fact is that Kiwis over 65 will on average have a better life than their Aussie counterparts.

So if you want to turn the tables on the Kiwis, and start to have a better life in retirement, you need to start doing something now.  Why not register for my next free event and take the first step to avoid living in poverty when you stop working.

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Do you and your family a favour and start taking steps so you can improve the health of Your Wealth and get off the treadmill of working till you drop.

Wayne Wanders

The Wealth Navigator

wayne@thewealthnavigator.com.au

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