Top 5 retirees and pensions comments
News that retirees need more than the pension gives them sparked a heated debate among commenters.
While some weren't surprised by the findings in Massey University's latest Retirement Expenditure Guidelines, others questioned why more wasn't being done to redress the balance. Here's a selection of the most popular viewpoints.
5. Wendere11a was less concerned about retirees and more concerned about the wider impact of the findings:
"Is it too late to say that if the pension isn't enough for retirees, then how come other benefits are so much lower? I'm thinking particularly of the benefits families try to support children on. Are old people more expensive than children and teenagers? I think not."
4. Jake Kampkes couldn't see what the problem was:
"Personally I think that $374 is a fair amount to have at retirement. Here's why. As a student I have subsisted on $170 a week (less than half). I could cook for $50 a week or less. My clothes were sale items or op-shop pieces. After rent, food, power, internet and everything else I was still losing $20 a week so we'll say $190 no frills, but all my basic human rights were met and I enjoyed my life. I also hadn't had my entire life to save for retirement so I think $374 a week is a more-than-adequate number for a comfortable existence.
"As an egalitarian society we guarantee equality of opportunity, not ends. As such any retiree wanting a retirement above 'adequate' has their entire lives to work for it. I'm not saying there aren't exceptions such as medical needs but these should be taken care of individually, not unilaterally. Therefore I believe that $374 is a fair number for retirement unless we consider our treatment of other groups such as medical beneficiaries and students as utterly inhumane."
3. DSPeters had some words of encouragement for anyone fearing their retirement finances:
"My goodness so many people saying they don't have enough to save or it's too late.
"I started saving at 40, with 25 working years. Biggest leap was to stop thinking its too late and start, even if it's $10-20 a week, when I got to my first $1000 after several months I bought some shares. It took a lot and the returns were not much. It gets better over time. After a few years it seems easier to find the money to save and now I have several thousand in shares, the returns are still not making me a million but they are starting to mount up and it's starting to work like a snowball. Will I make it before 65? God knows, but I will not be on $487, more like $700 in relative terms. Not flash but better than $487 and annual rates are cheaper than weekly rent."
2. miss mg had an idea for a fairer system:
"I have a theory that everyone should retire at 60. That way all the school leavers will have a job to go to and I am sure that the crime figures would go down as a result. The Baby Boomers should be putting back into society by doing volunteer work as most of them got free education to get good jobs. Much easier to pay off a house if you dont have a student loan to clear.
"If they did have the prudence to save during their lifetime, then they can enjoy some holidays and enjoy themselves. I also think the superannuation should be means tested but with a fairly high thresh hold so the mega rich who dont need it wont get it and those who saved for retirement are not penalised. Also if you worked overseas for more than 10 years, then you only get a proportion of the super because you have not contributed to the tax system."
1. And finally, some sage words of advice from Rosie:
"Save, save, save. Whatever you think you need in retirement, double it is my experience. Also don't assume that just putting your money into KiwiSaver and forgetting it is going to give you good returns. Keep a watchful eye on the performance of your KiwiSaver provider's performance. If they are not performing, you will be losing money even with the ups and downs of markets.
"It pays to get good advice. Money in the bank at the moment is worthless for retirees so we are drawing down in our investments and that us a gruelling exercise in itself. If only we knew how long we were going to live!"
First appeared on Stuff.co.nz.