Biggest retirement planning mistakes revealed

Natixis has revealed the 10 biggest problems and mistakes made by investors when it comes to their retirement planning.

The Natixis Global Retirement Index, now in its 10th year, examined the factors that drove retirement security as well as the indicators to enjoy a secure retirement such as access to quality financial services and access to health services.

Australia ranked among the top five countries to retire securely, up from seventh in 2021, and scored fourth for finances in retirement and ninth for health services. New Zealand was in sixth place and Natixis noted it was up from 34^th a decade ago.

However, there were common mistakes being made by pre-retirees all over the world.

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These were:

• Underestimating the impact of inflation (49%)
• Underestimating how long you will live (46%)
• Overestimating investment income (42%)
• Being too conservative in investments (41%)
• Setting unrealistic return expectations (40%)
• Forgetting to factor in healthcare costs (39%)
• Failing to understand income sources (35%)
• Relying too much on public benefits (33%)
• Underestimating real estate costs (23%)
• Being too aggressive in investments (21%).

“Perhaps more than any other factor, [inflation] has the potential to upset the plans that have taken decades for millions of people to realise by simply eroding the value of what they’ve worked so hard to accumulate.

“Rapidly-escalating costs can pose a significant threat to the financial security of retirees by eroding purchasing power. Instituitional investors will be challenged to preserve assets in a more volatile investment environment.”

Some 2,700 respondents were surveyed across 16 countries.