Aussies looking to friends for retirement advice

Australians are now thinking it is up to them to make sure they have enough money to retire, with around 20 per cent planning to rely on friends and family for retirement advice and a shade under 40 per cent thinking accountants could help, State Street Global Advisors’ annual retirement survey has found.

Most people surveyed thought that their income would halve when they retired. In response, many planned to cut back on what they spend now on clothes, entertainment and technology. Close to half anticipated downsizing their house to fund their retirement.

Around half did not think they would even be able to fully retire, saying that they thought they would get a part-time job to make up any shortfall they may have in retirement. A pertinent question to consider here, in the current job market and with automation taking over many jobs that may have once been appropriate for a part-time retiree, is what sort of job that could be.

The Australian Snapshot part of the report slammed the current superannuation employer rate of 9.5 per cent as “barely adequate” in light of the above facts and said that “there is no political consensus on where the final contribution rate should land”.

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The well-treaded issue of people having a disconnect with their retirement savings came up in the survey, with just over a third of the workforce not knowing how much they had saved for retirement and 43 per cent not knowing how their savings were invested.

However, Australians’ low expectations of how much money they would have upon retirement were fairly consistent with other major countries apart from the US. While only one in five Australians thought all would be well when they retired, this pessimism was reflected abroad too.