Your Retirement

Providing for retirement is an important part of any financial plan, and it is important to start thinking about it as early in life as you can. The closer you get to retirement age, the more important retirement planning becomes for most people.

In retirement planning you will look at building up sufficient retirement capital to provide you with an income stream for your retirement needs. This part of your plan should also look at any government income support, such as age pension, for which you may be eligible.

An income component of retirement planning is superannuation. If you are an employee, this may include employer-paid contributions and it may also include voluntary contributions. It is important to also look at the opportunity of 'salary sacrifice' it you are earning above $60,000 per annum.

Your desired pre-retirement and retirement lifestyles also need to be identified as does the potential for high inflation or a recession, two factors which can reduce the spending power of your retirement planning.

New Zealand Superannuation

This is a tax-funded pension available to all New Zealanders in New Zealand who have reached the age of entitlement and meet all residency requirements. The current entitlement age is 65 years.

Some uncertainty surrounds the future of New Zealand Superannuation, as successive governments wrestle with the fact that the proportion of New Zealanders in retirement is steadily rising, while the proportion of people of working age is falling - with obvious implications for a tax-funded superannuation scheme.

How much is it?

NZ Superannuation and Veterans Pension Rates at 1 April 2012 

Pension Type	Net weekly rate after tax		Gross weekly rate
	M	S
NZ Superannuation or Veterans Pension (standard rates)
Single, living alone	$348.92	$330.07	$400.07
Single, sharing	$322.08	$303.23	$367.45
Married, civil union, or de facto couple, both qualify (total)	$536.80	$499.10	$604.80
Married, civil union, or de facto couple, both qualify (each)	$268.40	$249.55	$302.40
Married, civil union, or de facto couple, with no-qualified spouse included (total)	$510.18	$472.48	$572.58
Married, civil union, or de facto couple, with no-qualified spouse included (each)	$255.09	$236.24	$286.29
NZ Superannuation or Veterans Pension (non-standard rates)
Married couple, with non-qualified spouse included before 1 October 1991 (total)	$536.80	$499.10	$604.80
Married couple, with non-qualified spouse included before 1 October 1991 (each)	$268.40	$249.55	$302.40
Partner in rest home, with non-qualified spouse included	$256.19	$237.34	$287.56
Hospital rate	$42.38	-	$47.31
Non-taxable amounts
War Pensioner’s Funeral Grant	$2,395.10
World War I Veteran’s Lump Sum Payment on Death	$14,316.63
Other Veterans Lump Sum Payment on Death	$5,678.00
Veteran’s Spouse’s Lump Sum Payment on Death	$4,329.64

For more information about War Pension and Allowances,
please phone Veterans’ Affairs New Zealand on 0800 483 8372 (0800 4 VETERAN)

When Should You Start Saving for Retirement?

This one's easy. You should be thinking about funding life after your career as soon as possible after you start working. Now, in other words!

Lack of time is the biggest problem faced by people saving for their retirement. The longer you delay the narrower your options and the tougher it's going to be to achieve your savings goal.

Contact Us about starting a retirement savings plan that suits you.

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