NZ retirees among world’s best off: study
If you are looking to retire, head to Scandinavia. Failing that, New Zealand is a better choice than Australia, according to a study.
New Zealand just pips Australia to be in fifth place in a ranking of welfare in retirement of 43 countries, with Sweden in fourth. Norway takes top spot, followed by Switzerland and then Iceland.
The study, by global fund manager Natixis Global Asset Management, is based on more factors than just retiree finances. It scores countries on indicators including finances, material wellbeing, quality of life and health.
It also rates the performance of each economy and combines scores to produce an overall ranking, which it updates each year.
Nataixis’ Australia managing director, Kevin Haran, said that though both Australia and New Zealand do very well, they could do better in the material wellbeing category.
‘‘This can be boiled down to income equality. The Nordics have a lot greater income equality than ourselves. We are a rich nation, but we are drifting towards being less evenly spread,’’ Haran said about Australia.
New Zealand scores highly in quality of life measures such as air quality and happiness.
But Jessica Berentson-Shaw, head of research at the Morgan Foundation, said while most New Zealand retirees had a good quality of life, the same could not be said for the younger generations.
She said New Zealand had made a decision to support older people with superannuation, recognising that they were economically vulnerable.
Other policy decisions had also left the current generation of retirees better off. Housing costs had been lower for them through most of their lives, she said.
‘‘We invested early on in a lot of state and social housing. We took it away but housing costs remained low for quite a long period of time for this group.’’
Many had been able to get into their own homes and pay them off before they reached 65, she said.
A significant number had been able to invest in other housing, too.
‘‘Free tertiary education helped as well. And wages weren’t as static as they have been … Accommodation costs relative to wages were reasonable and they could put aside other savings.’’
She said New Zealand did poorly internationally in terms of how children were treated.
‘‘That’s a distinct policy choice. We’ve recognised the economic vulnerability of being older but not the vulnerability of being a baby.’’ –with Sydney Morning Herald