Retiring in New Zealand
What NZ Super pays, what your KiwiSaver adds, and how long the difference lasts.
Ends with: A projected annual income, and an honest view of how long it lasts.
This starts with the floor rather than the target, which is the opposite of how retirement planning is usually presented. NZ Super is not means tested, does not depend on what you saved, and does not stop if you keep working. It is the one number every eligible New Zealander can count on, and it is therefore the sensible place to begin.
Everything after that is about the gap. What you need to live the way you intend, minus what NZ Super provides, is the only figure that really matters, and it is personal enough that a national average is close to useless. Once you know the gap you know what your savings have to do, and every later decision in this pathway is either about closing it while you still can or about living within it once you cannot.
The middle steps are the ones with the largest effect and the least attention. You do not have to take your KiwiSaver at 65, and taking the whole balance on your birthday is rarely the best answer, because what stays invested keeps growing and you can still draw from it. How fast you spend it decides whether the money outlasts you: draw too cautiously and you underlive a retirement you saved thirty years for, draw too fast and you run out at the age when running out is hardest to fix.
The last three steps are the ones people put off, and putting them off is exactly what removes the choices. Downsizing, retirement villages, and paying for residential care all have rules worth understanding well before they apply. An occupation right agreement is a licence to occupy rather than ownership, and the deferred management fee is the part to understand before signing. Residential care is means tested against both assets and income, and the time to understand that test is years before anyone needs it.
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What NZ Super actually pays
The floor under everyone. It is not means tested and it does not depend on what you saved, so start here: this is the income you can count on.
Work out your own: NZ Super Rate Calculator 8 min read -
What you actually need
The gap between what NZ Super pays and the life you want is the only number that matters. Everything else in this pathway is about closing or living within it.
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What retirement actually costs to live
Retirement numbers should start from measured spending, not a percentage rule. One and two person household spending, with the corrections retirees actually make.
Work out your own: Household spending data 7 min read -
Closing the gap, if you still have time
What to do in your forties is different from what to do in your sixties. If retirement is still years away, this is the step that changes the outcome.
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What your KiwiSaver will be worth
You can take it from 65, and for most people it is the largest single asset outside the house. Knowing the projection makes the next decisions real.
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Lump sum, or leave it invested
Taking the lot on your birthday is rarely the best answer. It keeps growing if you leave it, and you can still draw from it.
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How fast you can spend it
The question that decides whether the money outlasts you. Draw too cautiously and you underlive; draw too fast and you run out at the worst possible age.
Work out your own: Drawdown Calculator 10 min read -
Buying certainty instead
An annuity trades a lump sum for an income that cannot run out. It costs you flexibility and usually total return, which is the trade to weigh.
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Releasing money from the house
For many New Zealanders the house holds more than the KiwiSaver does. Downsizing frees some of it, and the costs of moving eat more of that than people expect.
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Retirement villages
An occupation right agreement is not ownership, and the deferred management fee is the part to understand before signing rather than after.
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Paying for residential care
Means tested, with asset thresholds that change. Knowing how the test works well before it applies is what gives you options.
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Your will and enduring powers of attorney
The enduring power of attorney matters sooner than the will does, because it is what lets someone act for you while you are still here.
Work out your own: Estate Value Calculator 9 min read
When to stop and get someone else
Retirement income is the area where paid advice most often pays for itself, because the drawdown rate and the order you spend from different accounts have a large effect that is hard to reverse. A retirement village occupation right agreement and an enduring power of attorney both need a lawyer. None of that is replaced by anything on this page.
This pathway is information, not financial advice. Rates, thresholds and rules change; every guide carries the date it was last reviewed.
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