Retirement income worry: Who worries and why?

A report by National Seniors Australia and Challenger.

This report focuses on the worry of people aged 50+ for whom retirement income worries become lived realities. A major, current concern is the difference by gender in retirement income which is naturally associated with a greater worry for women.

While there are many reasons why women worry more than men, an in-depth analysis across all respondents found that the degree of worry about retirement income was:
1. 68% higher in those not already retired – previous work has indicated that people adjust to their actual circumstances in retirement, whether they planned for them or not
2. 65% higher in those who have less than $500,000 in savings – this is as expected, since they may not have the money to pay for a ‘comfortable’ retirement
3. 53% higher in those who expect their main source of income in retirement to be the age pension – this is expected because it is a minimum basic income with accompanying worry about ‘making do’, and

4. 47% higher in women – this is after taking out the effects one or more of the previous three factors and may be associated, in part, with expecting greater involvement in caring roles and a real risk of outliving their partners.

There is an urgent need to deal with the high levels of worry about retirement income.

Some financial issues cannot be easily fixed in later life, and need to be attended to along the life journeys. This is a message for people of all ages not just older Australians.