Baby boomers too poor to retire due to rising costs
Australia’s baby boomers are finding it harder to tee off their retirement plans due to increasing hip pocket pain, a new report reveals.
Around one in three older Australians say they’re uncomfortable with increasing property prices and won’t be able to fund their retirement, according to the Baby Boomers Housing Lifestyle Report released on Thursday.
In addition, more than 20 per cent will be reliant on a government pension.
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Realestateview.com.au general manager Petra Sprekos, the publishers of the report, said the findings are challenging many misconceptions baby boomers could retire on superannuation and property asset wealth.
“Baby boomers are often touted as one of Australia’s most prosperous generations. They are living longer, retiring later, and commonly labelled as the beneficiaries of Australia’s growing property market,” Ms Sprekos said.
“Our findings tell quite a different tale – current and future retirees are struggling to navigate a range of new affordability pressures for which their superannuation funds may not be sufficient.”
The report lists rising house prices, plans to lift the pension age to 70, a high jobless rate, future changes to indexation of the age pension as some of the challenges faced by baby boomers.
More than half of older Australians said they’d need more than $46,000 a year to live comfortably in retirement, higher than the estimated $42,200 experts believe is required.
The report reveals New South Wales baby boomers are the hardest hit by financial downturns, with more than half saying they’ll need to downsize and move to a new area for affordability reasons.