Regrets - too many to mention for retirees

One third of Australia’s 4.8 million retirees regret not having sought expert financial advice during their working lives, according to new research.

The Citibank Retirement Index also found a further 27 per cent of retirees, or about 1.3 million people over 55, wish they had started saving for retirement earlier.

Of these, 45 per cent think that 20 years earlier would have been the right starting point, and a further 17 per cent think more than 16 years earlier would have done the trick.

Conducted by Newspoll and questioning 325 semi and fully-retired people aged 55 and over, the index also found 30 per cent of all retirees in Australia are not confident of outlasting their retirement savings.

More than half of retirees over 65 live on a household income of less than $30,000, while more than 29 per cent of these retirees don’t have a secondary source of income outside of the age pension.

Citibank head of investments Andrew de Vries said the index reveals the lives of today’s retirees are “showered with regrets”.

“This is underpinned by worry that their retirement savings won’t enable them to meet their financial commitments and lead a comfortable life throughout retirement,” he said.

Another area of concern revealed by the index was less that than half the retirees surveyed review their retirement portfolio on a regular basis for performance.

“Whether it’s due to apathy or lack of financial education — the fact remains they could be short-changing themselves,” de Vries said.