Retirees fail to plan ahead

Themajority of older working Australians have given little or no thought to planning for retirement, according to a Newspoll survey commissioned by theCommonwealth Bank.

The survey of pre-retirees, aged from 45 to 64, revealed 50 per cent of all respondents, one-third of whom were aged between 55 and 64, had no financial plans and had never seen a financial consultant regarding their retirement.

The survey also found only seven per cent of pre-retirees considered financial planning to be a top priority in comparison to spending time with family, keeping fit and healthy, and gaining satisfaction from work.

The Commonwealth Bank says that with an ageing population and higher life expectancies in Australia, pre-retirees are going to have to stretch their financial resources further to compensate for this lack of planning.

The survey showed pre-retirees were planning to work longer to fund their retirement despite their lack of focus on financial planning, with just under half of those presently working planning to be fully retired by age 65 and 16 per cent intent on working for as long as they are able.

Despite this commitment to working longer, pre-retirees are also planning to do more with their free time, including travel and social activities, that would demand more retirement resources.

Commonwealth Bank general manager retail customer service Stephen Morrow says pre-retirees are truly aspirational and should no longer be perceived as people who wear fluffy slippers.

“While our research shows that pre-retirees want to be adventurous, travel and do the things they’ve always wanted to do, we also found that they haven’t necessarily been planning for it financially,” Morrow says.

The survey on retirement forms part of the Commonwealth Bank’s ‘Rethinking the Big R’ initiative, encouraging pre-retirees to think more about the possibilities that effective financial planning can provide for retirement.