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Life expectancy increases - do you have enough super?

While life expectancy increasing is a great thing - most of us aren't in a hurry to die - it does raise the issue of having enough for retirement.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian females who are currently 55 are expected to live to 85 on average. For men it's 81. This is a heck of a long time for your dollars to last if you plan to retire in your 50s. And for those who are much younger, with medical breakthroughs this is likely to be even longer (again, it is a good thing to live longer!!).

Are people prepared for this, or will we have to extend out our working life to cater for this? Or even go back to work later in life after retirement?

Tags: expectancy, life, super

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Permalink Reply by Linda Kathleen Schmidt on January 24, 2009 at 12:18pm

Dear Matthew

Just read another of your emails. I am there so I do know about it. I have maybe 20 0r 30 years left but really would prefer not to have to work again but am finding that I am having to. I am meeting lots of other folk doing the same. My research has taken me to letters written to supernnuation advice columns - this example is man 60 lady 62 have $1K in Super retired over 18months super dropped to $400,000 They cannot live on this in retirement so are going back to work Other caluclations on another web site indicate you need approximately $800,000 to have about $48,000 to live and that does not account for the inflation or erosion of the $1. When I was about 27 I was talked into taking out this fabulous insurance which would pay me a whopping sum of $20000 when I retired or was ill. I now say big deal. Actually it might just pay a deposit on some property or be a starter for the share market but is going nowhere otherwise. Linda

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Permalink Reply by ff123 on January 27, 2009 at 9:09pm

The whole Super thing is a scam - if you read the literature you find that in normal times the average return is 3% over inflation however a lot of funds charge 1-3% in fees after reading a few stories like you I think that it is just wrong we have all been sold another dummy