{"id":553126,"date":"2026-07-21T23:50:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T23:50:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/553126\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T23:50:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T23:50:31","slug":"whats-wrong-with-image-the-big-retirement-lie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/553126\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s wrong with image? (The big retirement lie?)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ten years ago I did a study into ageing and wealth.<\/p>\n

At the time, I called the study \u201cold poor and lonely\u201d \u2013 given this more or less summed up the picture for the typical retiree.<\/p>\n

Surely, a decade later on, things have much improved?<\/p>\n

\"Retirement\"<\/p>\n

It depends on where you sit.<\/p>\n

Only a third of people aged 65 today are what you\u2019d call self-funded retirees (in that they do not rely on the pension).<\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t mean they are well off though: fewer than 10% of superannuation accounts of people retiring today are of more than $1million.<\/p>\n

The superannuation industry tells us that for a \u201ccomfortable\u201d retirement, you should ideally have around $700k in super for a couple.<\/p>\n

This assumes you own your own home outright.<\/p>\n

The median (halfway point) of superannuation accounts of 65-year-old male today is only around $250k.<\/p>\n

For women, it\u2019s less \u2013 around $180k to $200k. So half the retiring population has less than that. Think about that.<\/p>\n

Roughly two thirds of today\u2019s 65-year-olds will retire with some sort of age pension \u2013 full or partial.<\/p>\n

Those who are primarily reliant on the age pension are roughly half the retirees.<\/p>\n

Dig further into the stats and we find that around one in seven retire as renters.<\/p>\n

This is much higher amongst singles, especially women. Around 60% to 70% retire owning their home with no mortgage, and the rest have a mortgage going into retirement.<\/p>\n

Around in one four of today\u2019s retiring 65-year-olds are single.<\/p>\n

This increases for older cohorts because women live on average longer than men.<\/p>\n

And while on that, those retiring at 65 today can expect on average to live another 20 years. That\u2019s a lot of retirement to fund.<\/p>\n

For the typical Aussie retiree in 2026 it\u2019s not a brilliant picture.<\/p>\n

Of course, the super industry, financial advisors, cruise ship marketers (!) and others who feed from the retirement savings of Australians will typically invest more energy targeting the top 10% with solid super balances and who own their own homes. Preferably expensive ones.<\/p>\n

For the rest, however, who may have slogged through life in jobs that put stresses on their bodies, or who lived in rural and regional areas, or even those who lived in the big cities but on modest incomes \u2013 retirement will be a long way from the happy images of pastel cardigan wearing white haired seniors with perfect teeth strolling the beach with their designer dog and not a care in the world. <\/p>\n

Who can blame them for their political annoyance when they read of extensive NDIS fraud, bungled infrastructure projects costing billions, wasteful government advertising, unrestrained immigration or outrageous salaries for senior Canberra bureaucrats or University Vice Chancellors?<\/p>\n

Little wonder so many seem have drifted to the angry political corner of One Nation.<\/p>\n

Australia is moving away from its more egalitarian roots to a society where a smaller number of haves are calling the shots.<\/p>\n

Half the country shares in only 5% of the national wealth.<\/p>\n

The wealthiest 10% control about half the nation\u2019s wealth. The retirement story reflects this divide.<\/p>\n

Sure, for those with small super accounts but who own the family home, there are \u2018downsizing\u2019 provisions which allow them to tip an extra $300k per person ($600k for a couple) into super if they sell the family home.<\/p>\n

But they still need to live somewhere, and the options for seniors are limited. An independent living unit will set you back typically around $500k, and easily more for the more salubrious product.<\/p>\n

Plus there are the weekly fees and the deferred management fee to think of. The industry caters more for the higher end.<\/p>\n

If you have to move into aged care later in life, the options shrink again.<\/p>\n

Just getting a place in aged care can be harder than getting your first born into an exclusive private school: waiting lists have a different meaning if you\u2019re in your late 80s and urgently need supported living.<\/p>\n

The state of our aged care system in Australia and some of the abundant horror stories tell you that, unless you\u2019re reasonably wealthy, you\u2019d probably prefer to be dead than going into some of the aged care places.<\/p>\n

Why my sense of dismay?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not painting a picture of my own future (at least I hope not) but I am deeply saddened that a nation with such abundant wealth and resources has so dismally failed the generations that helped build that very wealth for others to squander.<\/p>\n

In the ten years since \u2018Old, poor and lonely\u2019 it looks very much as if we have done little to change what was a predictable future.<\/p>\n

Clint Eastwood famously said, \u201cgetting old is not for sissys.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0But that doesn\u2019t mean we should make it a herculean challenge for those who live through it.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Ahmad
\n About Ross Elliott<\/a>
\n Ross Elliott has spent close to 30 years in real estate and property roles, including as a State Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Property Council of Australia, as well a national executive director of the Residential Development Council. He has authored and edited a large number of research and policy papers and spoken at numerous conferences and industry events.
\n
\nVisit www.rosselliott.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ten years ago I did a study into ageing and wealth. At the time, I called the study…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[114,268,85,46,266,267],"class_list":["post-553126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}