Financial Education and Research Centre<\/a> found the primary drivers of rising costs for retirees were housing, household utilities, transport and insurance.<\/p>\nMost households, the report highlighted, even those with \u201cno frills\u201d budgets, were significantly exceeding the NZ Super payment and most retirees were supplementing their pension with additional income or savings.<\/p>\n
Money expert Liz Koh, who specialises in retirement planning, says older people need to secure affordable housing when retiring; otherwise, they are essentially living in poverty, since NZ Super payments often cannot cover rent or a mortgage.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can get an accommodation supplement if your income is not too high, but the reality is you\u2019re trying to live off the smell of an oily rag,\u201d Koh says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is forcing people to consider alternative arrangements \u2026 I do think people need to be prepared to do whatever it takes to secure affordable housing when they retire and that might mean doing things that are outside of their comfort zone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Intergenerational living is not a new phenomenon and is a source of pride for many cultures as it symbolises care and respect for older generations. In these instances, parents living with their adult children isn\u2019t so much about financial saviness as it is fulfilling cultural expectations. <\/p>\n
![\"Cora]()
Cora Sitchon-Laquindanum (right) says she moved in with her mum Gloria Sitchon for cultural and religious reasons. Photo \/ Anna Heath<\/p>\n
Filipino-Kiwi Cora Sitchon-Laquindanum says asking her mum to move into her Hamilton home was influenced by her cultural upbringing and Catholic faith.<\/p>\n
Sitchon-Laquindanum says she would feel guilty if she put her 82-year-old mum into a rest home because caring for your parents in old age is deeply rooted in her culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think personally I won\u2019t let her go into a rest home, I would rather get her through her old age with me,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mum, back in the Philippines, she looked after her sister and her mother as well. It runs down generations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more of a religious thing, I\u2019ve always felt I\u2019m blessed because people tell you: you\u2019re blessed your mum lives with you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her mother Gloria Sitchon contributes and helps with some household payments such as electricity bills, but Cora never asks her for money, as she wants her to be able to spend her pension on items for herself.<\/p>\n
![\"Cora]()
Cora Sitchon-Laquindanum (from left), Rainelda Felizardo, Ronella Felizardo, Gloria Sitchon and Teodocia Felizardo. Across two households, both families are living intergenerationally. Photo \/ Anna Heath<\/p>\n
She wants her mum to have financial freedom in retirement.<\/p>\n
The lack of a superannuation scheme in the Philippines means many families pour all their resources and finances into their children\u2019s lives, knowing their children will help them when they reach old age, she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a responsibility that was culturally embedded in us, that you have to financially look after your parents,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you ask any Filipino person in New Zealand, maybe 90% of them still send money back home, and their income here is divided. They might be sending money to support their nephews, not even their children, to go to school.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sitchon-Laquindanum\u2019s sister also lives intergenerationally with three generations of women in the same household.<\/p>\n
Koh says she has spoken to families in New Zealand who are exploring options such as moving to a remote area and putting a tiny cabin on a piece of land to avoid large mortgages or paying rent.<\/p>\n
Building granny flats or tiny homes on properties for their parents or grandparents to live in is another option Kiwis are trying out to help family members in retirement, Koh says.<\/p>\n
In Wait\u0101kere, Fleming says the financial load is lessened as everyone in the family pays into necessities like power, rates and insurance and they have a free water supply from rainwater tanks.<\/p>\n
However, he was surprised by how difficult it was initially to raise the finance for the property to secure a combined mortgage for the family.<\/p>\n
Koh says New Zealand and the Government are entering a difficult situation with a huge number of people from the baby boomer generation entering retirement and needing affordable housing and to be paid NZ Super.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know there are some people who would say \u2018that\u2019s the last thing on earth I would do, my last resort option is to move in with the kids\u2019,\u201d Koh says of intergenerational living.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you\u2019ve got to look at all options. Your number one priority when you retire is to secure some affordable housing and then to make sure you have a lump sum of money to top up your NZ Super with, which isn\u2019t enough to live on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Intergenerational living is not for everybody and some families might view it as being out of the question, but for the Kiwis embracing the bustle of life within a larger family unit, they are not merely saving costs or fufilling customs but finding joy. <\/p>\n
For Gloria Sitchon, she loves living with her eldest daughter and says she is well looked after: \u201cI\u2019m happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Fleming lives with his children and grandchildren in Wait\u0101kere and says the move has been a happy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[36966,9477,138,1061,58831,5988,78,234821,25632,194,807,4188,35786,2683,2686,111,139,69,25319,294,24352,301,223,165,102,6730,1959],"class_list":["post-463219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-affordable","tag-arrangements","tag-business","tag-children","tag-ditching","tag-families","tag-in","tag-intergenerational","tag-jong","tag-kiwi","tag-kiwis","tag-living","tag-mortgages","tag-move","tag-moving","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-retired","tag-retirement","tag-secure","tag-talks","tag-the","tag-their","tag-with","tag-would","tag-your"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}