{"id":808022,"date":"2026-10-19T23:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T23:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/808022\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T23:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T23:22:12","slug":"the-cost-of-being-a-70-year-old-who-cant-afford-to-retire-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/808022\/","title":{"rendered":"The cost of being: A 70-year-old who can’t afford to retire yet"},"content":{"rendered":"

As\u00a0part of our series<\/a>\u00a0exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a high school learning support worker outlines their financial situation.<\/p>\n

Want to be part of The Cost of Being?\u00a0Fill out the questionnaire here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gender:\u00a0Female<\/p>\n

Age:\u00a070<\/p>\n

Ethnicity:\u00a0NZ European<\/p>\n

Role:\u00a0Learning support in a high school with neurodiverse students.<\/p>\n

Salary\/income\/assets:\u00a020 hours a week at $34 an hour before tax. Own a small flat valued at $500,000. No mortgage. KiwiSaver of $70,000.<\/p>\n

My living location is:\u00a0Suburban<\/p>\n

Rent\/mortgage per week:\u00a0No mortgage or rent. I own the home.<\/p>\n

Student loan or other debt payments per week:\u00a0None.<\/p>\n

Groceries:\u00a0Two people, $250 a week.<\/p>\n

Eating out:\u00a0Average once every month. Approximately $35.<\/p>\n

Takeaways:\u00a0Rarely<\/p>\n

Workday lunches:\u00a0$10 a week.<\/p>\n

Cafe coffees\/snacks:\u00a0Average two a week \u2013 $12.00.<\/p>\n

Other food costs: As both residents of the house have Coeliac disease I pay more for certain food items.<\/p>\n

Savings:\u00a0KiwiSaver $200 a fortnight from my pay. Is up to $70,000 dollars \u2013 for my retirement, to pay bills, the biggest one being medical insurance at $400 a month. I have a number of autoimmune illnesses and have four specialists that I see regularly. Plus paying for meds that aren\u2019t funded.<\/p>\n

I worry about money:\u00a0Always<\/p>\n

Three words to describe my financial situation:\u00a0Anxious, modest, vulnerable.<\/p>\n

My biggest edible indulgence: Butter<\/p>\n

In\u00a0a typical week my alcohol expenditure would be:\u00a0Nil<\/p>\n

In a typical week my transport expenditure would be:\u00a0$98 for petrol.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0estimate in the past year the ballpark amount I spent on my personal clothing\u00a0(including sleepwear and underwear) was:\u00a0$300<\/p>\n

My most expensive clothing in the past year was:\u00a0A casual dress \u2013 $60.<\/p>\n

My last pair of shoes cost:\u00a0A pair of pink sandals \u2013 $25.<\/p>\n

My grooming\/beauty expenditure in a year is about: Haircut and colour every eight weeks\u00a0\u2013 $400.<\/p>\n

My exercise expenditure in a year is about:\u00a0Nil<\/p>\n

My last Friday night cost:\u00a0$60<\/p>\n

Most regrettable purchase in the last 12 months was:\u00a0None<\/p>\n

Most indulgent purchase (that I don\u2019t regret) in the last 12 months was:\u00a0Airline tickets to visit my son and grandchildren in London.<\/p>\n

One area where I\u2019m a bit of a tightwad is:\u00a0I try and buy as much as possible on special.<\/p>\n

Five words to describe my financial personality: Needing security, worried, thrifty, careful.<\/p>\n

I grew up in a house where money was:\u00a0Controlled by my father. We were provided with what we needed. My mother had part time jobs at night to pay for extras.<\/p>\n

The last time my Eftpos card was declined was:\u00a0Never<\/p>\n

In five years, in financial terms, I see myself:\u00a0I don\u2019t know. I want to retire soon but need an income on top of the pension, for food, household expenses and improvements, and medical insurance.<\/p>\n

I would love to have more money for:\u00a0My medical expenses, travel, holidays more than once every two years, a better car, more stylish clothes, home improvements.<\/p>\n

Describe your financial low:\u00a0Having to pay a total of $20,000 dollars 14 years ago after a serious a car accident.<\/p>\n

I give money away to:\u00a0Charities, environmental groups, two political parties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As\u00a0part of our series\u00a0exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a high school learning support…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":808023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[84,4176,4174,4175,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-808022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}