The retirement years

[Waltzing]

Your brain is far to active and valuable to retire to doing nothing.. one suggests a small book for investors... and only when one has some time to think maybe a persons best ideas can actually come later in life even though the wiring of the brain hardens..

[Basil]

I think what young Azz failed to understand is that people buy into retirement villages for non financial reasons.  Care, support, community, lifestyle e.t.c.
People make all sorts of decisions for lifestyle reasons, (e.g. buying fancy European cars at exorbitant prices) and it's their hard-earned money to spend as they see fit, not their kids.  I tried to get that across to him...unfortunately you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.

[Nizzy]

For that, we can blame the medical schools.  For 10 years now they have been selecting medical students based on race, and not on qualifications, meaning thousands of young people who wanted to be doctors, and who were the brightest in our country, were denied the opportunity to practice medicine. 

Thats completely incorrect. The med schools do have highly competitive selective intakes for various areas that are badly underrepresented in the medical workforce. Notably, intakes for rural students and for Maōri and Pasifika(Mapas). Mapas is very widely supported by the medical workforce in NZ as filling a critical need. Its a no-brainer for improving health outcomes. On the other hand the effectiveness of the rural intake seems more debatable with mixed evidence.       

[KW]

Thats completely incorrect. The med schools do have highly competitive selective intakes for various areas that are badly underrepresented in the medical workforce. Notably, intakes for rural students and for Maōri and Pasifika(Mapas). Mapas is very widely supported by the medical workforce in NZ as filling a critical need. Its a no-brainer for improving health outcomes. On the other hand the effectiveness of the rural intake seems more debatable with mixed evidence.       

My statement is correct.  Less than half of medical school placements are general entry, which requires a A+ grades for entry.  The other 50+% is determined by race and socio-economic disadvantage, for which the entry requirement is as low as a C (if you are Maori).  Only about 28% of people who apply for general entry get accepted - so where do the rest go? The grade score required for general entry is 8.13, for Maori its 4.54 - barely a pass, and even then probably nudged up through bell curve marking. 

The end result is the same as what is happening in other places that think race is more important than qualifications
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/ucla-med-school-prioritized-racial-diveristy-leading-shocking-decline-medical-knowledge

We get this shit .....
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/health-disability-commissioner-cervical-procedure-started-without-anaesthetic/UOETT3IMZBBUBMQHEOANRMNTY4/

Funnelling second rate graduates into medicine is not a "no brainer for improving health outcomes".  Its a friggen disaster for them.   And 72% of people qualified for medicine are rejected for no reason other than having the wrong skin colour, and so either are denied a career in medicine, or they hopefully have wealthy parents who can fund their studies overseas (and thus are lost to NZ)

[Minimoke]

For those that have retired, particularly before the traditional age of 65, how did you determine that you had enough wealth?

And knowing what you do now, would you have retired earlier, or worked less, or worked longer?

I'm also interested in what asset allocation you are adopting in retirement I.e. Nz equities, bonds, international equities etc. 

Thank you

You might find this resource useful. It's the latest 2023 report. You' have a few months to wait for the 2024 report.

https://www.massey.ac.nz/documents/1554/new-zealand-retirement-expenditure-guidelines-2023.pdf

Basically it shows what a person / couple will spend on a "no Frill" or "Choices" lifestyle in a "metro" or provincial location.

So step one. Go through and match your retirement expenditure expectation against the costs listed. That will show expenditure. As Basil says, lets call it $1600 a week for a couple.

Now you have to look at income. You'll get $763 from Govt Super. Leaving a shortfall of $837.

The 4% rule is a good starter. Add up the realisable value of all your assets (included your home which can be put on a reverse mortgage type arrangements.  Lets say home  plus kiwsaver and other investments = $1.5m then you have $1,153 a week. So well within the Choices lifestyle. This should last you in excess of 30 years.

But given a portfolio lasting from age 65 to 95 you need to fine tune further. Break this 30 years down to decades.

Decade 1 = 65 - 75. You are going to be (hopefully) fit and healthy. So you really want to be spending large on all those fun things you wanted to do in retirement. So 4% isn't going to cut it.

In the years 75 - 85 you are going to be slowing down, but not have stopped. So expenditure on things like food goes down, but health care costs go up. You probably will still be traveling but not nearly as much. 4% might cut it.

And in the final years 85 - 95 you are going to be getting quite decrepit and you won't be doing nearly so much. Health care costs probably don't change. If you were going to die of something you would already have done so. Public health will look after most stuff like heart and cancers but you may want a new hip or two. You'll likely be spending less than 4%.