Here's To A Longer Life

Retirees face a balancing act in managing risk and keeping up their income

- Ross Greenwood

One of the things that really irks me is when so-called “experts” suggest that people who stop work should become more defensive with their investments. Now I get the idea that if income is not regularly coming in you must rely on your own investments – maybe topped up with the age pension.

The traditional thinking is that when you stop work you need to reduce risk in your portfolio so that you limit the chance of significant capital loss. And I get this. Retirees generally should not be punting spec shares unless they have significant disposable assets.

The problem, as I see it, is the time people spend in those non-working retirement years. The Bureau of Statistics publishes a periodical study of Australia’s retirement intentions. It shows that for those aged 45-49, just 5% are retired. That compares with 64% aged 65-69 and 82% aged 70 and over.

Let’s say that typically people retire from the workforce in their late 60s. The issue here is that the latest ABS statistics show that Australian males who are born today have a life expectancy of 80.5 years and women have 84.6 years.