Couples in their 50s picture about $1,650 a week - and 1 in 2 picture it in today's dollars
If you and your partner are in your 50s, retirement has stopped being an abstraction. It is a date you can almost circle. And the My Future Lifestyle quiz suggests most people at that stage have a fairly clear picture of the lifestyle they want, with the price tag still coming into focus.
When we asked roughly 951 people to put a weekly number on the retirement they had just described, the answers clustered tightly. The most common response was $1,650-$1,920 a week (22%), followed by $1,920-$2,190 (19%) and $1,380-$1,650 (17%). Add those three bands together and 58% of people landed somewhere between $1,380 and $2,190 a week.
That is a considered range. It says people have thought about the groceries, the power bill, the car, a trip or two.
The follow-up question changed the picture
We then asked whether that number accounted for inflation between now and retirement. Of about 937 answers:
- 50% said they were thinking in today's dollars
- 32% assumed prices would rise a bit, without working out how much
- 12% had built inflation into their numbers
- 6% said it had yet to cross their mind
So the $1,750-ish a week many people pictured is, for half of them, a 2026-style shopping basket priced at 2026-style prices. For a couple at 52 planning to stop work at 67, that basket has 15 years of price movement ahead of it before the first week of retirement even begins.
Wanting the number and having the number
There is a real appetite for certainty here. Asked how important it is to know the funds will be there, 657 of about 947 people rated it 8, 9 or 10 out of 10 - roughly 69%.
Asked whether they had ever calculated how long their investments would fund that lifestyle, 7% of around 981 people said yes, they know the number. Another 38% had a rough idea, and 44% said they had thought about it without running the figures.
That gap between "this matters enormously to me" and "I have the number written down somewhere" is where a lot of couples in their 50s are sitting right now.
One for the two of you
There is a quietly entertaining wrinkle in the data for couples. Among roughly 1,032 people, 45% described their own money personality as a Dolphin - steady, goes with the flow. Asked about their partner, 34% of about 1,002 people chose Dolphin.
The Magpie, drawn to the shiny thing, told a different story: 7% claimed it for themselves, while 18% assigned it to their partner.
Whoever is right, it is a reminder that a retirement number is a joint number. Two people, one weekly figure, and possibly two different instincts about what that figure should buy.
If you are curious where your own picture sits alongside everyone else's, the My Future Lifestyle quiz takes a few minutes, and a licensed adviser can help you test the number against your actual position. This article is general information rather than personalised financial advice.