Why this matters
The gap between a comfortable retirement and an uncomfortable one is real and measurable. Here's the evidence — from New Zealand's own researchers.
Massey University Retirement Expenditure Guidelines
Each year, Massey University's NZ Financial Education and Research Centre publishes the most authoritative benchmarks for what retirement actually costs in New Zealand. The 2025 edition — the fourteenth in an annual series — draws on Statistics New Zealand's 2022/23 Household Economic Survey, inflation-adjusted to June 2024.
Two lifestyle benchmarks matter most: No Frills — covering the basics, with little left for discretionary spending — and Choices — a comfortable lifestyle with reasonable flexibility. Here's what both cost, by location:
NZ Super for a couple after tax: $799.18/week at the time of this report — meaning even a "no frills" retirement in a metro area requires an additional $120,000 in savings above and beyond Super alone.
Sorted — New Zealand's independent retirement resource
Sorted is the free public service run by New Zealand's Retirement Commission (Te Ara Ahunga Ora) — independent, government-funded, and a legitimate first step for anyone thinking about retirement.
A free, independent tool to project your retirement income. Worth running before anything else — it gives you a baseline to work from.
sorted.org.nz/tools/retirement-calculator →Launched June 2025, built with the NZ Society of Actuaries — addresses how to draw down savings sustainably once you've stopped working.
sorted.org.nz/tools/retirement-navigator →Linking out to a government tool doesn't compete with Circulus — it borrows their independence and credibility. Having savings isn't the same as having a plan for spending them.
The gap between hoping and getting there
The Massey figures above show what retirement costs. NZ Super shows what the government provides. The gap between them is measurable — and in most cases, significant.
What's harder to measure — but clear from the numbers — is that closing that gap through KiwiSaver contributions alone is unlikely for most New Zealanders. The median KiwiSaver balance at retirement falls well short of the lump sums the Massey research projects are needed to supplement Super at even the no-frills level.
In our experience working with New Zealanders across the income spectrum — from first-time earners to those within a decade of retirement — very few arrive at financial independence without a structured plan behind them. The ones who do share something in common: they made decisions earlier than they felt ready to.
"Savings alone rarely close the gap. A structured plan — starting at the right time — is what separates comfortable from constrained."