HSBC earlier in the week released a detail survey entitled The Future of Retirement: A new reality, which analyses global retirement trends. The survey findings are based on a representative online survey of 15,000 people in 15 countries, and covered people of working age (25 and over) and those in retirement. The survey was conducted during July and August 2012, with data collected on both a household and individual basis.
The survey found that most people are falling short of a comfortable retirement. In order to sustain a comfortable standard of living in retirement, people say they would need 78% of current income, which is far higher than is likely to be achieved. However, Australians only expect to require 66% of current income, which is at the bottom of the countries surveyed (see next chart).
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.