| The 'average' life expectancy for a aged is: | years |
| 25% of all year old s live beyond age: | |
It's important for you to understand how long your retirement savings might have to last. You can get some idea of that by looking at average statistics for all New Zealanders. How long you will live, will depend on:
- your age at retirement (the older that is, the less time, on average, you will have in retirement).
- your sex (females tend to live longer than males, on average).
- your health at retirement.
The graph below plots the number of deaths year by year in retirement starting with an initial number of 100. Can you afford to live beyond average?
Number of the 100 original retirees dying each year
All the statistics shown here are based on the general population's numbers and are taken from the latest New Zealand Life Tables 2005/2007. Your own experience will almost certainly be different, but you can use the averages as an indication of what might happen.