For many of us, retirement is an idea that isn’t even slightly on the long list of things that take up brain space. Heck, sorting out our lives for the next month is time-consuming enough, never mind what we’ll be doing with our lives when we finally bid farewell to the daily grind.
But in case you are a forward planner, we’ve got some news that you might want to take heed of – as a new report has revealed that Australia is one of the most expensive countries in the world to live out retirement in.
We’re sorry to deliver this grim news, but at least it’s better to be aware sooner rather than later. Life insurance company Shepherds Friendly put out a report called The Retirement Index, which included a list of the top ten cities that were the most expensive for retirees to live in, based on factors like average monthly living costs and life expectancy for each country. They used the World Happiness Report from 2020 and pulled out the top 46 cities on the list, which are reportedly some of the best places to live across the globe and therefore ideal for retirees. This is the same report that listed Australia as the twelfth happiest country in the world earlier this year, so we’ve at least got that to smile about.
According to the index, four Aussie cities are among the top ten most exxy places to retire. Yikes. Melbourne came tenth on the list, apparently costing a total of £189,381 (which equates to roughly $361,623 AUD). This is with the assumption that you'll live until the average Australian life expectancy of 84 years old and spend about $1680 per month, which is the estimated monthly cost of living in Melbourne – according to the report by Shepherds Friendly. The other cities that also ranked in the top ten were Brisbane in the third spot at $381,960, followed closely by Sydney in fourth and Perth in the eighth spot.
You might be looking at these figures and thinking they look a little low, but let’s be clear: this is absolutely the bare minimum you’d need to cover simple living expenses like groceries and basic healthcare. In an article from earlier this year, the Australian Financial Review reported you need about $31,700 per year to have a retirement with a “modest” lifestyle, which allows for few non-essential expenses and some holidays.
Luckily in Australia we do have a fun thing called superannuation which definitely helps out with post-work life. But it seems like the bottom line is, we’d better start saving our pennies if we want to live it up when we finally get sweet freedom from the 9 to 5 life.