Wanita Isaacs – 31 March 2016
How much is enough to save for a comfortable retirement? Wanita Isaacs unpacks the concepts of ‘enough’ and ‘comfortable’ in the context of this distant, unpredictable goal.
Rules of thumb for a comfortable versus sustainable retirement income
Behavioural scientists explain that we base most of our actions on mental shortcuts, learned through our own past experience or through commonly held beliefs: we use ‘rules of thumb’.
A well-researched rule of thumb is that a retirement income equal to 75% of your final salary just before you retire will allow you to live comfortably in retirement. This figure accounts for the adjustments many people make as they age, for example, lower housing and higher medical costs.