Quote Originally Posted by Roger View Post
I agree and see that as a minimum target BUT here's another perspective from some retiree's I know well.

Mary has retired and lost her second husband to cancer many years ago. She lives in Turangi and is actively involved in the community and has very little in the way of retirement savings BUT she makes jams and pickles and little colourful booties which she sells at the bi weekly markets down there, often to tourists passing through Turangi. She makes about $3-400 per fortnight and she lives reasonably comfortably on that and her national super in her unencumbered home there which is basic and not worth much more than $100K but she seems happy.

Sylvia lost her husband a few years ago and lives on the National super plus a modest super policy her husband took out many years ago which pays for the monthly management fees, (about $550 a month) in the village she enjoys with a supportive and caring community. Her son manages a very small portfolio which pays her another $60 a week and she seems happy and well able to meet all her bills and travels down to see her extended family in Southland quite often.

Neil and Chris didn't have any money when he retired, in fact due to poor planning and some unfortunate events they still had a $200K mortgage on their modest Auckland family home. He and Chris loved animals and didn;t have enough room for their many different animal's at their home. They traded down too an nice unencumbered 8 acre property in Te Kuiti and run a full suite of chooks, pigs, sheep, goats e.t.c. as well as domestic animals they love including cats and dogs and seem very happy. The bonus is they're close enough to Auckland and have room for their kids to come visit on the weekends and the kids seem to like having a break from Auckland.

Proof that you don't need an absolute fortune to retire on ?

Others I know have converted part of their house into a separate flat and rented it out and seem to be doing fine on one lot of rent plus the Supernanuation.

I wouldn't advocate aiming too low but I think we can all agree that human beings provided they're adaptable are capable of more than one way of skinning this retirement cat.
It troubles me that none of these cases have taken advantage of the Heartland Bank HER product. More advertising needed aye!