How much capital do I need to retire comfortably on ?

[fungus pudding]

Most of us here are investors.
To start investing you first of all need to live within your means.
Only then can you start to invest,spare cash.
I do not think it makes a great deal of difference whether you invest in property,shares,art or whatever,so long as your do your research and are not greedy.
Therefore I think most of us on sharetrader will make sure we can live on our retirement income,whatever it turns out to be.
On the other hand, there a great number of people who can not live within their means.These people reach retirement age with either no house,or a house with a large mortgage.They can not afford to give up work.Life then becomes very hard for them.
So back to how much money do you need to retire on.Depending on where you live,your lifestyle,and health I would say someone living in the South Island with modest requirements could safely retire with a free hold house worth $350,000

Every now and then my pedantic nature takes over. So may I say almost all South Island houses are freehold. The term 'freehold' refers to tenure and essentially means the title is fee simple, or not leasehold. It's common street-talk for a property owned with no morgage, but it's incorrect and has no place in an investment forum. The correct term for a property not held under a mortgage is unencumbered, or simply mortgage-free. The majority of NZ homes are freehold, but are mortgaged.