Retirement savings confidence dips- ANZ survey

NZers are becoming less confident about their ability to save enough for retirement, says a new survey from ANZ bank. Photo / Thinkstock

New Zealanders are less confident of reaching their retirement savings' goals than they were three months ago, according to an ANZ survey.

The Retirement Savings Confidence Barometer found of those who are saving for their retirement 56 per cent are not very confident or not at all confident of reaching their savings goal.

That was a 5 percentage point increase on ANZ's April survey.

ANZ's John Body says the confidence drop is a surprise.

"The deepening debt crisis in Europe and prolonged patchy growth in the New Zealand economy have probably contributed to the drop in confidence."

Confidence was lowest among those close to retirement with 66 per cent of those in the 45 to 64 age group feeling not very confident or not at all confident.

Younger people were much more confident about reaching their savings' goals with 53 per cent of 15 to 29 years old either very confident or confident.

The survey found 39 per cent would like to have $500 per week in additional income on top of what they would get from New Zealand Superannuation.

A person who is retired for 20 years would need around $415,000 saved by the time they retire to be able to have that level of income.

Body says the lump sum is a big amount of savings to achieve when many people are just contributing 2 per cent of their savings to KiwiSaver.

The survey questioned around 1000 people and found 61 per cent were saving for their retirement.