Close your eyes for a second.
Actually, don’t. You’re reading.
But picture this instead. It’s your perfect day in retirement.
- How old are you?
- Where are you?
- What are you doing?
- Who are you with?
For me, I’m 57. It’s a Thursday, and I’m at a long lunch with old friends.
There’s a good bottle of wine on the table. My friend Eamon said something dark and we’re all having a good laugh.
Work doesn’t cross my mind, because I’m only doing three days a week.
And by the time I’m 65, I’m looking after the grandkids, sneaking them lollies before sending them back to their parents.
Your picture will be different. It could be a bach in the Coromandel, or guzzling croissants under the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
But here’s the issue.
Half of New Zealanders have NO plan to make any of this happen
Nobody buys a rental because they love rentals. Nobody buys shares because they love shares.
You do it because you want a better life later on. The long lunch at 57, and the croissant at 65.
But get 10 people around for your next barbecue, and less than half of them have a plan for making their retirement dreams happen.
That’s according to the InvestNow Retirement Readiness Index, Feb 2025.
And I don’t think it’s their fault.
Because the finance industry has made it so hard for you to figure it out yourself.
About 48% of property investors want to retire before 65, according to the Opes Partners What Investors Want Report (June 2026).
But if you go on the government’s own retirement calculator, it can’t even conceive that you’d want to retire before 65.
Look what happens. If you try to say you want to retire before 65… it snaps you right back to their version of reality.
