I'm about to see how I'll look when I'm 70 because right now we're not facing our future. We have more people over 65 than at any time in history. And as they live longer, can we afford to keep paying their superannuation and their healthcare? We're heading towards a crisis... I think we're done. ...and we need to face up to the reality of getting old. Oh my God. THEME MUSIC I'll be honest. I have always struggled with the idea of getting old and retirement. Even the thought of this episode made me genuinely depressed. And I don't think I'm alone in that, because getting old means you're coming to the end of your life. It means giving things up and not being able to do things. Or does it? (SIGHS) Oh my God. (LAUGHS) That's terrible because that looks like me, and that's freaky. That's` OK. That's just too weird. WHISPERS: This is what I'll look like as an old man. And what happened to my hair? I keep thinking, 'This is just make-up and TV.' And there's another part of it which is actually, 'I will be him. I will be that old bloke.' (EXHALES) SOMBRE MUSIC Nobody wants to think that they're going to be old. We don't wanna think that this will happen to us. And so we're not asking ourselves whether we have enough money for our retirement. And we're not thinking about what our health will cost us. I will become this. This is my future, and it's unavoidable. And so I need to start thinking about it. We spend around 16 billion a year on core benefits. 4 billion of that is spent on the unemployment benefit, the sickness benefit and sole parent support. The other 12 billion ` well, that's how much we spend on superannuation. And it's only going to get worse as baby boomers retiring today are creating the largest retired population in history. If you think about NZ as a village of 100 people, then currently 20 of them would be aged under 15, 65 people would be aged between 15 and 65, and 15 people would be aged 65 and over, with this small and very old couple being the only people in the village over 85. So, in theory, this group in the middle are supporting the people on either side. But if you were to wind forward to 2048, then... AIRY MUSIC So now there are four less kids in the village. There are five less people in the working-age group. And there's been a massive increase in the over-65s. There are now nine more people in this group. And our lonely old 85-year-old couple have now been joined by four friends who are also over 85. Now, that may not sound like much in the context of a village of 100 people, but if you think about what that means for us as a country, with effectively double the number of people aged over 65 to 1.4 million, and 345,000 of those are aged over 85. And these aren't just random people. If you're in your 50s, that's you. In the old days, retirement often seemed like a waiting room for death. But is that still the way it is? When I start thinking about my retirement, that's me saying, 'Right. Now it's just the downhill slide to death. (LAUGHS) 'All the good bits are done. You're just gonna get old and stuff's gonna hurt and you'll die.' You need to spend some time with retirees, if you don't already. We did a competition. And we got NZers to tell us what they thought we should call the three stages of retirement. And the important point there is that retirement is now so long. It could be 30 years. So, let's chop it into three stages and let's name it. And the winner of the competition was a wonderful retiree from Wellington. Her first stage was discovery. When you first retire, you've suddenly got this whole day and you have to discover how to fill it meaningfully. Then endeavour ` you have to try to make some of those new discoveries work out in a different environment. And then, ultimately, there's a lot more time to think about what life has been, and I called that one reflection. So, discovery, endeavour, reflection became the three stages. Discovery and endeavour sound quite fun. Reflection is a bit` That's the one I get a bit stuck on cos that sounds a bit depressing. That just` I just imagine myself just sitting in a chair, sort of all... (LAUGHS) Well, there is a little bit of that but without the 'ooh, ooh'. Reflection's actually fun. I find, for example, when I look around my place, everything that I've kept in the move that I've made to be here, I do so because it linked with something that I like to go back over and think about. What would you say to people who don't like thinking about retirement cos they find it depressing? Retirement will be better if you have good health, which you have some degree of control over. You can have a much better retirement if you have put sufficient money away. And that means you can travel to see your friends and family. I think the real secret to well-being is to be important to somebody. I think the hardest thing is to think that nobody needs you. The fact that we need to break retirement into three stages shows just how long we're now living. So, maybe we need to think a bit more about this possible 30 or 40 extra years. We live for today, don't we? We live for the moment. We overestimate the importance of now and we underestimate the importance of tomorrow. I mean, it's a very human thing to do. And there's that great test that you do with children where you say, 'I'll give you a chocolate fish now... Ah! So` (LAUGHS) '...or if you leave that, I'll give you two in 10 minutes.' Two chocolate fish. WHIMSICAL MUSIC Saving for retirement is pretty much the same deal. Spend now or have more later through saving, because of interest and investment. Come on. This is like one big national chocolate-fish moment, isn't it? Unfortunately, most of us are saying, 'I'll have it now.' 'I don't know what's gonna happen in five minutes' time. I want the chocolate fish.' Come on already. It seems the secret to not eating the chocolate fish is to not look at it, to distract yourself. And maybe that's what we need to do with our savings ` put them away where we can't see them. I didn't eat it. So, you decided to wait. You now get to have two chocolate fish. It's hard work but, at least for these kids, it seems worthwhile. NZ Super ` is that a good thing? Are we getting that right? So, it's worth explaining what NZ Super is because you'd be amazed at how confused people are. So at the moment, at 65, NZers who have been in the country for 10 years or more get 'the pension' or 'Super' or 'NZ Super'. So, that is what we call universal. That means it's not means-tested. Do we need to look at that. Should we means-test people? If I've got, say, $3000 a week coming in from my investments, why should I get the Super? We've gotta put on our grown-up pants and have that conversation because as a society, we have to say, 'What do we think is fair?' And means-testing comes up quite quickly. And the problem with means-testing is you have visions of, sort of, gazillionaires grabbing the $364 a week. Now, my concern with means-testing ` a) is very expensive to administrate, and it causes a lot of confusion for retirees. In 2013, Treasury put together a document called Affording Our Future. It worked out we couldn't. So they came up with some different options. The fundamental problem is that our current policies are not sustainable. Essentially, what the report does is it projects 40 or 50 years into the future on current policies. The NZ government will have to borrow heavily some time into the future. And the levels are such that perhaps we would get to what we call the Greek Crisis. The debt level being so high that the people we're borrowing from will ask us to change our policies. If we don't do anything about how much we tax and how much we spend, NZ will face massive overwhelming debt. The Treasury documents come up with four options to get us to a point where that doesn't happen. The first one, raising the age of superannuation to 67, gets us close to safety but isn't enough in itself to avoid a financial crisis. So to do that, we need to add in another option. Increase income tax, increase GST or spend less on things like public healthcare. None of that sounds great, but if we want to avoid going broke somewhere in the 2020s, we have to do something and we have to do it now. What do you think the solutions are? I believe that we should raise the age of eligibility for NZ Super. We should do it step by step with lots of good signals to people what's going on. The second thing is I think we need to put more effort into private savings. I think that probably means making KiwiSaver, um, compulsory. Isn't the problem, effectively, that if we force people to put their money into KiwiSaver, this is being managed by people. The whole thing could collapse and all of your retirement savings disappear. That's one of the downsides of the capitalist system. (CHUCKLES) It's not a peculiarity of KiwiSaver. How loud is the clock ticking? When does the government have to act? They should have done them yesterday. Our simulation showed the earlier you address the problem, the easier it is to handle. So the short answer is we should do it now, but we shouldn't do it hurriedly. Well, that was pretty sobering. I'd always thought the retirement crisis was looming, but, in fact, the end isn't nigh ` it's already here. We need to do something about it and do something about it now. But that requires politicians of vision and courage, and where are we gonna find them? 1 We're heading into a retirement crisis; too many people living longer and not enough in taxes to pay the superannuation costs. And some see this as a generational issue. Maybe the baby boomers really are having their golden years, while retirement may seem a bit greyer for the next generation. During the summer, we probably spent about half of our time on the boat during` during the, sort of, periods from mid-January through till end of April. You guys just jump on a boat and toodle out here, and crowds are gone... Mm. Usually they're retired couples on the other boats too, you'll notice. Almost all of them. Frank and Barbara seem to have a lifestyle that others can only dream of. I imagine a lot of people would look at this and say you're lucky to have this lifestyle, but I'd also imagine there's quite a bit of hard work in getting here as well. I don't think you end up with a lifestyle like this purely by accident. No. You've gotta make the effort. I think you've got to have the plan. You've gotta have the goals. I think that's true in anything you do. You're never going to arrive anywhere if you haven't figured out where you're going to. The term 'spending your kids' inheritance' ` are you a SKI-wi? I would say to some extent. I do believe that there'll be still something for our kids to inherit. They say the perfect financial planning is live to the length of your savings and then die destitute. Do you kind of try and impart stuff to the kids? No, I think they're making their own assessments there. And our parents didn't talk to us about our retirement when they were older. The SKI thing, you know, spending the kids' inheritance ` where do you sit on that one? We earned it, we spend it. We're not intentionally spending their inheritance, but we're not going to live in... poverty (CHUCKLES) so that they can enjoy a better life. But life feels a little gloomier for Ryan, a 34-year-old university lecturer in economics. I have no idea what my retirement will look like. I hope it is as, uh, comfortable as a lot of boomer retirements currently look. I expect to get some Super, sure, yes, funded by the government. But I also think that when it comes time for me to retire, I'll be paying for a lot of my retirement through my savings and the KiwiSaver scheme, and other savings I would have made over my adult life. Part of the taxes that baby boomers paid went to their parents in the form of superannuation. But the current generation pay taxes so their parents, the baby boomers, can get Super, and they've also been told to pay for their own retirement by using KiwiSaver, in effect, paying for two retirements. That does seem a little unfair. I mean, it doesn't matter if it's fair or not. Life's not fair, right? By choosing to stay in NZ, um, I've effectively said that I'm willing to bear this burden, if it means that I get to have the other benefits of living in NZ. I think what's called for is perhaps some respect and acknowledgment of the role that today's younger generation play in making that transition. They do bear a financial burden. This demands respect, perhaps even gratitude. I think that's probably a one-sided view. I mean, the baby boomers, ourselves for example, paid a lot of tax over a lot of years. Do you think that you're entitled to superannuation? I hate the word, sort of, 'entitlement', exactly. We've paid a lot of taxes and, of course, had various benefits from paying those taxes too. I do believe that if there is a superannuation system, that I think it's got to be valid to everybody. Otherwise, why`? I mean, if it's only available to those who don't save, then why bother saving? After World War II, NZ did well. Our dairy products made us rich. There was low unemployment, and we believed in the welfare state. NZ's living standards were some of the highest in the world. But in the '80s, things changed. The economy wasn't doing as well, and we moved in a radical new direction. We thought the government shouldn't be in control of so much of our lives. People should become more individually responsible. It's not the government that's gonna help you any more. It's up to you. And more often than not, now it's up to your family. In the 1950s, there were state loans, and building was subsidised. But nowadays, home ownership is on the decline. For a lot of people, you know, your house is your biggest asset. You hear that talk. It's like that's people's retirement plan ` is my house. Yeah. The previous generations have done very well by investing in housing in NZ. We don't have the same access to that good investment because, you know, for a lot of us, it's very difficult to save for that first deposit. It's almost like the younger generation have been shut out of the property market. Yeah, I find that really hard to agree with, to be honest. I just go back to when we bought our first house. The only way we could pay the mortgage was rent half the house. And, end of the week, if we had 10c to spare, it was a good week. And we didn't have pizzas and we didn't have coffee and we didn't have brunch or anything like that. It was very very serious budgeting and saving to make it. I don't see it as being all that different. Certainly, when we were young, we made the sacrifices. For the baby boomers, the older generations, I'm sure a lot of them did work hard to get where they are. But if you look at the generation as a whole, and the handouts that were available to them from the government, those have really changed. The individuals may talk tough, and maybe that was their individual experience, but, listen, we're talking about the generation as a whole, and it's definitely not the case. I think that the baby boomers had the good fortune of a strong economy. And, yeah, they paid high taxes, but life was pretty good. The world has changed, and we have to face the fact that retirement in the future might not be like this. It's a futile conversation, to a degree, to be saying, 'What did you get that I didn't?' (GRUMBLES) This is the way it is. And the population is aging. We're having fewer children. It's not just that we're living longer, it's that we're healthier for longer. Tauranga is the Florida of NZ ` our retirement capital. It has the highest average age in the country. Retirement talk often turns to retirement villages, but only 10% of 75-year-olds actually live in one. And they may not be the best financial option. A village in Tauranga is targeting baby boomers with the promise that you get to own your own property, rather than the situation in most retirement villages, where you simply have a licence to occupy. We want to make our lifestyle village totally unique. Very modern architecture. Airy, young, funky. How are people that are retiring now different to the, kind of` the previous generation of retirees. Well, first of all, the baby boomers don't think they're old. They want to have fun. They still want control of their destiny. And they go, 'Well, what do we want out of life for the rest of our sunset years?' That's when they buy a motorhome or they buy a boat, uh, or they just travel. So, in the past, it was kind of slippers and pipes. And now it's` it's campervans and boats. Don and Claire were eager to move into a place that provided tons of space for their caravan. What was the picture that you had of retirement when you were young? My elderly mother, who would have been younger than me, who did nothing but sit there and knit and gossip and things like that. And Claire's mum was pretty much the same. Yeah, Mum used to get out and walk a bit, though, didn't she? More than your mother. But, um... You know. Yeah, at 74 they were real old ladies. And I hope I'm not that old yet. What attracted you about coming here? Each home is sort of an individual home. And, also, if we want to sell it, we can sell it on the open market. It's ours to sell. It's not like a retirement village where you have to sell it back to management. You know, at the end of it, our kids might have something left to them. That was pretty important. Coming from a banking background, I had that in the back of my mind. And as soon as I saw the, uh, situation here, I said to Claire, 'It's the way we will go.' It's quite unique. Even with concepts like this, the future for people like me, retiring in 20 years, is looking very precarious unless we answer some tough questions and politicians are prepared to focus on not just the next election but the next 50 years. I think the real problem is that, you know, politicians, in the end, can't worry about whether someone in 30 years' time is gonna judge that they've done the right thing. You've got an election coming up in one or two years. That makes long-term issues, like healthcare and superannuation, particularly difficult issues to discuss in a political context. Politicians have to make these hard decisions, and so do individuals, otherwise we may just end up with an unplanned future, working into our 80s. 1 Superannuation may be universal, but as we live for longer and longer, our money is more likely to run out. That's the problem for 96-year-old Bob Jeane. He was forced into full-time residential care. And if you have any assets, you must use them to pay for your care. So, how did you come to be here? I had a fall. The doctor said, 'Well, for your own good, I advise you to find a rest home.' How long had you lived in your family home for? 1947... 60-odd years. So, a single owner for that whole time? Yes. Bob has had to sell the family house to pay for his rest-home care. One last time, he and his daughter Miriam visit the house he's lived in for most of his life. Miriam, this is your childhood home. You grew up in this house. I did, Nigel. Yes. And lovely memories. Who was in here? That's Miriam's room. She used to have her girlfriends stay there with her in the spare bed. Was it a difficult transition for your dad to go from here to the home? Naturally, because this is his haven. This is where` Well, more than half his life, he's lived with his family and wife. And, quite honestly, I think he wanted to be here to die. When you think about you lived here for all those years with your family, does it feel a bit sad leaving the house? Oh, it does to a degree. But the time comes when you've just gotta do it. They're not complaining about it, it's just the reality. As you live longer, you may not be able to leave as much as you had hoped for your children. How much does it cost your dad to stay at the retirement home? It costs $150 a day. Was the sale of the house necessary to pay the costs of your dad staying at the retirement home? Yes. We knew that we would have to eventually sell the house because after a year, he wouldn't have the funds to pay for his care. The decision to sell the house, that must have been really difficult. Very. It kinda tears your heart out. I know Dad was emotional but he was very very brave. It was ill health that sent Bob into care. But if you have your health, you may have to pay for your long retirement by... not retiring. Laurie retired at the age of 67, renovated his house, travelled the country, and then he did something unusual. Seven years ago, he unretired and, three days a week, heads off for an eight-hour workday. Why did Bunnings hire someone who was 73? I found that they like knowledge. We've got old grey heads, I know that, but there's a lot of knowledge in those old grey heads. I've had people come to me and say, 'When we come into Bunnings and need some information, 'we always look for the grey heads.' (LAUGHS) About 6% of the workers here are over 65. That's pretty much the NZ average. And only four countries in the world have a greyer workforce than us. Recently, what people are doing is they're working longer. About 20%-plus of NZers still work past 65. But also, increasingly, people are saying, 'Well, I'm not just gonna have that big gold watch moment 'where I drop off and disappear and go and knit. I might actually just reduce my hours. 'Start taking up some other hobbies but still be working.' So, there's a far more gradual shift, which is, I think, a really positive thing. Does it seem strange to think that you are in your 80s? I can handle most of what we need to do. I've got a young crew with me here in Electrical. They look after me like a grandfather. (LAUGHS) If there's anything heavy to be done, 'You leave that, Laurie. I'll do that.' What is it that you get out of working? What are the benefits to you of coming to work? It's meeting people. Uh, sharing our knowledge with them. And what I found when I got here was that we have an amazing team in this store. And it's sort of like a big family in a way. And the friendship between different members of this team is really valuable to me, actually. You know, old people and young people often have difficulties mixing, but that just doesn't exist here. All the young guys think I'm OK. Laurie is the epitome of good health, which makes his golden years look enjoyable and fun. But what happens if you can't keep your health? 1 Of course we're concerned about how much money we'll need to retire, but that's only half of the equation. Your mental and physical health is just as important. This is an age simulation suit. Looks a little daunting. Professor Ngaire Kerse is an internationally recognised expert on the health of the aged. Would you like to start at the bottom or the top? Um, let's start at the feet. Why am I wearing funny shoes? What's that got to do with being old? The little receptors in your feet, they wear out a bit. Yeah, it does feel a bit sort of... Dull? Dull. These are one of the prime locations for osteoarthritis. So, they literally start to wear out? They wear off, yeah. Why are we so scared of getting old? I think people are worried about not being able to do the things they want to do any more. I am scared. See, I look at this and I think, 'Oh my God, is this what it will be like?' 10kg, something like that. This will make it harder for you to bend and walk. These are to simulate my old hands becoming stiff. Neck? Sure, yep. So, what do you notice? It's just a lot stiffer. Like, everything is stiffer and it's harder to bend around. You think, 'Ooh.' You don't want to overbalance. What can I do now so that I don't end up in the old man suit? You should try to be as active as possible, to try to get your joints to go through every range of motion, every day in some way, shape or form. Now we have the sensory issues. Can you hear me now? Yep. Sort of. These glasses, uh, simulate cataracts. Once you start to put this stuff on, you feel more disconnected from the world, you know? You feel like you're just off in your own head somewhere, and the world's out there somewhere. Yeah. But you can still hear and see me. There's no reason why you can't engage. Yeah, yeah. Just harder. Yeah. You're just a blurry lady who's yelling at me at this point. (LAUGHS) What's she yelling at me for? Well, let's, um, let's go for a coffee. Handrails are useful, aren't they? The thing that's making this really difficult is my eyesight. And the fact that I can't hear also makes it a completely frustrating experience. You can` Whoop, careful now. See? (LAUGHS) It's all right. We'll try to catch you. Few cars coming. Slow down! This is where` That's the way. OK. Right. Can I have one trim flat white and a latte? Now, here we go, using the card. How's that gonna be? All right? I can't see that. Hang on. Which one's the cheque button? The top one. You stand behind older people as they're doing stuff like this, and you think, 'Oh, it's not hard. 'Just get on with it.' But when you can't see the buttons, you don't know what you're hearing, you're trying to work our how much is on the little thing there... It went through. You're approved. Oh, that's good. Good. What stupid person invented stools? What are we not doing that we should be doing? I think that we do our very best with the limited resources we have. I do think we could take a much more proactive approach to keeping people active and engaged; participating in society. I think the people who tend to withdraw seem to be at higher risk of getting some disability and having difficulty looking after themselves. There we go. God, now we've gotta go all the way back again. Ooh! (LAUGHS) Nearly. Not quite. All right. I've lost my confidence. All right. I do feel more empathetic towards older people and how difficult it is for them to move around and work EFTPOS machines and stuff like that. It's been a good experience, then. I might take these off now, though. Aw, OK. It's interesting. As, um` As soon as you take it off, you feel more connected back into the world again. Now, this might sound like a bit of a mean question, and I don't mean it that way, but are we` are we too good at keeping older people alive? Do you know what I mean? Like, do we keep people alive past a point where, in the past, your body is saying, 'It's time to be done.' Well, our society has evolved to have highly invasive technical medical interventions, which can keep people alive for, some would say, past their best. It's a very difficult question that you're asking, Nigel. I think we need more debate. And we must have this debate now. How much can we afford to spend on the healthcare of our senior citizens? How do we resolve the issue of healthcare? (SIGHS) I don't think we can. Either the people get their healthcare or they have a miserable life and die. And, uh, I think, as a community, we are likely to provide the healthcare. Personally, I can't see any option other than raising taxes; leaving aside the possibility of shooting everybody when they're 65. I mean, laying aside those sorts of options. And, in fact, cutting back on their healthcare and them dying earlier. But other than those sorts of options, it seems to me we're stuck with it. In Tauranga, Carole Gordon is fighting for the good health of seniors. She's an expert on the effects of aging and is trying to convince the local council to put gym equipment for the over-65 in public spaces. ...I have dreamed that we're gonna have one of these on each side. The piece of equipment that I've suggested is a base, and you can add more to it. Each little piece is designed for strength-building and resilience. Carole, is Tauranga an age-friendly city? Well, the council's decided that it wants to become one. So, that's a major step forward. And the first city in NZ to do that. What does retirement mean now? Well, the old connotation about retirement ` it's a whole notion that comes from lots and lots of working class people working in factories, and being told that they're too old any more. So, it's a cultural concept, really. But it's irrelevant now. Just cos we've got Super at 65 doesn't mean you're old. We need to just update. And politicians need to update, you know? Stop talking about the elderly. Who are they? I don't know where they are. (LAUGHS) It's a terrible word that embraces 40 years of living. A lot of people have this idea that when you retire, you are old and your life then shrinks. Has that been your experience? No, definitely not. It becomes fuller, I think. For me, I became more involved in my family and grandchildren and... Never been busier. Why do you think that is? It's just progress, I suppose. Maybe we're all healthier. We feel more active and ready to do things, rather than sit back. Everything has progressed to keep people younger, I think; to keep people more interested in life. In Australia, they've had a Ministry of Health and Aging for over 10 years now. They have rafts of policy documents around building communities. In the UK, they've got work where government invests in lifetime communities. What is our current strategy in terms of dealing with that? We don't have one. I think it's shameful that we've created a culture and a society that says, 'You old people go over there.' And retirement village owners are beginning to realise the importance of keeping their residents involved in the community. Often in our society, once you've retired and you don't have a job label attached to you, the rest of society kind of discards you as not knowing anything. Robyn Johnston has set up a programme that sees residents read to children from a local school and she measures the results. Thing that worried me most of all was the fact that we're all old. And I thought, 'How are they going to adapt to us? Are they going to accept us?' But they were marvellous. They were really very very good. READS: 'Reindeer were scarce.' Do you know what scarce means? Hard to get. What did you used to think about old people before you came in here? I just thought, 'Oh, it's just an old person. It's boring.' It got funner as we did it more. It got better and better. BOTH IMITATE CAT MEOWS It's lovely interaction. It's nice. It's pleasant. I think he appreciates what we have. But here's the thing. The research shows that this kind of interaction actually makes the residents feel better and more alive. In fact, they live longer. For older people, it's a good feeling. They feel that they're doing something useful. You're helping a child. The thing that takes spots off is... I'd like to think I could see more of little Rosie because she's a beautiful little girl. I seriously didn't think they were cool before I did this. And interacting with the old people made me sort of think more about them. Do you think that sometimes we sort of push old people to the side, as if they don't have a lot left to offer to young people? There's no doubt about that. Yeah, I've had that experience. My wife died a couple of years ago, and she was in the hospital. They were very kind to her but they treated her like a small child, to some extent. And she was a nursing sister. Right till the finish, she was still talking extremely well, and knew what she was doing. I just felt that they didn't talk to her like a` an adult. I'm continually stunned by people and what they've done in their lives. And` And it's such a waste, such a loss, not to use that knowledge and those skills. If you go back several generations, then older people were actually the ones that passed on the knowledge to younger people. Parents were out hunting and gathering, whereas the older people were less mobile, so they passed on that knowledge. And they learned from young people. It kept them young, doing that. It's an obvious win-win if we don't segregate the retired. But what I want to know is how much money I need for my own retirement. 1 It seems that to have a good retirement, I need to make sure I keep busy and involved with the community. I can cross my fingers about my health, but how much money will I actually need? I get really reluctant to start banding around figures because it's very individual. It depends on what sort of retirement you think you want. You do need to have a think about that. But it's actually quite intimidating. And for most of us, including myself, who are nowhere close to where we hope to be, in a way it puts you in a state of paralysis, where you're more likely to say, 'Oh, well, if it's $1 million or $2 million, I haven't got a hope. 'I might as well just give up.' You know? It sort of takes it so far out of reach. I went on the website and did the superannuation calculator thing. READS: Your desired retirement lifestyle... Whoa. Well, those results are a bit depressing. The additional lump sum that you will need at retirement is $1.2 million to have the retirement that I want. Which means that I have to save an extra $1021 every week between now and when we retire, which isn't possible. So I'm going to go back and have a slightly more realistic retirement. Oh God. We've still got to save $584,000 for our retirement, which means $471 a week, which is an enormous amount of money we need to suddenly start saving. That's why it can't be a late conversation. It has to be an early conversation, particularly for middle- to low-income NZers, you know? Usually people don't get lump sums across a lifetime. At Albany Senior High School, they're working with the retirement commissioner on a new programme that will help to provide the message 'little and long'. Teacher Vicky Crawford loves the programme. ...five minutes' brainstorming how we would imagine we would like our life to be, OK? So, when I think about that... Why is it important to get kids to think about retirement? They need to understand that the decisions that they make as a young person and all the decisions they make along the way ` that is going to create your retirement. It's not something that just happens to you. It's something that you can actually help control. It's just about making sure that they make good decisions, that they have the information that they need. < There's no right or wrong. Whatever you imagine and dream for yourself. How do you get kids excited about saving for retirement because it's stuff that a lot of adults don't like to think about? You inspire them. Make them excited about the possibilities of things that they can do with their money if they start young. So, hands up here if you've got KiwiSaver already. I currently have a KiwiSaver, which is an aggressive fund. So, I have` When I get my first job, I'll be putting my 3% in to be matched by my employer so that by the time I reach retirement, I will have some sufficient funds. I currently have KiwiSaver and an aggressive fund cos obviously I'm quite young, so I have enough time for my money to work for me and for it to grow exponentially, hopefully. I'm aware that, due to NZ's aging population, that won't be enough for me. So, I will plan to do property investment or managed funds and diversify my investment for retirement. This was an eye-opener to me. Just one inspiring teacher is changing the futures of hundreds of kids in a measurable and substantial way. They are more open to learning. They want to succeed at this age. They haven't given up yet. They haven't got a poor mental image of themselves that they can't do it. They're just open and fresh. It's the perfect time to plant some seeds. That means that for every year you put $1000 in, the government will give you $500. This class has been, like, the best thing that's happened to me cos I now know what I need to do to get myself on the upper foot against people that don't take this class. Does it surprise you that people who are in their 30s, 40s, 50s don't think about retirement and don't have a plan? It does surprise me because it is such a key thing. I think that people's lack of education causes a lack of interest. And then they don't understand how key it is to be saving for retirement early. If these kids can get the message, can we? Why are you so passionate about teaching this stuff to kids? It's a result of my own experiences. At university, I was in the year where they first had student loans, so I got the biggest student loan I could and went and wasted it at the pub. At 30 years old, I was still paying off my $30,000 student loan, you know? And then I found myself` I was a single mother. I had to struggle for a while. When I couldn't afford to go out, I just sat at home reading books, trying to plot my way out of the situation. And now I've actually done reasonably well, financially, and I feel that they can too. If they start even younger than me, they can do really well as well. I mean, I just bought a new car. And I show them. I say, 'And I didn't buy it on finance.' They go, 'We know, Miss.' I said, 'No. If you can't pay cash for it, don't buy it.' So you get your government tax credit... It's true, though. Because when I was a kid, just like you, no one ever taught me about this stuff. And, like, I think most people of our generation have made appalling decisions around money, cos no one ever told us. The problem is that as individuals, we're not facing up to our retirement. And as a country, we're not facing up to the crisis that could be only a decade away. Personally, I've just set up KiwiSaver. Always meant to, never got around to it. I'm putting in $30 a week, and that's going to get me an extra $60,000 at my retirement. But as a country, we need to start dealing with reality and vote responsibly. The older generation can't keep punishing politicians when they come up with solutions, like raising the age of superannuation to 67. And the younger generation need to get out and vote to protect their retirement. We need to stop acting like there's no tomorrow.