19 Mar 2014

Retirement planning on the rise

9:22 am on 19 March 2014

People are saving more for their retirement, and more of those who aren't saving now are planning to in the future, a survey shows.

ANZ Bank's latest retirement savings survey of 989 people found 70 percent were saving for retirement compared with 64 percent in May and June last year.

The survey also found people believe they need to save more once they realise the impact of inflation on their savings target.

For the first time, ANZ showed the 989 people it surveyed the impact inflation has and those confident of reaching their retirement goals dropped to 39 percent compared with 50 percent in its October survey.

ANZ managing director for wealth John Body said the results of the survey were encouraging.

"More people are saving. Another 200,000 people joined KiwiSaver last year. There's now just under 2.3 million New Zealanders in KiwiSaver and $20 billion invested, so for a relatively young savings vehicle, it's been enormously successful," Mr Body said.

As well, more of was that people were engaging with their savings and making sure they were in the right scheme.

It was also heartening that 58 percent of people who were not saving were conscious that they should be, he said.