Taking a career break to raise kids has been identified as the most significant barrier to having sufficient retirement savings, according to the latest MLC Quarterly Wealth Sentiment Survey.

In the June quarter, ‘career break to raise kids’ increased by a staggering 70 per cent to take out the top spot impacting sufficient savings in retirement.

Previously, unemployment and major health issues have consistently ranked highest.

Women rated a career break as their number one barrier (rated 70 out of 100) to retirement savings while men ranked it third overall (54 out of 100), behind unemployment and major health issues.

The survey of more than 2,000 Australians also found the level of concern about financial sufficiency in retirement rose this quarter, with over half of participants saying they wouldn’t have enough to retire.

Women still worry more about superannuation and investments compared to men, and this concern has risen across all categories compared to the last three quarters.

While the level of concern has increased, the survey also found around 25 per cent of women who are more than five years from retirement are not investing at all.

Additional findings:

• More than one third (38 percent) of participants expect a large financial shortfall at retirement and less than five percent think they’ll have more than enough to retire
• Superannuation, debt repayment and cash remain the preferred investments, with higher income earners maintaining more diversified portfolios than lower income earners
• There’s less aversion towards fixed income investments, shares, investment property and balanced funds compared to previous quarters
• Younger people (18 to 29) show the strongest interest in property investment

MLC Quarterly Australian Wealth Sentiment Survey Q2 2014 (PDF, 301KB)

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