Almost half of Australians undecided on whether they will need to sell the family home to fund retirement: MLC Wealth Sentiment Survey

Nearly half of Australians are undecided on whether they will have to sell the family home to fund their retirement, the latest MLC Wealth Sentiment Survey has found.

The quarterly survey has found 11% of Australians already plan to sell the family home to fund their retirement, with a further 42% undecided on what they will do.

Australians also expect to cut spending on their children, home and entertainment in retirement and direct the savings into meeting healthcare and medical costs.

In net balance terms, 23% of Australians expect to cut back spending on their children in retirement, while 30% expect to spend less on major household items, followed by home improvements.

By comparison, most respondents expect their health spending will rise and to a lesser extent, other essentials such as utility bills and insurance.

Australians are also more willing to cut back on entertainment and dining out costs once retired, but less likely to reduce spending on travel, groceries and their superannuation and investments.

While more than half of those surveyed believe they won’t have enough or far from enough to retire, the overall level of concern about financial sufficiency in retirement fell for the September quarter. This is despite little change in conservative investor behaviour.

For further analysis download the full report.

• Quarterly Australian Wealth Sentiment Survey – October 2014 (309KB, PDF)