How Long Will Your KiwiSaver Last in Retirement? Making a Balance Stretch to 90 in NZ

Worried about outliving your savings? How long a KiwiSaver balance lasts at different withdrawal rates, how NZ Super carries most of the load, and how to plan to age 90 and beyond.

"How long will my KiwiSaver last?" is one of the most common questions people ask as they approach 65. The honest answer is that it depends on three things: how much you have, how much you draw each year, and how long you live. For most New Zealanders, KiwiSaver is not meant to fund retirement on its own. NZ Super does much of the heavy lifting, and your balance tops it up. This guide walks through how to think about how many years your money will fund, and what helps it stretch.

TL;DR: For many people, KiwiSaver is a top-up rather than the whole picture. The average balance for those aged 61–65 is only about $54,000 ⁵, while NZ Super pays a single person about $27,998 a year after tax for life ³. A 65-year-old today can, on average, expect to reach their mid-to-late 80s, and many will pass 90 ¹² — so a balance may need to fund 25 years or more. The withdrawal rate matters more than almost anything else.

How long does an average KiwiSaver balance actually last in retirement?

The starting point surprises a lot of people. The average KiwiSaver balance for members aged 61–65, those right on the doorstep of being able to withdraw at 65, is only around $54,000 ⁵. Across all members the average is lower still, about $36,199 ⁶. These are averages, so plenty of people have much more and many have less, but they make one thing clear: for most New Zealanders, KiwiSaver alone will not fund 25 years of retirement.

That is not a failure of KiwiSaver. The scheme has only existed since 2007, so few people have had a full working life to build a balance. It was designed to sit on top of NZ Super, not replace it. Used that way, a $54,000 balance does not need to last on its own for decades — it needs to supplement a guaranteed, lifelong income.

A simple way to see how long a balance lasts is to divide it by what you take out each year, before any growth. A $54,000 balance drawn at $10,000 a year lasts a bit over five years on that crude basis; drawn at $5,000 a year, it stretches past ten. Investment growth extends both figures, and that is where the withdrawal rate becomes the central decision.

Why is living longer the biggest risk to your savings?

The single largest unknown in retirement planning is how long you will live. Plan for 20 years and live for 30, and the maths runs out a decade early. This is called longevity risk, and it is easy to underestimate because the headline "life expectancy at birth" figure is much lower than your life expectancy once you have already reached 65.

The numbers are worth sitting with. Based on the latest abridged period life table, a 65-year-old man in New Zealand can expect to live a further 19.7 years, to about 84.7, and a 65-year-old woman a further 21.8 years, to about 86.8 ¹. Those are averages, so roughly half of people will live longer. Cohort life tables, which allow for expected future improvements in longevity, push the figures higher again: about 85.9 years for men and 88.3 for women reaching 65 around now ². A meaningful share will live past 90.

For a couple, the planning horizon is longer still, because you are effectively planning for whichever of you lives longest. It is common, and sensible, to plan to at least 90 and stress-test against living to 100. The cost of running out is far worse than the cost of leaving a little behind.

How do you estimate how many years your balance will fund?

You can get a useful rough estimate with three numbers: your balance, your annual drawdown above NZ Super, and an assumption about growth.

Start with the gap. Work out the income you want, subtract what NZ Super pays, and the remainder is what your KiwiSaver and other savings have to fund. NZ Super for a single person living alone is about $27,998 a year after tax ³; for a couple who both qualify it is about $43,074 a year combined ⁴. If you want, say, $40,000 a year as a single person, the gap your savings cover is roughly $12,000 a year.

Then divide your balance by that gap. A $54,000 balance covering a $12,000 gap lasts about four to five years before growth, somewhat longer once returns are added. If the gap is smaller, the balance stretches much further. This is why two people with identical balances can be in very different positions: the one who spends less, or has other income, makes their money last far longer.

For anything beyond a back-of-the-envelope figure, Sorted's retirement calculator does the work properly. It lets you model how many years a balance lasts at different drawdown rates, alongside NZ Super, and test whether it reaches 90 versus 100 ⁹. It is free, independent, and a good first step before any conversation with an adviser.

How does NZ Super change how long your KiwiSaver lasts?

NZ Super is the reason most New Zealanders do not run out of money entirely, even with modest KiwiSaver balances. It is paid fortnightly for as long as you live and qualify, and it is adjusted to keep pace with the cost of living ¹⁰. In effect, it is a guaranteed, inflation-linked income floor underneath everything else.

Because NZ Super is lifelong, your KiwiSaver only has to fund the gap above it, not your whole spending. That changes the picture dramatically. Consider a single person and the same $54,000 balance, looking at two spending levels:

Figure (described): a line chart, "How long a KiwiSaver balance lasts at different withdrawal rates". The horizontal axis is years from age 65; the vertical axis is the remaining balance. One line shows a fixed-dollar drawdown depleting the balance steadily; a second line shows a 4% drawdown lasting much longer; a third shows a 6% drawdown running down faster. A shaded band marks where NZ Super continues for life after the balance is gone, illustrating that personal savings top up a guaranteed income rather than replacing it. Modelled from the Sorted retirement calculator ⁹ and Stats NZ life expectancy ¹².

The table understates how long the money lasts, because it ignores growth on the balance that is still invested. But it makes the key point: the smaller your gap above NZ Super, the longer your KiwiSaver stretches. Reducing planned spending, or having other income, often does more for longevity than chasing higher returns.

What withdrawal rate makes a balance last to 90 vs 100?

The withdrawal rate is the percentage of your balance you draw in the first year, then adjust for inflation. It is the lever that most strongly determines how long money lasts. As a rough guide, lower rates last longer:

• A drawdown of around 4% a year has historically had a good chance of lasting 25 to 30 years, which covers a retirement from 65 to 90 or beyond.
• A drawdown of around 6% a year funds more spending now but runs the balance down faster, with a real risk of depleting it within 15 to 20 years.
• A fixed dollar amount that does not flex with markets sits somewhere in between, and becomes riskier the larger it is relative to the balance.

These are general patterns, not guarantees. The right rate for you depends on your balance, your other income, how long you might live, and how much market movement you can tolerate. Crucially, because NZ Super keeps paying for life, drawing your KiwiSaver down to zero by, say, 88 is not the same as being destitute — you still have NZ Super underneath. Some people deliberately spend their KiwiSaver faster in early "active" retirement, knowing NZ Super continues; others draw more cautiously to keep a reserve for later-life costs such as care. Both can be reasonable; it is a personal trade-off.

Our guide to the safe withdrawal rate in NZ goes deeper on how to set a rate, and the KiwiSaver drawdown options guide covers the practical ways to set up regular payments after 65.

What happens if markets fall early in your retirement?

The timing of returns matters as much as their average. A poor run of markets in the first few years of retirement does far more damage than the same run later on. This is called sequence-of-returns risk, and it catches people out because the long-run average return can look fine while the order of returns quietly wrecks the plan ⁸.

The reason is simple. When you are drawing an income, every withdrawal during a downturn sells investments at a low price and locks in the loss, leaving fewer units to recover when markets rebound. The balance is also at its largest in early retirement, so a fall then is a fall on the most money. Two retirees with the same average return over 25 years can end up in very different places purely because one met a bad market early.

There are sensible ways to manage this. Holding one to two years of spending in cash or term deposits means you can draw from cash through a downturn instead of selling growth assets at a loss, while keeping some growth assets for the long haul helps the balance recover and stay ahead of inflation. The Retirement Commission's Sorted tools let you model drawdown over different horizons and see the effect of a weaker start ⁸. The point is not to avoid markets, but to avoid being forced to sell into them at the wrong time. Returns are not guaranteed and the value of investments can go down as well as up.

How do you avoid outliving your money?

No plan can promise your money lasts forever, but several things meaningfully reduce the risk of outliving it:

• Plan to a realistic age. Use at least 90, and stress-test to 100, given how many people now reach their late 80s and beyond ².
• Set a sustainable withdrawal rate and adjust it if markets or your spending change, rather than drawing a fixed amount regardless of how the balance is tracking.
• Lean on NZ Super as the floor. It is lifelong and inflation-linked ¹⁰, so your savings only need to fund the gap above it — which is the single biggest reason most people do not fully run out.
• Keep a cash buffer of one to two years' spending so you are not forced to sell growth assets in a downturn.
• Keep some growth in the mix. Over a 25-to-30-year retirement, holding everything in cash risks inflation slowly eroding what your money buys.
• Watch the benchmarks. Massey University's guidelines estimate a single homeowner in a main city needs about $271,000 on top of NZ Super for a comfortable retirement to age 90, and a couple about $1.14 million ⁷. Comparing your balance to those figures shows how big a gap NZ Super and any other income need to bridge.

Many people approaching 65 now leave their KiwiSaver invested and draw it down gradually rather than cashing it out — FMA data shows more than 184,000 non-contributing members are already aged over 65 ⁶. Drawing down gradually, rather than taking a lump sum and parking it in a low-interest account, is often what helps a balance last longer.

How often should you recheck whether you're on track?

A drawdown plan is not "set and forget". Markets move, spending changes, and your own outlook on how long you might live shifts as the years pass. A sensible rhythm is to review at least once a year, and after any large market move.

At each review, the questions are straightforward. Is your balance running down faster or slower than expected? Has your spending changed? Are you still comfortable with how your money is invested? Are you on the right PIR (Prescribed Investor Rate, the tax rate on your KiwiSaver and PIE earnings), since many people move to a lower band in retirement? Small adjustments made early — trimming a withdrawal rate, topping up a cash buffer — are far easier than large corrections made once a problem is obvious.

If you want a second opinion, our guide to KiwiSaver decumulation and drawdown covers the mechanics in detail, and our guide to how much you need to retire in NZ helps you set the target your balance is working towards.

KiwiSaver is a long-term savings scheme. Government contributions, contribution rates, withdrawal rules and tax (PIR) settings are set by the Government and can change. Figures are correct as at 25 February 2026. Check current rules at ird.govt.nz, kiwisaver.govt.nz and sorted.org.nz, and the relevant scheme's Product Disclosure Statement.

Frequently asked questions

How long will an average KiwiSaver balance last in retirement? It depends almost entirely on how much you draw above NZ Super. The average balance for those aged 61–65 is about $54,000 ⁵. Drawn at $10,000 a year above NZ Super it lasts roughly five years before growth; drawn at $4,000 a year it can stretch past a decade, longer once investment returns are added. Because NZ Super keeps paying for life ¹⁰, running a balance down is not the same as running out of income.

How much does NZ Super pay, and is it enough to live on? NZ Super for a single person living alone is about $27,998 a year after tax ³, and about $43,074 a year combined for a couple who both qualify ⁴. Whether that is "enough" depends on your lifestyle. Massey University's guidelines suggest many people want more than NZ Super alone for a comfortable retirement, which is the gap your KiwiSaver and other savings are there to fill ⁷.

What withdrawal rate will make my balance last to 90? As a general pattern, a drawdown of around 4% a year has historically had a good chance of lasting 25 to 30 years, covering retirement from 65 to 90 and beyond. A 6% rate funds more now but risks depleting the balance within 15 to 20 years. These are illustrations, not guarantees, and the right rate depends on your circumstances, other income and tolerance for market movement.

What is sequence-of-returns risk? It is the risk that a poor run of market returns early in retirement does outsized damage, because withdrawals during a downturn sell investments at a loss while the balance is largest ⁸. Holding a cash buffer of one to two years' spending, so you are not forced to sell growth assets in a fall, is a common way to manage it. Returns are not guaranteed and can go down as well as up.

Should I leave my KiwiSaver invested after 65 or take it all out? Both are options, and many people now leave it invested and draw it down gradually — FMA data shows over 184,000 members aged 65+ are no longer contributing but still hold balances ⁶. Drawing down gradually keeps the money working, whereas cashing out into a low-interest account can mean it lasts less long. Which suits you depends on your spending, other savings and comfort with markets, so it is worth getting advice tailored to your situation.

How do I work out how many years my own balance will fund? Sorted's retirement calculator lets you model how long a balance lasts at different drawdown rates, alongside NZ Super, and test whether it reaches 90 or 100 ⁹. It is free and independent. For a plan built around your own goals, tax position and other savings, a drawdown review with an adviser goes a step further.

This article is general information only and is not personalised financial advice. It does not take into account your particular financial situation, goals or needs. Before acting, consider whether it's right for you and seek advice tailored to your circumstances. Craig Smith Business Services Ltd (FSP712931), trading as Smiths Financial, holds a Class 2 licence issued by the Financial Markets Authority and is a member of the Financial Dispute Resolution Service (FDRS). Written by Henry Smith, Financial Adviser; reviewed by Craig Smith, Principal Adviser. Last reviewed 25 February 2026.