How Much You Actually Need to Retire in 2026

Most people ask this like there is one magic number, yet the truth is that retirement maths starts with your lifestyle, your housing, and your timeline, because the difference between a simple life in a paid off home and a comfortable life in a main centre while paying rent sits in the hundreds of thousands.

Start with the baseline you already get

As at February 2026, New Zealand Super is paid fortnightly, and a common after tax reference point is the M tax code, where a single person living alone receives $1,076.84 per fortnight, and a couple who both qualify receives $828.34 per person per fortnight.

That equals about $538 per week for a single person living alone, and about $828 per week combined for a couple where both qualify, before adding any other income like KiwiSaver withdrawals, investments, or part time work.

Now compare that baseline with what retirees actually spend

Massey University’s Retirement Expenditure Guidelines give a grounded view of weekly spending, split into No Frills and Choices lifestyles, and split again into metro versus provincial, because location and lifestyle shift the weekly number more than most people expect.

In the 2025 guidelines (inflation adjusted to 30 June 2025), the weekly totals look like this:

One person, No Frills: $705 per week in metro and $581 per week in provincial areas, and One person, Choices: $791 per week in metro and $772 per week in provincial areas.

Two people, No Frills: $937 per week in metro and $1,061 per week in provincial areas, and Two people, Choices: $1,780 per week in metro and $1,243 per week in provincial areas.

That is the moment the retirement number becomes clear, because once you know your weekly spend target, retirement turns into a gap funding problem, where NZ Super covers part of the weekly spend and your KiwiSaver and investments cover the rest.

Turn the weekly gap into a lump sum you need

A simple rule of thumb uses a drawdown rate, where you spend a percentage of your starting balance each year and lift that spend with inflation, and Sorted’s Retirement Navigator shows the common 4% approach in plain terms.

Using the Massey weekly budgets above and the NZ Super weekly amounts that match current after tax M code rates, the weekly top up required looks like this, and the lump sums below show the extra nest egg needed to fund the gap at a 4% starting drawdown rate:

Single, No Frills, provincial: about $42 per week top up, which equates to about $55,000 of extra savings.
Single, No Frills, metro: about $167 per week top up, which equates to about $217,000 of extra savings.
Couple, No Frills, metro: about $109 per week top up, which equates to about $142,000 of extra savings.
Couple, No Frills, provincial: about $232 per week top up, which equates to about $302,000 of extra savings.
Couple, Choices, metro: about $952 per week top up, which equates to about $1.24 million of extra savings.

Those numbers often surprise people because they show two things at once, first that a modest retirement in a paid off home may require a smaller top up than people expect, and second that a comfortable retirement, especially in a main centre, drives a much larger top up than most people plan for.

Your timeline matters more than your guess

A practical planning window is 25 years from age 65 to age 90, and Massey uses that 65 to 90 frame in its rent cost modelling, which lines up with how many planners structure a first pass retirement plan.

If you expect a longer retirement, or if you want more certainty, the same weekly gap requires a larger lump sum, because the money has to last longer and you have to ride more market cycles.

The one question that changes everything

Do you expect to own your home in retirement or rent.

Massey highlights that future retirees are more likely to rent, and that rent uses a large slice of NZ Super, so renters often need a larger investment top up than homeowners, even before adding lifestyle upgrades.

A simple next step for 2026

Pick your weekly spending target using the No Frills versus Choices benchmarks as a reality check, confirm your expected housing situation, subtract your expected NZ Super, then model how your KiwiSaver and investments cover the remaining weekly gap using a drawdown approach like the 4% method shown in Sorted’s Retirement Navigator.

If you want a fast retirement number built around your actual KiwiSaver balance, expected NZ Super, and the lifestyle you want, Invicta Financial will map the weekly gap and turn it into a clear savings target.

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General information only.