Glossary
The words that come up when you look at your future across New Zealand, Australia and the United States, each defined in a sentence or two. Every term links to the guides that use it.
Access age
The age from which money in a retirement savings account is yours to take out.
Age Pension means test
Australia tests the Age Pension twice, on what you own and on what you earn, and pays the lower answer.
Condition of release
Something that has to be true before money in an Australian super fund can be paid out to you.
Contributions
What goes into a retirement savings account from your pay each year, as a share of your salary before tax.
De-risking
Moving savings into safer, lower-growth investments in the years before you can access them, so a market drop right before you need the money hurts less.
Deeming
How Australia's Age Pension income test treats financial investments: it assumes they earn a set rate of income, no matter what they actually earn.
Indexation
Government pensions rising over time instead of staying at today's amount.
Preservation age
The age from which you can take money out of Australian super once you have retired.
Social Security claim age
When you start taking Social Security. Earlier means a smaller payment for life; later means a bigger one.
Social Security trust fund shortfall
The Social Security trust fund is projected to run down around 2032, which would trigger an automatic cut of roughly 22% to 28% unless Congress acts.
Tax on 401(k) and IRA withdrawals
Money taken out of a 401(k) or traditional IRA counts as income and is taxed.
The bridge
Years between stopping work and your accounts opening up, when only cash and income can cover you.
Today's dollars
Two ways of showing an amount of money in a future year. Today's dollars: what the money is worth in today's buying power.
Totalisation
Counting time in one country towards a pension in another, under an agreement between the two, to help you meet a residence or work requirement.