New Zealand, Australia and the United States
Where does retirement income come from?
From three places, and every one of these countries is built the same way. There is a government payment, which you qualify for by age plus either residence or a record of paying in. There is money you built up through work, in KiwiSaver, Australian super or a US 401(k) or IRA. And there is everything else you own or earn, which nobody administers for you. The first two have rules you can look up and dates you can plan around. The third is whatever you have made of it.
The three parts
A government payment
- NZ Superannuation
- Age Pension
- Social Security
Qualified for by age, plus residence or a record of paying in
Savings built through work
- KiwiSaver
- Australian super
- 401(k), IRA
Built up while working, reachable from a set age
Everything else
- Savings
- Property
- Work you keep doing
No agency, no rules, no fixed date
Almost every retirement question is really a question about one of those three, or about how two of them affect each other.
The government payment
What it asks of you differs by country, and the difference is the point.
New Zealand pays it on age and residence. Section 7(1) of the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Act 2001 entitles you once you "attain the age of 65 years", with a residence test alongside it.
Australia starts the same way and adds means testing. Services Australia list the conditions as Age Pension age, "residence rules", "an income test" and "an assets test".
The United States asks instead what you paid in. The Social Security Administration counts credits, up to "four credits per year", and says "no one needs more than 40 credits for any Social Security benefit".
There is a fuller comparison in its own guide, because this single difference explains most of what follows in the rest of the library.
The savings you built at work
This is the part you accumulate while working, and the three countries build it very differently.
In New Zealand it is matched: you contribute from your pay, at 3.5%, 4%, 6%, 8% or 10%, and your employer contributes too.
In Australia it is your employer's duty whether you contribute or not. The ATO: "it's compulsory to pay your eligible employees SG at least 4 times a year", and "From 1 July 2025 this is 12% of their ordinary time earnings."
In the United States it is voluntary on both sides. A 401(k) is "a feature of a qualified profit-sharing plan that allows employees to contribute a portion of their wages", and it only exists if an employer offers one.
There is a separate guide comparing the three, including when each unlocks.
Everything else
The third part has no administrator, no eligibility page, and no fixed date. Savings outside a retirement scheme, a house, a business, money from continuing to work in some form.
It gets less attention than the other two because there are no rules to explain. It is also the only part the other two can tell you nothing about.
Why this matters more when you have lived in two countries
Each of the three exists separately in each country you have lived in, and they do not sit politely side by side.
A government payment in one country can be reduced by a government payment from another. Savings built in one country can be counted against a means tested pension in another. Years lived in one country can count towards qualifying in another, but only under an agreement between them, and only on that agreement's terms.
That is what the rest of these guides work through, one question at a time.
What this guide does not tell you
It does not tell you how much of each you will have, or how much you will need. Those depend on your own numbers, which is what the LifeScope tool is for.
It also leaves alone tax, which applies differently to each of the three in each country, and the many things outside retirement schemes that people fund retirement with.