Talk of Australians’ rising life expectancies has been making headlines as of late. The latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics projects a “life expectancy at birth” age of 79.9 for men and 84.3 for women. But representative body the Actuaries Institute said those who have already reached the age of 65 can expect to live longer than the population average, and said it is more likely that the life expectancy of those aged 65 now will be 86 for men and 89 for women. To further compound matters, independent government advisory body the Productivity Commission recently published these following statistics:

• the life expectancy for a baby born in 2012 is 94 years for a girl and 92 years for a boy
• the population aged 75 years or more is projected to rise by four million from 2012 to 2060, increasing from 6.4% to 14.4% of the population, and
• by 2060, there will be roughly 25 people aged 100 years or more to every 100 newborns (compared to just one centenarian now).

The crux of the issue is that Australians need to be financially prepared for at least a few more years, if not decades, in retirement.