What the model assumes about New Zealand

This page collects every New Zealand-specific number the model starts from: when the state pension begins and how it behaves, what healthcare and long-term care cost, what a retired household spends, and how tax is worked out. The planner prefills each of them, and you can change any of them during setup. Amounts are in NZD at today's prices, and the same data files drive the simulation itself, so a figure you read here is the figure your plan runs on.

The state pension

Starts at 65. The planner uses this both as your default retirement age and as the start age of your state pension.

Source: Retirement Commission Te Ara Ahunga Ora (2026). See it.

With inflation, plus 1.0 points a year. New Zealand Superannuation is adjusted every April for price rises, and the law also keeps the couple rate at a set share of the average wage after tax. Because wages usually outgrow prices, payments have risen faster than inflation, by roughly one point a year.

Source: New Zealand Legislation (PCO) (2025). See it.

What a surviving partner keeps: 30% of the deceased's pension. NZ Super has no survivor payment. The widowed partner moves from the couple rate to the higher single rate, usually the living alone rate.

Source: Work and Income, Ministry of Social Development (2026). See it.

How the simulation pays and raises pensions: the income section of the technical reference. What changes at the first death: the couples section.

Healthcare

NZ$1,409 a year for each person, at 65. Health spending outside long-term care: visits, medicines, glasses, dental work and any premiums you pay yourself. The planner starts from this figure and moves it as you age.

Source: Fin-Ed Centre, Massey University (on Stats NZ HES 2022/23 data) (2025). See it.

How the model ages this figure: the expenses section of the technical reference.

Long-term care

NZ$84,990 a year out of your own pocket if you need residential care. You pay the full price until your savings run down far enough to qualify for help.

Source: Ministry of Health, New Zealand (2026). See it.

The model does not add the whole charge on top of your budget: the groceries, and for renters the housing, that a care home replaces are credited back. How the care model works.

What a retired household spends

NZ$1,809 + NZ$666/mo for one person, NZ$4,968 + NZ$1,225/mo for a couple. Essential spending plus everything-else spending, each month, excluding housing and healthcare, which the planner asks about separately. The prefills come from NZ Retirement Expenditure Guidelines 2025 (Massey University NZ Fin-Ed Centre), Choices budget, Metropolitan, one-person and two-person households.

Source: NZ Retirement Expenditure Guidelines 2025 (Massey University NZ Fin-Ed Centre), Choices budget, Metropolitan, one-person and two-person households (2026). See it.

What each budget covers and how spending changes with age: the expenses section of the technical reference.

Tax

The model recalculates your tax bill for every simulated year, using New Zealand's own scales, allowances and thresholds for the 2026 tax year, last read on 2026-07-29. The answers are checked against their calculator. Couples are assessed together where the rules allow it.

How New Zealand taxes a retirement plan lists every figure, the tax office page each one came from, and everything the model does not do there.

Everything we read

Every publication behind the pension, care, healthcare and budget figures above. The tax page carries its own references, one per figure.