Retirement Planning at 50-55: Where to Start

If you're in your early-to-mid 50s, retirement has probably gone from “someday” to “actually not that far away” - and the questions that come with it are pretty specific: how much do you really need, is it too late to catch up, and what should you be doing with the money you already have.

This page pulls together straight answers to the questions people in your position actually search for - not generic retirement tips, but the specific trade-offs that matter at this stage: catching up if you're starting later than you'd like, what to do with KiwiSaver, whether to prioritise the mortgage or your retirement savings, and what else is worth looking at beyond KiwiSaver altogether.

Every guide below ends the same way: a path to running the numbers on your actual situation, not a generic example. That's deliberate - this is information to help you think it through, not a verdict on what you should do.

Start here