New research from National Seniors Australia (NSA) has revealed that financial concerns are weighing heavily on the minds of self-funded retirees, with emotional themes including feeling of invisibility, vulnerability, insecurity, worry and fear all registered as retiree responses.

In a survey of more than 500 self-funded retirees, the research showed more than three-quarters of the demographic (77 per cent) have concerns about the value of their investments, while 57 per cent have expressed concern about their ability to manage money long-term.

It pales in comparison to the number who expressed worry about the nation’s economy – with 86 per cent indicating that as a concern for self-funded retirees.

“These issues clearly underpin the concerns surrounding stability of retirement incomes based on accumulated funds and assets,” the report read.

Even those older Australians who had stable circumstances prior to the pandemic “are now exhibiting major fears”, NSA highlighted.

And these fears are, unfortunately well placed, with the highlighting of a number of negative financial trends, including: “The collapse and prolonged instability of the stock market; negative to zero returns on Super Guarantee (SG) balances; savings interest rates tracking downwards with the cash rate of 0.25 per cent; cuts to bank dividend; superannuation drawdowns; increased unemployment and even less job opportunities for older workers; slowing or cessation of business income, decreasing home ownership and loss of rental income; and disproportionately high deeming rates.”

As a result, older Australians are exhibiting lower and less stable income, which NSA says is likely to continue for as long as the national deficit is growing and financial and stock markets remain unstable.  

It means “self-funded retirees found themselves among groups impacted by COVID like small-business owners and casual workers, but with less time and capacity to improve their circumstances in the future”.

It argued that the distress that is being felt by Australians “who aspire to be independent of government support must be acknowledged and attended to”.