MLC’s quarterly Wealth Sentiment Survey found almost half of Australian women consider taking a career break to raise children represents a barrier to accumulating sufficient retirement funds, with around two thirds of women taking more than two years out of the workforce to have kids.
Australians, on average, expect to retire with about $471,000, but women believe they will have only $390,000 while men project they will have $538,000.
The survey also found households with kids rated all barriers to retirement higher than those with no kids. Only 30 per cent of Aussies with children reported feeling they have enough funds to invest in retirement.
“The survey results highlight that more needs to be done across the board to ensure a comfortable retirement – particularly for families with kids. It’s important for families to not only consider their immediate budget, but also their future cash-flow,” said NAB’s general manager, corporate super, Lara Bourguignon.
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Another point to consider would be that a lot of women return part time rather than full time. Then they stay in that position because chasing promotions and higher salaries generally means going back to full time. A lot of employment positions are advertised as full time and employers don’t want to consider hiring someone part time. Or there’s the other extreme where women leaving a permanent position can then only find casual work. Casual work doesn’t offer the security mother’s need. I’ve seen both situations happen many times over.