Baby-boomers running out of money

AS MANY as half of Australia's baby boomers will run out of money in retirement and be reliant on the old-age pension, an expert has warned.

Baby-boomers running out of money

AS MANY as half of Australia's baby boomers will run out of money in retirement, an expert says.

Professor Sol Encel, in Adelaide to address the Australian Association of Gerontology's national conference on ageing, said that between a quarter and a half of people now aged 48-61 will be reliant on the old-age pension.

Professor Encel said latest figures from the Centre for Economic Modelling in Canberra showed that the top 25 per cent of baby boomer savers had put away about $1 million each, but that the bottom 25 per cent averaged savings of only $300,000.

"Finance experts will tell you (this amount) isn't going to last 25 years, which is the expected lifespan for 60-year-olds,'' Professor Encel said.

He said that boomers have already been defined by class, income and education and that these differences would be sharpened by loss of income and large differences in superannuation benefits.

"There are enormous variations in income, education, occupation, health and housing in the boomer population,'' he said.

"They are as diverse as any previous generation, as they age, their social situation will be dominated by class differences; it's absurd to lump boomers together as some homogenous block.''