April 9, 2026 • 7 mins
It's important to make the right choices where it counts - and downsizing for retirement is one of those key decisions.
One expert says it's important to make sure you start planning the journey before you're ready, in order to make the right choices.
Age Brightly founder Hannah McQueen joined the Afternoons team to explain further.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from news Talk zed B.
Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
We aren't talking about downsize, and it's based on an
article written by Hannah McQueen, the director and founder of
age Brightly, and she joins us now, Hannah, very good
afternoon to you, Hi, Dare.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
When is the best time to downsize, Hannah, R Really.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
Before you want to? If I'm being honest, I think
we tend to leave it quite late for a lot
of reasons. It's a pain, it's probably traumatic for some.
Why would you want to do it sooner? Well, the
reason you want to do it sooner is most of
us need to actually get that downsize financial equation to work,
and when you leave that too late, the opposite working
(00:51):
don't pan out.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Are people realistic about how much money they will make
from their downsize.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Hannah, No, my experiences, we tend to overstate what we
get for our home and understate what we're going to
pay for the next home. And some of the reasons
for that is often the home you will leave like
it might be a large family home on a big section,
but the people who can afford that property, the market
of those people is smaller than the market you're moving to,
(01:18):
so you can feel like you're giving up a lot, right,
maybe moving from that to a townhouse or a three
bedroom with it, you know, a teeny tai section. The
sacrifice is monumental, but the financial gain doesn't usually mirror
what you're given up. So, and you're also moving to
a market that is fuller, so more people in it,
which is pushing the price up for what you're paying
(01:39):
for as well.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Interesting, So how much should people depend on the downsize
for their retirement?
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Yeah, well that's I guess that's an individual question. Most
Kiwis run out of money kind of in their seventies,
right like they had ki Wei say that that eggs
out a little bit and then the well is dry,
and so then they have to try and live on
the pension, which is tricky. It's possible, but it's tricky
and for me, I would think kind of hard. So
(02:09):
then you go to where's the money going to come from? Well,
it needs to come from your home unless you've got
other assets. So you've got to sell your home or
you've got to get a reverse mortgage. Both of those
have problems. Risks attached to it. How do you manage that? Well,
if you need, like what's the pinchon twenty five grand
a year, so you're a couple, that's fifty grand. Both
people kind of want to have a little bit more
(02:32):
than that. So even if that's another twenty grand a
year that you need to get from somewhere, Well, if
you're seventy, we need to fund your retirement till ninety
twenty grand a year, what have we got. We've got
twenty years. That's four hundred grand we need from downsizing.
I think that's the equation. Well, you've got to play
that trump card well if you're going to play it,
but most people will don't play it well. And it's
(02:54):
oh nothing worse than someone who doesn't play the trump
card at the right side.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Right, Yeah, I mean it must be hard for people
when they reach retirement or even into their seventies and
they want to downsize, but to give up what they've
had for a long time, and maybe they want to
downsize to a new build, then they've got to give
up all their possessions that they've spent a lifetime acquiring.
So they are all difficult decisions, right Imagine for a
lot of people. Yes, they're looking at how much money
they need for retirement, but also they don't want to
(03:18):
have a downgrade in their lifestyle.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Yeah, that's right. It's a difficult process to go through.
It's normally quite exhausting. You normally have to shed about
seventy percent of your possessions that you have worked really
hard to build. So the emotional side of it isn't
lost on me. But the reason why you downsize earlier
is so that you can maintain the lifestyle that you want.
What happens when you downsize later is often it's forced
(03:45):
on you. And so that means someone has a fall,
they go into hospital, and then they need to be
in a rest home. Well, you don't have money to
buy them a care bed, so you've got to downsize
the home. That happens so often, and you're making these
sort of flurry of decisions amongst huge emotional stress, and
that's when you have to drop your pants, and people
(04:07):
take advantage of that. So the impact is if we
don't do it sooner or earlier, you're not in control
of that process. And if you want to invest in
your health so that you stay out of hospital in
the first place, that also takes the money that the
pension is unlikely to forge you.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
It's a bit of a catch twenty twenty catch twenty
two situations when it comes to grandkids and stuff, though
I mentioned because you want to have you have this
view of your house as you're paying it off, and
you imagine kids coming home with their kids, Christmases in
the house, people playing on the lawn, lovely all that
kind of stuff, so very hard to go. This is
(04:45):
the financially best time to do it, as opposed to
this is the emotionally and best family time to do it.
If you see what I'm.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
Saying, Absolutely the two bever meet right. Like, the best
time to actually downsize your home from a financial perspective
is probably when the kids move out. And I get
we've got the romance of them coming back for Christmas
and all of that, but for one or two time
a year for some people locking up all that capital.
To be honest, as normally it's normally experience anyway, you have.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
The romance of when you're sitting at home by yourself
at Christmas and they've gone to the other the other
side of the family's house.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
Yeah, and a lot of people can't even keep up
with the maintenance on the house, right, like it actually
is too big a deal. And then the family come
and it's a working bee every time. It's I think
that there are a lot of emotions, you know, even
the kids might have the romance of keeping the family
home around. Why would you downsize? That seems crazy? Well,
(05:45):
you're doing it because there's a risk that the decision
is going to be taken away from you. But when
I did work around people who enter rest homes, you know,
so that's when you kind of that's not independent living.
That's when you need a nurse to look after you.
Seventy percent of people who arrived at the rest home
weren't expecting to be there only two weeks before. Oh wow,
(06:07):
something had happened, and then it's like, oh, here we go,
and we're trying to prevent that thing from happening. And
sometimes the home is the risk to these people right back.
If the home safety's you know, if you've got two stories,
or or there's just say a lot of maintenance to
be done well, that can create fall's risks for people.
(06:27):
So you accidentally fall over maintaining the house that the
family is supposed to come into long Christmas Day, and
then you're in hospital, and then you're in a rest home.
This is the grim reality. And if we come back
to that home, you have spent your life paying off
that mortgage, and good for you. Let's make sure the
(06:48):
next twenty five years of retirement are good years. It
upsets me when I see people that have this beautiful
house but no money. They don't even are too scared
to spend money, or they don't have liquidity to spend money.
What's that all about. We've just got to get the
balance a bit better.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
What we need to do is either take the Hallmark
view out of life or bring back the granny cottage.
I think my kids need to put up a granddad
cottage for me and the next.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
You're looking forward to that you've spoken about that before.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
They can start building our twenty years. I mean, I
mean still at high school, but still they need to starting.
They need to think about me and my retirement.
Speaker 5 (07:26):
Yeah, that's when your kids can be an investment for you, right,
they can actually give you a return, because at the
moment it's the other way straight return.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
So far sit for emotional returns.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah, you nicely said, Hey, Hannah, great to catch up.
Thank you very much. It's a great article and we
will catch up again soon. That is Hannah McQueen. She
is the founder and director of Age Brightly. You can
ever read of that article on the Hero.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
For more from News Talk Said B. Listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to a podcast from news Talk zed B.
Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
We aren't talking about downsize, and it's based on an
article written by Hannah McQueen, the director and founder of
age Brightly, and she joins us now, Hannah, very good
afternoon to you, Hi, Dare.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
When is the best time to downsize, Hannah, R Really.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
Before you want to? If I'm being honest, I think
we tend to leave it quite late for a lot
of reasons. It's a pain, it's probably traumatic for some.
Why would you want to do it sooner? Well, the
reason you want to do it sooner is most of
us need to actually get that downsize financial equation to work,
and when you leave that too late, the opposite working
(00:51):
don't pan out.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Are people realistic about how much money they will make
from their downsize.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Hannah, No, my experiences, we tend to overstate what we
get for our home and understate what we're going to
pay for the next home. And some of the reasons
for that is often the home you will leave like
it might be a large family home on a big section,
but the people who can afford that property, the market
of those people is smaller than the market you're moving to,
(01:18):
so you can feel like you're giving up a lot, right,
maybe moving from that to a townhouse or a three
bedroom with it, you know, a teeny tai section. The
sacrifice is monumental, but the financial gain doesn't usually mirror
what you're given up. So, and you're also moving to
a market that is fuller, so more people in it,
which is pushing the price up for what you're paying
(01:39):
for as well.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Interesting, So how much should people depend on the downsize
for their retirement?
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Yeah, well that's I guess that's an individual question. Most
Kiwis run out of money kind of in their seventies,
right like they had ki Wei say that that eggs
out a little bit and then the well is dry,
and so then they have to try and live on
the pension, which is tricky. It's possible, but it's tricky
and for me, I would think kind of hard. So
(02:09):
then you go to where's the money going to come from? Well,
it needs to come from your home unless you've got
other assets. So you've got to sell your home or
you've got to get a reverse mortgage. Both of those
have problems. Risks attached to it. How do you manage that? Well,
if you need, like what's the pinchon twenty five grand
a year, so you're a couple, that's fifty grand. Both
people kind of want to have a little bit more
(02:32):
than that. So even if that's another twenty grand a
year that you need to get from somewhere, Well, if
you're seventy, we need to fund your retirement till ninety
twenty grand a year, what have we got. We've got
twenty years. That's four hundred grand we need from downsizing.
I think that's the equation. Well, you've got to play
that trump card well if you're going to play it,
but most people will don't play it well. And it's
(02:54):
oh nothing worse than someone who doesn't play the trump
card at the right side.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Right, Yeah, I mean it must be hard for people
when they reach retirement or even into their seventies and
they want to downsize, but to give up what they've
had for a long time, and maybe they want to
downsize to a new build, then they've got to give
up all their possessions that they've spent a lifetime acquiring.
So they are all difficult decisions, right Imagine for a
lot of people. Yes, they're looking at how much money
they need for retirement, but also they don't want to
(03:18):
have a downgrade in their lifestyle.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Yeah, that's right. It's a difficult process to go through.
It's normally quite exhausting. You normally have to shed about
seventy percent of your possessions that you have worked really
hard to build. So the emotional side of it isn't
lost on me. But the reason why you downsize earlier
is so that you can maintain the lifestyle that you want.
What happens when you downsize later is often it's forced
(03:45):
on you. And so that means someone has a fall,
they go into hospital, and then they need to be
in a rest home. Well, you don't have money to
buy them a care bed, so you've got to downsize
the home. That happens so often, and you're making these
sort of flurry of decisions amongst huge emotional stress, and
that's when you have to drop your pants, and people
(04:07):
take advantage of that. So the impact is if we
don't do it sooner or earlier, you're not in control
of that process. And if you want to invest in
your health so that you stay out of hospital in
the first place, that also takes the money that the
pension is unlikely to forge you.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
It's a bit of a catch twenty twenty catch twenty
two situations when it comes to grandkids and stuff, though
I mentioned because you want to have you have this
view of your house as you're paying it off, and
you imagine kids coming home with their kids, Christmases in
the house, people playing on the lawn, lovely all that
kind of stuff, so very hard to go. This is
(04:45):
the financially best time to do it, as opposed to
this is the emotionally and best family time to do it.
If you see what I'm.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
Saying, Absolutely the two bever meet right. Like, the best
time to actually downsize your home from a financial perspective
is probably when the kids move out. And I get
we've got the romance of them coming back for Christmas
and all of that, but for one or two time
a year for some people locking up all that capital.
To be honest, as normally it's normally experience anyway, you have.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
The romance of when you're sitting at home by yourself
at Christmas and they've gone to the other the other
side of the family's house.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
Yeah, and a lot of people can't even keep up
with the maintenance on the house, right, like it actually
is too big a deal. And then the family come
and it's a working bee every time. It's I think
that there are a lot of emotions, you know, even
the kids might have the romance of keeping the family
home around. Why would you downsize? That seems crazy? Well,
(05:45):
you're doing it because there's a risk that the decision
is going to be taken away from you. But when
I did work around people who enter rest homes, you know,
so that's when you kind of that's not independent living.
That's when you need a nurse to look after you.
Seventy percent of people who arrived at the rest home
weren't expecting to be there only two weeks before. Oh wow,
(06:07):
something had happened, and then it's like, oh, here we go,
and we're trying to prevent that thing from happening. And
sometimes the home is the risk to these people right back.
If the home safety's you know, if you've got two stories,
or or there's just say a lot of maintenance to
be done well, that can create fall's risks for people.
(06:27):
So you accidentally fall over maintaining the house that the
family is supposed to come into long Christmas Day, and
then you're in hospital, and then you're in a rest home.
This is the grim reality. And if we come back
to that home, you have spent your life paying off
that mortgage, and good for you. Let's make sure the
(06:48):
next twenty five years of retirement are good years. It
upsets me when I see people that have this beautiful
house but no money. They don't even are too scared
to spend money, or they don't have liquidity to spend money.
What's that all about. We've just got to get the
balance a bit better.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
What we need to do is either take the Hallmark
view out of life or bring back the granny cottage.
I think my kids need to put up a granddad
cottage for me and the next.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
You're looking forward to that you've spoken about that before.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
They can start building our twenty years. I mean, I
mean still at high school, but still they need to starting.
They need to think about me and my retirement.
Speaker 5 (07:26):
Yeah, that's when your kids can be an investment for you, right,
they can actually give you a return, because at the
moment it's the other way straight return.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
So far sit for emotional returns.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah, you nicely said, Hey, Hannah, great to catch up.
Thank you very much. It's a great article and we
will catch up again soon. That is Hannah McQueen. She
is the founder and director of Age Brightly. You can
ever read of that article on the Hero.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
For more from News Talk Said B. Listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio.
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