So when you say, “seems simple to me” and say that the amount you get at age 65 depends on how long you lived in New Zealand, can you give me an example of how many years a person has to live in NZ before age 65 in order to draw their entire pension?

This whole thread got started when a New Zealander told me that he was going to get nearly nothing at age 65, if he tried to exercise his freedom of living abroad … becuase he had lived abroad … and paid NZ taxes for most of his working life. In other words, his pension was effectively locked away in the “home country”.

As a rule you won’t see me being an “Ugly American” and touting the wonders of the USA … we Yanks certainly have our problems too … but I certainly do value the fact that even though I lived outside the US for many of my working years, I don’t have to meet any age or residency gate in order to draw the annuity I have earned. Also, my wife became a naturalized US citizen, we left the country 30 days later … no “after naturalization” waiting period at all … there’s good and bad in all of them I suppose.

I did not know there were two distinct Canadian plans like that … the US has essentially both systems rolled into one. There is a minimum you will get if you worked sa total of 10 years at minimum wage from birth until retirement age, and then the amount over and above the basic minimum is dependent on how much you contributed in taxes over the course of those working years. So it’s semi-effort based and semi-safety net based.

The sad thing about the US Social Security system which is nowadays shared by those who hate Roosevelt for starting it or hate Roosevelt for not making in bigger is, it was never, in anyone’s wildest dreams meant to be a 100% old age pension program …and yet today there are hundreds of thousand sof folks with nothing except social security. Sad. (by the way, growing up in a household more right-winged than George Bush and Rush Limbaugh rolled together, I never heard of a single person … including my parents .. turning _down_ their socialistic, pinko-commie-liberal social security check. Perhaps I will meet someone like that before I die, but in the meantime, I happily en cash mine

Perhaps one of our UK readers can clarify this but I am guessing the UK recently liberalized a ‘must live ijn the UK’ pension rule, becuase over the past year I must have seen a dozen features on the BBC as well as in newspapers here regarding UK retirees who suddenly discovered Philippine retirement .. both couples and single folks.

Interesting story about the New Zealand pensions. Here in Canada we have some similar rules as well. Canadians generally are entitiled to two basic government pensions.

1. Old Age Security

2. Canada Pension Plan

The amount of the second one is based on how much you contributed over the course of your working life and is deducted from your salary or paid at tax time if you’re self-employed. The Old Age Security is a fixed amount set by the government and based on reaching the age of 65.

I believe (but am not 100% sure) that the Old Age Security requires that you be in Canada for at least 6 months of the year. I think the Canada Pension has no such requirement since you’ve paid into it much like a private pension but I could be wrong.

I read yesterday that Canada’s government pensions are the most securely funded in the world but they are also the lowest paying in the western world.

BTW as far as I know the term ” superannuation ” here in Canada refers to an additional pension that is for federal government employees only, the cost of which comes from the additional payroll deductions they have to pay.

Although certain aspects of what they do are restricted, by law, to retired military and retired US civil service, many other support activities are _not_ restricted .. example, the Angles RAO is the only place I know of in the Philippines where on can get a US TIN for a Filipino spouse. Militray or not, they are a great resource. Thanks.