Whether it's travelling, relocating, or beginning a new career, you need to take an active role in planning for your future.
These three tips can help guide you towards a financially successful retirement.
1. Identify your sources of income:
Qualifying for the Department of Human Services/Centrelink Age Pension will become more difficult in the future.
As a result, most of your retirement income will have to come from your personal savings and investments.
Make sure that you arrange your finances in such a way that you will maximize your Age Pension entitlements.
Retain maximum flexibility with your portfolio. Do not unnecessarily tie up access to your capital and keep away from large break costs.
2. Consider the factors that will have an effect on your savings:
Time: Plan to be around for a long time and to enjoy your retirement.
Include in your financial plans the likelihood that you will live well into your 90's. Your plans must provide you with an adequate level of increasing income and, at the same time, help to preserve your capital.
Inflation: A small annual inflation rate of 2% will reduce the purchasing power of your money by 40% over 20 years.
Include some growth investments such as good quality shares or property in your portfolio to give you real growth over the long term. Plan to hold onto these investments during market downturns.They will be the source of your long-term income and will need to grow over time in order to offset inflation. Consider the benefits of investing part of your superannuation in a guaranteed long term indexed annuity. Be aware of the higher rate at which Silver Inflation affects retirees.
Health: As you age you will find that you are spending more of your money on medical care.
It is a sad fact that as we age our bodies become frail. Thankfully, advances in medicine and patient care will continue to add to our quality of life and to our life expectancy. Medical expenses can be significant - especially if they are repeated and long term. There are hidden costs too such as transport to and from your doctor, specialist or hospital. Having to park your car in a parking station while visiting your specialist on the Terrace or when you visit your spouse in hospital is not free. Protect your income from the financial blows of illness by making sure that it is guaranteed.
3. Look after your partner when they will be on their own:
Why should a surviving partner be placed in the position of being forced to live on a lower income?
Plan for the second phase of your retirement. Plan for a time when there will be only one. Looking after your surviving spouse is an important part of your retirement income strategy and is certainly not something to be left until it happens.
How can we help?
50% of retirees who rely on a traditional "balanced fund" account based pension strategy will outlive their income.
This figure can be higher if during your retirement you have the misfortune to experience repeated market downturns, periods of low returns or high inflation.
If your retirement income is based on a simple, balanced fund invested account based pension, there will probably come a time when due to repeated adverse economic conditions, your assets become depleted to the point when your income will simply exhaust.
We may not be able to assist you to esure the sustainability of your retirement income if you seek our assistance after you have lost significant capital.
Our retirement income strategies will provide you with higher levels of sustainable income for longer than a simple account based pension. Our strategies are easy to understand and will not tie you down to investments that are expensive to maintain or difficult to get out of.
We specialise in financial strategies that provide our clients with increasing, long-term, sustainable retirement income - irrespective of market conditions.
Importantly, our financial strategies will ensure that your partner will be financially secure when you are no longer able to look after them.
