One of the biggest dilemmas people face in retirement is the unknown. But with some early planning, you can successfully get on track, and stay on track, for a happy transition from work to play.
The facts
Every hard working Aussie wants to finish working with enough to live an enjoyable retirement. But studies show Australians have a 13-year shortfall in their retirement savings, most commonly due to longer life expectancies. Whilst living longer is great, the plans once made by older generations are now insufficient for today’s working population.
While Centrelink benefits will provide a subsistence lifestyle at best, it’s certainly not the lifestyle many envisaged for their golden years. Simply depending on the Government to support us through retirement is becoming increasingly unrealistic and this problem will continue to worsen.
The harsh reality? Many people are unaware of these retirement pitfalls. And sadly, finding out at 60 or 65 when the best part of your working career is over can be too late to make any real changes.
The Clarity Financial Planning Checklist:
Our retirement checklist will help you plan ahead and prepare for retirement when the time comes.
Get advice early
1. As a minimum, we recommend all Australians sit down with a Certified Financial Planner ® to ascertain if they’re on track towards reaching a comfortable income during retirement. Australians’ retirement savings and investments will, on average, run completely dry within just 10 years of finishing work, alarming new studies show.
Good advice = good investment
2. Once you at least know whether you are on track, you now have time to, if required, improve on the projected outcome and accumulate the money you need to fund the lifestyle you wish to live during retirement.
Make your own luck
3. Like most things in life, success rarely happens by accident. There will be the odd person who inherits a substantial amount of wealth to help fund their retirement, but the boring reality for most is that their future is in their own hands.
Take advantage of your entitlements
4. Legislation changes every single year and most Australian’s are simply unaware of the financial opportunities available to them. From boosting your super, to saving thousands of dollars of tax, or using equity in your home to help grow your wealth, find out what is available to you.
Create a retirement strategy
5. Put a strategy in place to reach your retirement goals. A good adviser uses available legislation opportunities and investment tools to help you create a written step-by-step plan to achieve the retirement you want.
Do some research
6. People often remain with the default super fund they’ve been given without realising that all super funds are not created equally. A good fund versus a bad fund can make a huge difference to your retirement outcome in the long run.
Protect yourself
7. Contributing to your super throughout your working life depends on you actually working, but people often neglect to protect their income. Without insurance, you are putting not only your current lifestyle at risk, but also your future lifestyle as well.
The reality is that for most, financial security in retirement doesn’t just happen – it takes planning.
If you are in the majority of Australians who aren’t on track for retirement, you can still empower yourself with the reality of where you are headed and make changes while you are still working.
Want to learn how you can achieve your financial goals?