For many of us, retirement may feel like an eternity away. Even if this is the case for you, it’s still important to start thinking of this stage of your life early to ensure you are prepared when it arrives. Here at Smarter Financial & Insurance Solutions in Port Macquarie, we are dedicated to helping our clients put a clear retirement plan in place. To help you better plan for retirement, our team of experts have put together a helpful summary of our top tips when it comes to retirement planning.
Retirement age & the Pension
Over the years, there have been many changes when it comes to the average retirement age in Australia. The age Australians can become eligible for the Age Pension has been gradually increasing year by year. From 1st July 2019, the eligibility age rose from 65 years and six months to 66 years, this is for anyone born from 1st January 1954 to 30th June 1955. It’s important not to purely rely on the Pension and to start putting a plan in place early to ensure your retirement lifestyle lives up to what you’ve been dreaming of. A good place to start is your superannuation strategy.
Superannuation & retirement
You may be many years if not decades away from retirement age, this doesn’t mean it’s too early to start thinking about your superannuation. The key to a strong retirement plan is your super and ensuring you can grow this to assist in comfortably reaching your retirement goals.
You may want to consider making voluntary super contributions to further grow your fund. Voluntary super contributions can come with many tax benefits, particularly for Australians earning higher bracket incomes. By voluntarily investing in your super, through concessional or non-concessional contributions, you are essentially lowering your present tax obligations while simultaneously contributing to your future retirement fund.
Understand your needs & make a plan
To develop a retirement plan that best reflects your goals, you must first consider your needs and the lifestyle you want to live. A few important questions to ask yourself include:
- What is your preferred retirement lifestyle and what figure will you need to achieve it?
- Are there ways you can control your costs? For example, purchasing and paying off your property will mean you won’t have rent costs to worry about during retirement.
- What does your timeline towards retirement look like?
Put your retirement plan into action
It’s never too early to start thinking about retirement and putting strategies in place to ensure you can better reach your retirement goals. The team of experts here at Smarter Financial & Insurance Solutions in Port Macquarie regularly assist our clients to form their retirement plan. For all enquiries and to start your retirement plan, be sure to get in touch with us today on 02 6584 2166.