How To Ensure There’s “Gold” In Your “Golden Years”
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It’s exciting when you’re thinking about your dream retirement. It’s that time of your life when you can start doing all of the things you’ve always wanted to do. But while the possibilities of life after work are endless, it typically takes a lot more preparation than you might think. Besides, you definitely want to ensure there’s enough in the retirement kitty to do everything on your bucket list, right?
Whether you’ve just started out in the workforce, or you’re only a couple of years away from retirement age, it’s never too early to start thinking about your golden years. So no matter what your future goals for your retirement are, here are a few tips for financial planning today that will go a long way for your tomorrow.
Develop a workable plan
Like any chapter in life, preparation is key. That’s because creating a long-term financial plan is the cornerstone to supporting yourself and enjoying a successful retirement. Planning may not seem like the most exciting aspect of retirement, but it’s by far the most important. It goes a long way to ensuring you’re ready for life after 9 to 5.
You don’t really want to still be paying off a mortgage or any other major debts after retiring, so think about how you can reduce debt first and make sure to factor it into your timing. Retiring with fewer expenses will make life much more affordable. So, think hard about how you’d like to live and what you’d like to do during your retirement, so you can find ways to grow your income to make those dreams a reality potentially.
Plan to live a long time
Humans are living longer now than ever before in history. Many people in Australia can expect to live to an average age of about 85 years old. And around half of us will actually live even longer. That means if you’re planning on finishing work at the retirement age of 65, you need to have enough money to last at least 20 or so years.
The challenge will be to ensure you have enough savings. Remember too that you’re allowed to retire whenever you decide that you want to. Also, you don’t have to make it an all or nothing situation. Many older people actually choose to ease themselves into their golden years rather than walking away from work completely and making a clean break.
Leave behind a legacy
Even though we may all live for longer, it’s still important for many of us to have a plan for what happens after we’re gone. Adding a life insurance as well to your assets is definitely an ideal option to face the uncertainty. Also, your super is dealt with separately from your estate, so you need to make sure the nominations for your super benefit are current.
The last thing you want is a will dispute over your super when you’re no longer around. Don’t forget to appoint someone you trust to act on your behalf as an enduring power of attorney. Just in case you become seriously ill, and you’re unable to make decisions for yourself.
Get your super sorted
A lot of retired Aussies rely on a combination of government entitlements and superannuation for their income. So, it’s never too early to start taking your super seriously. While your employer should already be making compulsory contributions into your super account, you can also top it up a little yourself. Or you can invest some before-tax income into your super through salary sacrificing, which will be taxed lower than usual.
Also, make sure to avoid paying extra fees by consolidating multiple super funds into one super account. You might even be able to continue making super contributions when you’re over 65 as well. Either way, the more you can invest into your super before you retire, the more you’ll have access to when you decide to retire.
