On January 19, the Sydney Morning Herald ran an article under this caption that reported on the results of a global survey by HSBC showing that the majority of Australians are not financially prepared for retirement.
The unfortunate reality for most of us is that our retirement savings will run out before we do and that means life on the Age Pension. While Australia has a world leading superannuation system, it hasn’t been in operation long enough to give baby boomers retiring over the last 5 and the next 5 years, a big enough super payout.
However there are a number of steps that people approaching retirement can implement if they want to boost their retirement funds. Some of the easier ones are:
Salary sacrifice to put more of your own money into your super fund.
Consolidate your super into one fund so you aren’t paying management fees to a number of super funds.
Transfer some of your non super assets into your super fund and save on tax.
Continue working either full or part time past your intended retirement age.
While the survey only looked at financial issues, the reality is that lifestyle issues are just as important as finances and again, most people had not given much thought to these.
It’s not too late to improve your chances of achieving a happy and satisfying retirement. Our book “The Rest of Your Life – How to Make it as Good as you Want”, gives you a range of very useful advice from a number of financial, health and lifestyle experts. ou can order a copy on the Home Page of this web site.
If you’d like to read the full Sydney Morning Herald article, go to this address:
http://www.smh.com.au/money/super-and-funds/australias-retirement-savings-gap-among-the-worlds-biggest-20150119-12t2l0.html