It’s not about retirement
Are you too young and busy to know whether you even WANT to retire yet, let alone when and how? Like most 30 and 40-somethings, have you filed superannuation in the too hard basket? Because who knows what you’ll be doing in 5 years, let alone 20 or 30?
Well, forget retirement for a minute. Just think of your Super as your future “passive, tax free income” to draw on fully, or partially, to fund your lifestyle when you want to take the pressure off.
When you let yourself think that far ahead, you’ll likely ask yourself:
- When can I access the money?
- How much income will it give me?
- How long will it last?
Before you even get there, you may need to figure out how much income you’re going to need. If you’ve got no idea how much you spend now, let alone what you’ll need then, the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) can give you some guidance. For example, they say the average couple in Canberra will need around $58,000 in today’s dollars to live a “comfortable” retirement that includes occasional overseas holidays, a reasonable car, health insurance and the like. Here’s how they break it down:
You can look at other states and options here, and likely figure out just how far you are from “average” from a quick skim of these figures:
Then, head over to the “Will My Super Savings Be Enough Calculator”, to work out how long your money is going to last you (and how dependent you might be on the government providing an Age Pension by the time you get there!). We’ve done a case study if you want to check out how to use the Calculator…
Long and the short is, as you get closer to the magical figure of 60 (it’s earlier for some, so make sure you know your dates) the more critical it is to take control and maximise how much is in your Fund to give you the lifestyle you’re after. Thing is, the earlier you do it, the more freedom you’ll have!
We can show you how to use tax and often cost savings to get you a better outcome using an SMSF… chat to us today.
