Superannuation Discussion + market volatility

Pushka said:
But the older you get the less healthy that can be for some people to the extent you might not be able to travel at all if only Y. I know I'd be scared health wise flying long haul (>5 hours) now in Y.
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I'm in excellent health but I'm still scared of flying whY for any length of time...:shock::p.
 
Lovetravellingoz, great to hear you have the work life balance going well. I started the same process 18 months ago when my brother retired (aged 49) from our family business and as the sole remaining family member, I was then able to take my part of the business closer to home (10 mins, 3 kms from home). Not missing the 45+ mins each way to work anymore. Now start living more the life I wanted - spending more time with my wife and kids (as I had grown up having an absent father as he was building a business during my school years - but it took me years understand what he was doing and now to give him his dues, he succeeded).

Now I am loving my mature business and significantly fewer clients - I have more clarity about the kind of ideal client I want to retain (and find). I tend to all my clients superannuation and investments but don't forget my own. It's always the first planning I do each year to ensure I don't miss out. Because at age 60, I want to have a significant tax-free income and get back into travelling with my long-suffering wife, who deserves all I can give her. We intend to fly F RTW and be away for 6 months, so with 10 years to go, I'm starting the planning to have those funds ready for spending - a not insignificant amount :o

We will not be able to achieve all this without a significant balance in super between the two of us...which is now starting to take shape. Ensuring there are similar balances in retirement is also now meaning some changes to contributions between us (whereas it was more me earlier on because of the benefits of a family company and maximum contributions early on, now that level has to change). So a word to all out there, don't forget your spouse!
 
Our next Suites ride is Friday thanks to the Miles we used. No need to trouble "Cash At Bank" for quite a while.
 
I will leave someone with a deep wit to answer slinky and continue the conversation.

Retiring at 55 saw many peers overtly green with envy and dreaming of the golf course.
I told them all that it is not so simple and that many early retirees fall off their 18 hole perch with boredom.
The change from a high pressure life to a no pressure life often results in great difficulty , sometimes leading to very sad outcomes.

Many peers are still working , even while rolling in money , because their business consumed their life AND THEY KNOW NO OTHER.
I was fortunate, I retired with a game plan which I executed.
It was not all rosy, seeing the rewards continue to roll in around me while my income was finite had it's irritations.
Did a new toy or a bigger gin palace offset losing track of what day it was ? .. everyone will have a different answer.. :-)

The exec summary is to plan your life very carefully.. you only get one go at it.
 
Having a nest egg for retirement is critical but with the government regularly fiddling with the super rules, I would be interested in others thoughts on how others break up their portfolio of assets. I am part of a defined benefit fund so can't contribute to super at this point. And also question how much the rules will have changed by the time I get to retirement age!
 
cove said:
The superannuation problem ( if there is one) is caused by many thinking retiring at 67 will be ok when they don't have an annuity/pension to provide for the many years of life after pulling the pin on working.
There is no official retirement age in most occupations.
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It is all relative. My dad retired at 52 and mum was not yet 50. They have been living on unemployment, sickness benefits or pension for the past 27 years. They have had multiple trips to Greece and have enough to buy food for 4 people and still able to save.

Oh and no superannuation income. My dad had ~$12,000 in the 80's when he stopped working and moved it all into a CBA super account and lost ~$2,000 in first year. Must have been around the time property crashed. Never again.
 
tgh said:
..... many early retirees fall off their 18 hole perch with boredom. The change from a high pressure life to a no pressure life often results in great difficulty , sometimes leading to very sad outcomes.........
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My observation as a wife and my husband (56) is suddenly at home 24/7, he slept a lot for the first couple of months. Got to the point that I asked if he was feeling ok, was depressed, why is he having daily naps, nightly naps, falling asleep in the car, on the couch. I would come home and he tells me he slept most of the day.

For the first 2 weeks I also thought I was going to have to kill him as he was all in my business and stuffing up my morning home routine.

Its been about 4 months now and hes finally settling in a new routine and happy with its direction. Morning exercise (hes lost weight already), once a week meet up with Group A (work friends related), once a month meet up activity with Group B (hobby #1), couple of times per month for hobby #2 meetup (Group C) and hes building on this.
 
JohnK said:
It is all relative. My dad retired at 52 and mum was not yet 50. They have been living on unemployment, sickness benefits or pension for the past 27 years. They have had multiple trips to Greece and have enough to buy food for 4 people and still able to save.

Oh and no superannuation income. My dad had ~$12,000 in the 80's when he stopped working and moved it all into a CBA super account and lost ~$2,000 in first year. Must have been around the time property crashed. Never again.
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Most of us here wont be able to access those benefits, and even if so now not until at least 65. While many here wont need the pension there are many who will be just short of qualifying and have no access to medical assistance via the pension.
 
JohnK said:
It is all relative. My dad retired at 52 and mum was not yet 50. They have been living on unemployment, sickness benefits or pension for the past 27 years. They have had multiple trips to Greece and have enough to buy food for 4 people and still able to save.

Oh and no superannuation income. My dad had ~$12,000 in the 80's when he stopped working and moved it all into a CBA super account and lost ~$2,000 in first year. Must have been around the time property crashed. Never again.
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What happened in the second year?
 
JohnK said:
It is all relative. My dad retired at 52 and mum was not yet 50. They have been living on unemployment, sickness benefits or pension for the past 27 years. They have had multiple trips to Greece and have enough to buy food for 4 people and still able to save.

Oh and no superannuation income. My dad had ~$12,000 in the 80's when he stopped working and moved it all into a CBA super account and lost ~$2,000 in first year. Must have been around the time property crashed. Never again.
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Is this meant to be a good thing?

I note that you state that he retired to live on unemployment benefits, rather than he became unemployed.

If so that means that he was content to have others subsidise his retirement. And no not the government, but us the taxpayers.
 
lovetravellingoz said:
Is this meant to be a good thing?

I note that you state that he retired to live on unemployment benefits, rather than he became unemployed.

If so that means that he was content to have others subsidise his retirement. And no not the government, but us the taxpayers.
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Oh dear. Dad was no longer able to work. It took a few years to get disability pension and mum was carer.

Do you really need to question everything as if people are guilty and rorting the system? My parents have done quite well and paid taxes in all the time they'd been in Australia until that point. They saved everything. They have been happy in retirement with a modest pension and now they can spoil a grand daughter.

Not bad for 2 poor farmers who could not even afford to buy shoes for their sons and came to Australia to work in factories and make a life for themselves. They did not bludge.
 
JohnK said:
Oh dear. Dad was no longer able to work. It took a few years to get disability pension and mum was carer.

Do you really need to question everything as if people are guilty and rorting the system? My parents have done quite well and paid taxes in all the time they'd been in Australia until that point. They saved everything. They have been happy in retirement with a modest pension and now they can spoil a grand daughter.

Not bad for 2 poor farmers who could not even afford to buy shoes for their sons and came to Australia to work in factories and make a life for themselves. They did not bludge.
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Or in other words he did not retire at 52.

As I stated...if so...and it was not so.
 
JohnK said:
Oh dear. Dad was no longer able to work. It took a few years to get disability pension and mum was carer.

Do you really need to question everything as if people are guilty and rorting the system? My parents have done quite well and paid taxes in all the time they'd been in Australia until that point. They saved everything. They have been happy in retirement with a modest pension and now they can spoil a grand daughter.

Not bad for 2 poor farmers who could not even afford to buy shoes for their sons and came to Australia to work in factories and make a life for themselves. They did not bludge.
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I think its just that maybe it isnt a good thing to state that your parents retired, fully supported by Centrelink, at a very early age, and have enjoyed multiple trips to Greece and had virtually no savings. Can you not see that as a red rag to a bull?

I also have this weird thought about carers pension. Stems from 2 things. If someone isnt working when a partner needs to be cared for then why do they receive a supplement? Second thing - maybe I am old school but mum looked after Dad through four years of terminal cancer and we just thought it was what families did and didnt need the Government to supplement them as a carer. No, its not a rort but I query it. I dont have the same qualms where a young parent has to give up a lifetime on income to support a child that needs their full care.
 

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