Life Stages
I look to the future because that's where I'm spending the rest of my life.
Super saving
Once you reach the age bracket of 55-60 you are most likely trying to squeeze as many dollars as you can into super. One easy way to do this is to take a careful look at the fees, charges and commissions your super fund takes from your account.
Remember, every dollar saved is going towards your future lifestyle. Deciding approximately how much you want to live on when you retire is important too -- and it helps you work out how much you need to save. Keep a spending record so you get an idea of your annual expenses.
55 or over?
When you turn 55 there are some great tax effective options for saving as well as easing into retirement. It's called 'transition to retirement'.
You might want to cut back your working hours but keep your take-home pay the same, or similar, to what you receive now.
If you can negotiate reduced hours with your employer you can top up your salary from your super -- but you can only use your super account for an income stream, not to withdraw a lump sum.
A transition to retirement strategy is also handy if you don't want to cut back your hours, but want to boost your super in the lead-up to retirement.
You can boost super contributions through additional salary sacrificing but maintain your take home pay by topping up from a super pension. If you want to keep working past the age of 60, this becomes even more attractive as the income from your super pension may be tax free.
At this stage you may suddenly find yourself becoming a financial expert. And so you should -- you're working towards your dream lifestyle, which should be a reward for all the years of planning and hard work.
One of the best ways of keeping up to date with super issues is to attend a retirement seminar. Quadrant holds these free events from time to time -- so come and listen to some expert views about retirement. Want us to tell you when we’re holding our next seminar? Give us your contact details and we’ll be in touch.
At Quadrant we're happy to boast about being one of a select few funds who make sure our members don't pay entry, exit or switching fees and we don't pay commission to third parties.
We even go a step further -- if you and your spouse both have your super with Quadrant and the combined total is more than $500,000 we can link the accounts and cap your administration fee.
Checklist
- Visit a Quadrant financial planner to make sure you have the most tax-effective salary sacrifice strategy in place
- Attend retirement seminars to get information and understand how your money is working for you
- Keep a spending record so you can easily work out how much you might need to live on in retirement.
