When is an asset treated as income? And when isn't it? Australia’s Age Pension is a main source of income for 70% of retirees. Of those who are eligible, nearly 60% are on the full Age Pension. As they reach their 80s, 80% are on the Age Pension.   We call...

Age Pension income and assets thresholds Last week we shared the news about the largest Age Pension increase for 12 years. We also mentioned the increase to the Age Pension income and assets thresholds, but these changes were somewhat overshadowed by the...

Biggest increase in 12 years Last Monday the Minister for Social Services, Amanda Rishworth, announced the largest increase in the Age Pension for 12 years, effective September 20. The full range of welfare increases will affect 4.7 million Australians. The...

Work bonus change for retirees Last week’s Jobs and Skills Summit produced 36 concrete actions to reduce Australian workforce and skill shortages. The one of most interest to older Australians is the change in the rules on income and the Age Pension. The new...

What you see – or don’t … … can cost you dearly A diptych is a double image that shows two different things simultaneously. The example in the image above is very famous. It was first published in a German postcard in 1888 and then reshared by an Englishman,...

How can this increase your income? In any couple one of the partners by nature will be younger. That’s a given. What is less well known is the radical difference it can make to use the rules of retirement income to your advantage if one of you decides to...

Why did I lose my income? This week we received a distraught call from someone who has just lost nearly all their part-Age Pension. Let’s call her Susan. She contacted us to see if we could help reverse this loss of income and agreed that we could share this...

Just the facts you need to know Australia’s most secure form of retirement income is the Age Pension. It is government guaranteed, delivered to your bank account fortnightly, and eventually (when you reach your 80s), paid to a whopping 80% of this cohort. So...

Your car and your retirement: Five things it helps to know At Retirement Essentials we consider ourselves lucky to have a ‘secret sauce’ when it comes to the detail of maximising your retirement. Pardon the pun, but you could in fact call our secret sauce, a...