The recent significant changes to Age Pension rules and rates have firmly renewed the focus on retirement income affordability. But in the push to fully understand every aspect of retirement incomings, we run the risk of missing the other half of the...
On International Women’s Day last week, a flood of statistics about gender inequities were shared. It’s fair to say that overall the financial situation for women is slowly improving. But it’s also true that most indicators are coming off such a low base,...
This is another instance where the onus is on you to get your application right. In Jargonbusters we explain the detail of age-related Age Pension eligibility. In the ‘old days’ it was easy – it was simply 65. Now it depends upon your year of birth. But...
Recent ASIC research shows that only one quarter of Australians have received financial advice in the past, but 41% intend to seek it in the future. One factor was cost, with 35% believing such advice was too expensive, whilst another impediment was a lack...
How long will the family home remain exempt? It’s hard to avoid the extensive media coverage of property price increases. There’s a reason for this and that’s because the 6.7% increase in the June quarter this year was the largest since the Australian Bureau...
Age care, to paraphrase a quote, sounds like another country. Most of us try hard not to think about it - let alone consider whether we will be able to afford it. But the need to know how aged care works and what is available is very real. And this was...
Philippa asked us an interesting question last week. She’s divorced, aged 67, and in July this year she stepped back from full-time work to help with her grandchildren and volunteer. She receives a part Age Pension ($18,000 per annum) and is topping this up...
Are you a shareholder? If so, you’re part of a growing club according to key findings from the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). In 1986 just 9% of Australians owned shares. Now it’s 35%, with a median portfolio size of $130,000. And these statistics refer to...
Recently we surveyed some of our readers to better understand the reasons why people retire. Many reasons were expected such as when they could afford to retire, health concerns,or job loss. What we didn’t expect was the number of people that mentioned...