There was great feedback on our article about peak retirement a few weeks ago. It seems that many Retirement Essentials members are planning on working longer, but not necessarily harder! As a consequence, our advisers have had many consultations helping both singles and couples to organise their finances to maximise their ongoing retirement income. Today we look at the way the transition to retirement is changing for many Australians and how they can use the rules of both the Age Pension and super to ensure they get their best financial outcome
As mentioned, ‘peak’ retirement age is now just over 66 for men and nearly 65 for women. This is much later than previous decades and there are a few factors involved. Most recently the Covid pandemic forced workers across the globe to stay home. Those that could, continued to work and thus the new trend to Work From Home (WFH) has become a reality for workers of all ages. In a sense this has meant an easing of many aspects of work, including commuting, the need to dress formally, costs associated with attending an office or workplace). For many people working from home is simply easier. For this reason, many older workers are finding it attractive to continue.
However, believing that choosing a retirement or transition to retirement date is available to all is incorrect. So called ‘knowledge workers’ find it easier than most to work from anywhere – be it home, a holiday house, a caravan park or a friend’s dining room table. Those who do manual work do not have the same luxury – jobs such as cleaners, hairdressers and builders labourers usually have to turn up! And health, of course, remains the wild card, with around 40% of retirees leaving the workplace due to ill health, caring duties or redundancies. Life is not fair, and this is ongoing evidence of that fact.
But if you are one of the fortunate 60% who do get to time their work exit, how do you use the rules in your favour? As a firm believer in the show, don’t tell principle, here’s a very brief overview of the rules of a Transition-to-retirement, and more importantly, how Nicole was able to support Alice to map a way of achieving her main life goals.
