If there’s one thing that’s guaranteed to put a smile on Jeremy Duffield’s face, it’s time with his grandkids. But getting together is tricky, as half are based in far-off Scandinavia. Which makes family holidays all the more precious. What’s that got to do with...
A recent report claims Australian retirees are stressed and that a government product would solve this problem. That’s a big statement, so today we are digging a bit deeper to see what the claimed problem is – and whether the suggested solution would be helpful.
The report Simpler Super: Taking the stress out of retirement was published by the Grattan Institute on 19 January. Authored by Brendan Coates, Joey Moloney and Esther Suckling it starts with the rather compelling statement that:
“Australia makes superannuation too complex for retirees”. It then builds a case that most Australians are hands-off about building super, but when it comes to drawing an income from these savings they struggle to understand how to combine it with an Age Pension, how long they will live, how investments might perform and how to ‘get value from their super fund’.
Are you optimising your super? Last week research house, SuperRatings, released the annual returns for Australian super funds in Calendar Year 2024. The funds posted positive returns in 10 of the 12 months in 2024. The results are very positive and are good news for...