Picking the perfect retirement age Your retirement age is a very personal thing. Sometimes retirement is thrust upon us. We might lose our job or be forced to leave work due to ill health or caring responsibilities. Most people, however,...
Planning for Retirement Articles
When downsizing goes wrong
Don’t make these classic errors A recent article (How fair is the Age Pension) prompted quite a few Retirement Essentials members to share their (not-so-good) experiences of downsizing. Here’s what you told us (edited for reasons of space): Helly says...
Concession and health care cards update
Discount and concession cards Most of us love a discount. And when the cost of living is persistently high, concession cards are worth their weight in gold. There are a range of discount and concession cards available to older Australians. But the rules...
Making retirement a time of renewal?
Transitioning to Retirement - something completely different Life’s about transitions….and retirement has got to be one of the biggest transitions of them all. It’s so different from working life, such an opportunity to do what you’ve dreamed about,...
Money can’t buy health
But it can fund your longer retirement One of the world’s oldest medical journals – the British Medical Journal or BMJ – recently published statistics that reveal, when it comes to longer lives, Australians have won the lottery. The study, Life expectancy...
Marvellous Milestones of Retirement
Just having hit a significant milestone myself (70), I’m reminded of how important some milestones are in retirement. Milestones make you think about important life stages. But beyond that, government policy relies on age markers for when rules change or...
Aged care changes: what will you need to pay?
Last week the long awaited changes to the Aged Care sector were released. You could be forgiven for being confused, with headlines in Money magazine stating that ‘Pensioners pay more’ while the Australian Financial Review reported ‘Aged care taps rich...
The Day the Pay stopped
We all get to the point when our wages stop as our years of working come to an end. Maybe it’s ahead of you; maybe you’ve already gone through it. It’s got to be one of the most significant and emotional moments that come with retirement....
Ways to manage your retirement risk
Are you thriving or just surviving? Ways to manage your retirement risk. What does retirement risk look like to you? For Rob, it means running out of his super savings well before his 80s. For Ian, it means having unexpected expenses and being unable...