Funeral gardening: Time to get started!

Funeral gardening: Time to get started!

Most of us are really squeamish about the word ‘death’ – we run a mile from it. Similarly with the term ‘funeral’ – it’s difficult to bring ourselves to read articles about planning for our own demise. We’re more interested in living, than dying, right? But there is a...
How fair is the Age Pension?

How fair is the Age Pension?

A tale of three retirements  With just on two thirds of retirees receiving an Age Pension from age 67 onwards, this benefit remains the main form of income for older Australians. As the super system matures, the amount of ‘top-up’ provided by super is increasing,...
Ten principles to retire by

Ten principles to retire by

Over the past few months, we’ve shared a set of 10 principles of retirement, designed to help you grasp the key topics in planning your retirement financing.  Here’s a case study of how a client couple went about getting their retirement sorted…and how they used...
Money can’t buy health

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 and...
Drowning in debt

Drowning in debt

When advice helps turn things around When Andrew Dunkerley first met Jim and Alice* he was concerned that there might be little he could do to help them achieve a reasonable retirement income. That was because they had more than $100,000 in credit card debt and were...
Marvellous Milestones of Retirement

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 benefits kick...