by James Coyle | Dec 22, 2022 | Retirement Income
Deborah Ralston wears a lot of different hats. She also has a string of titles; Chair Household Capital Advisory Board, member of Board of Guardians for the Future Fund, Professorial Fellow at Monash University. And luckily for Retirement Essentials, a non-executive...
by James Coyle | Dec 22, 2022 | Investing
Or should you just DIY? Trust is a quality that can take years to establish. And about a minute to lose. We see this in action at the moment with the recent arrest in the Bahamas of the Cryptocurrency billionaire, Sam Bankman-Fried. And the related dive in the value...
by James Coyle | Dec 22, 2022 | Investing
Quiz: Are you money smart? Or do you fail this basic test? There is often a discrepancy between our actual behaviours or skills – and how good we think we are. Back in the early 70s there was an American survey on magazine readership. The results showed heavy...
by James Coyle | Dec 22, 2022 | Centrelink Age Pension
How we’ve helped in 2022: Reassurance, income and health prioritised At this time of the year our thoughts often turn to giving. So this week we asked our frontline team – Nicole, Sharon and Steven – if they would take time out to share how they believe they have...
by James Coyle | Dec 16, 2022 | Centrelink Age Pension
With seven out of 10 older Australians currently on an Age Pension you would think the rules would be relatively easy to understand. Unfortunately complexity is a feature of our retirement income system – another feature is the frequency of changes to rules and...
by Kaye Fallick | Dec 16, 2022 | Retirement Advice
Easy summer reading list: Time to relax, read and reflect! We don’t know about you, but one of our favourite things at this time of the year is the prospect of days in the sun, reading and reading and reading. We checked with the team and many have long ‘must read’...
by James Coyle | Dec 15, 2022 | Centrelink Age Pension
And answers for 2022 With over 100,000 members who are at or near retirement, the Retirement Essentials’ Customer Service Team answers a LOT of questions on a weekly basis. Given that nearly 70% of Australians are on a full or part Age Pension, many are concerned with...
by James Coyle | Dec 15, 2022 | Planning for Retirement
Five things you need to know about gifting The Bank of Mum and Dad is an emotive and not entirely accurate term when it comes to family loans. It’s not just adult kids who are the beneficiaries of the largesse of older Australians. It can be friends, nieces or...
by James Coyle | Dec 12, 2022 | Centrelink Age Pension
Late last week the Albanese Government and state and territory premiers agreed upon an energy price relief package to curtail rocketing electricity and gas prices for Australian consumers. Such price rises are an ongoing sore point for many Australian households....
by James Coyle | Dec 9, 2022 | Commonwealth Seniors Health Card
Easy concession applications Here’s a quick and easy way to lift your income in 2023 if you are a self-funded retiree. On November 4, the thresholds for the Commonwealth Seniors Health Care Card increased substantially. The Federal Government’s predictions were that...
