At Centrelink, the term ‘gifting’ is used when a pensioner gives away an item or money; or sells an item for less than its reasonable value; and for failing to take up an entitlement.
Planning for the future often involves making contingency plans, and sometimes we need to ask ourselves, do we have a contingency plan for a time when the world is in great turmoil?
What if you still have a mortgage when you retire? In this article, I have a couple of tips to help come up with the cash to pay for the loan.
In theory, the Age Pension age is set as the minimum age at which a typical senior is considered no longer able to work enough hours to generate the income needed for a modest standard of living. However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t work.
That question came to mind when I discovered that three financial planners I know refuse to spend big on their cars. They do it in different ways, but with the same end in mind—saving money.
The YourLifeChoices Retirement Affordability Index aims to help you understand how much money you currently need to live at various levels and lifestyles in retirement. In this issue, there’s a helpful discussion about how to make your Superannuation go further.
Many people will downsize their home, cash in part of their super or sell assets in an attempt to be debt free for retirement. Others can’t do this, but still wish to remain in their home, so how can they do that?
In Australia, once you retire, you’re expected to access your superannuation to at least partly fund your living expenses in retirement. That means your superannuation is assessed as part of your financial resources to determine how much, if any, Age Pension you could collect.
Many will recall the biblical story of Pharaoh’s dreams, which were interpreted to forecast seven years of famine, preceded by seven years of plenty. That story is, arguably, the first explanation of economic cycles.
‘Twenty years ago, retirement was still a fixed point in time—you fully retired and went on a cruise to begin a life of leisure for your vision of retirement. It’s very different now.’