Since the introduction of compulsory super, the industry has pushed its members to put as much as possible into super. It has been a disservice to anyone entering retirement who could have owned a home instead.
Debates about retirement tend to focus on the financial aspects: income, tax, estates, wills, and the like. Less attention is paid to the psychological challenges of retirement, which can often be more demanding.
A healthy couple entering retirement can expect at least one of them to live for 30 more years. What do the 30-year asset performance charts say about returns, ignoring the pessimism that the future will be worse?
The late 50s and early 60s are the perfect age for investors to embark on a savings sprint, assess the viability of their portfolio, and build out their stake in safer securities.
New data shows the number of advised SMSFs is increasing at the expense of self-directed SMSFs. It also suggests more SMSFs are turning to international markets and ETFs to diversify their investment portfolios.
The rules to age successfully include, 'the unexamined life lasts longer', 'change no more than one-eighth of your life at a time', 'nobody is thinking about you', and 'pursue virtue but don’t sweat it'.
Guidance from ASIC previously stated that balances above $500,000 allowed the flat fee administration to make sense. Research now calls for a revision of this threshold to balances over $200,000.