Real Money , a free weekly newsletter giving expert tips on how to save, invest and make the most of your money, is sent every Sunday. You’re reading an excerpt − sign up to get the whole newsletter in your inbox. A lot of personal finance advice, especially in Australia, is pretty focused on making money and saving for retirement, not in retirement.
Much of the advice on superannuation is about making extra contributions as early as possible, and even other investments such as ETFs often suggest you should be investing over a 10- to 15-year time frame. However, many people, for myriad reasons, don’t get around to thinking about their finances until later in life, a time when you might not have the luxury of waiting 10 to 15 years for your investments to grow, and you may have missed the boat on early super contributions. Conventional wisdom says to build a nest egg as early as possible, but good financial planning is just as important after retirement.
Credit: Michael Howard It’s an issue that affects women in particular, who retire with up to 25 per cent less super than men and often have lower levels of financial literacy. What’s the problem? Older Australians also – generally – have less flexibility in their finances. It’s likely they’ve stopped or are winding down full-time work and have most of their assets tied up in superannuation and their home.
What you can do about it If you’re in this stage of life and pondering what to do with your money, here.