Good to Great: How to Scale With an Outsourced CFO

In your twenties and thirties, retirement seems so far away that it’s easy to adopt an attitude of, “I’ll worry about that later.” The problem with this attitude is that the longer you wait to plan for retirement, the harder it is to save enough for a comfortable retirement.

If you’ve felt apathetic about saving for your retirement and future aged care costs, you’re not alone. The University of Melbourne’s Ian Ramsay found in a study that “young adults are unengaged by, and uninterested in, superannuation or retirement planning.” The fact that you’re reading this blog post, however, shows that you’re interested, whether you are currently a young adult or not. And your interest is the first step to a successful retirement.

What To Do Now

Start by visualising the kind of retirement and aged care you’d like to have in the future. What kinds of activities would you like to participate in? What kind of lifestyle would you like to live? This information can help you to determine how much you need to save. It may be helpful to meet with a financial adviser to discuss the amount you’ll need to save.

Set Goals

One of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to planning for retirement is not having a firm, written plan. Without a plan, it’s impossible to know if you’re staying on track and reaching benchmarks and milestones.

You should have an overall plan with realistic goals that will help you to reach financial security in retirement. Your goals may require that you make sacrifices now. This is especially true if you haven’t been salary sacrificing to your super all along. If these budget cuts feel painful, keep in mind that a little sacrificing now can go a long way during retirement.

Stay Out of Debt

In addition to planning your future retirement and setting goals, staying out of debt is one of the most important things you can do to ensure your financial security during retirement. Unfortunately, more and more Australians are retiring with unpaid debts. Debt repayments can take quite a heavy toll on your retirement income. When forecasting future income from your super, most people think about how much their housing, food, and transportation will cost, but it’s easy to overlook interest on your debts.

Decide now to pay off your debts before retirement. In fact, the sooner you pay off your debts, the greater your retirement savings will be, so don’t procrastinate any longer.

Revisit Your Plan Regularly

Your circumstances change from time to time, and your retirement plan should change as well. It’s a good idea to review your plan annually or more often to make sure that you’re meeting your goals and to find out if you need to make adjustments. Changes in your family, income, and health can all change the way you go about planning for retirement and aged care. If you have a financial advisor, it’s a good idea to schedule regular meetings to discuss how your goals are coming along and whether or not to make adjustments.

For more information about financial security in retirement and aged care, or for any other finance-related topic, contact us at Altus Financial. We love to help people to reach their personal financial goals.