5 Steps to Take When Planning for Pre-Retirement

It’s getting closer, but you’re not quite there yet. While you’re still in your most productive earning years, you can make a huge difference in your quality of life after you retire. This phase of life is called “pre-retirement.” It’s a critical time. What can you do today to plan for pre-retirement?

1. Do a Dry Run

It’s really too late to make important decisions once you have already retired. Those decisions should have been made while you were still in a position to take action. Therefore, while you’re still in that position, do a dry run.

Determine whether you’ll have enough retirement income to support the kind of lifestyle you want. To accomplish this task, you’ll need to add up the costs of your desired retirement lifestyle as well as the income you can expect from your super and your benefits. Does your income exceed your expenses? If not, it’s time to take action.

2. Create a Timeline

In Australia there isn’t a fixed time for retirement like there is in many other parts of the world. Under current laws, you can access your superannuation funds from age 55 to 60, depending on your birth year. You might also have an age pension that you can start collecting around age 65. Determine a timeline based on your desires, your family situation, and other factors. When you know when you’d like to retire and whether you’d like to retire all at once or in stages, you can better make decisions.

3. Update Your Estate

Even if you have been salary sacrificing for years, your retirement planning may be incomplete if you haven’t paid attention to the details of your estate. It’s a great idea to go into retirement with your estate planning firmly in check. Make sure the following items are up-to-date and coordinated with the rest of your financial plan:

• Your will
• Your Beneficiary nominations
• Consolidate your superannuation
• Debts (personal loans, mortgages, credit card loans, etc.)
• Assets (property deeds, share certificates, superannuation funds, bank accounts, personal assets like jewellery, bonds, vehicles, etc.)
• Professional advisers
• Insurance

Consult with your financial adviser to find out if you need to make changes to any aspects of your estate as you enter retirement. For example, are there things you can do to reduce your tax burden once you’ve stopped working?

4. Learn All You Can

Reading financial blogs, attending seminars, reading books, and talking to experts can help you to position yourself for a financially successful retirement. Even if you have a financial adviser that you know and trust, it’s a great idea to educate yourself. With a well-rounded understanding of how retirement finances work and how your individual plan fits into the global scheme of things, you’ll be in great shape for retirement.

5. Set Goals

With a solid understanding of your current financial situation and a clear vision of where you want to end up in retirement, you can accelerate your plan in order to reach your goals. Maybe you need to sacrifice more of your salary now in order to take advantage of tax benefits or catch up on your savings. Maybe you need to make adjustments to your assets or income in order to qualify for pensions. Now is the time to renew your commitment to retirement planning. These are the years that really count.

For more information about planning for pre-retirement, contact us at Altus Financial. We love to help people reach their financial goals.

You could also download our complete guide to retirement planning.