One of the top concerns for people in their early sixties, is how to fund their retirement. To help you enter retirement with confidence, consider these four key areas.
Forecast your cost of living
When you are approaching retirement, your first focus should be gaining a clear understanding of your current expenses and how they may change in retirement.
This will help you determine whether or not your retirement savings are sufficient to maintain your chosen standard of living.
Develop your plan for cost of living expenses
Use your expenses forecast to develop a plan for paying the costs of living during your retirement. This will include your super, pensions and other savings vehicles. The plan should also quantify what other goals that you might have like travel, a vacation home, helping your children purchase a house, or your grand children’s education.
You should consider the effects of inflation and balance that risk against long-term conservative investment return assumptions.
Develop your plan to include health and long term care expenses
How are you planning to cover your health and long term care expenses? Before retiring, get a good understanding of what Medicare covers, what your private health insurance covers, and what they do not.
Research the potential costs of a long term care stay and have an idea of choices available.
Revisit your estate plan
Be sure to review your estate documents including your Will, Trusts, Powers of Attorney and Medical Directives. It is a good opportunity to make certain that they are still appropriate and relevant.
If the Death Benefits Tax is a concern, steps can be taken to design a wealth transfer plan to minimise that concern.
By working with a Financial Planner, you can work through these important retirement planning steps.
To book a complimentary ten minute phone consultation with Cameron Teague, our Certified Financial Planner, click on the link below.
