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Thursday, 28 October 2021
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The amount in super available at retirement is highly individual. Early withdrawals, working longer, extra contributions and work history determine if someone can maintain a desired lifestyle with the funds available.
The pre-Boomer generations faced global wars and depressions, but Australians born after 1946 have enjoyed prosperity. Superannuation, education, strong markets and surging property prices locked in gains.
Life expectancies have increased dramatically since the nineties, but the uncertainty is forcing retirees to live too frugally. The super industry is switching its attention to the drawdown phase to find better solutions.
Future retirees will be expected to be even more reliant on their own superannuation instead of the age pension. For the younger generation, your lifetime of investing should begin now, while time on your side.
The ASFA 'comfortable retirement standard' for a couple is only $58,128 per annum, below the average full-time wage. SMSF trustees should check these numbers as an estimate of how much and at what age before they retire.
A unique feature of SMSFs is the concept of 'superannuation interests' which must be monitored to keep track of the taxable components in a super fund. Good records can avoid problems later.
There’s only one way we can go with this divisive debate, as super is too important to be punted around. We need a completely independent and bipartisan group to provide guidance, opinion and direction.
I never expected Self Managed Super Funds (SMSFs) to become the largest segment of super. They were almost an afterthought added to the legislation as a replacement for defined benefit schemes. Here's why it happened.
We tend to forget that house prices often fall. Direct lending controls are more effective than rate rises because macroprudential limits affect the volume of money for housing leaving business rates untouched.
The survey drew a fantastic 2,000 responses with over 1,000 comments and polar opposite views on what is good policy. Do most people believe the home should be in the age pension asset test, and what do they say?
Any policy decision needs to recognise who is affected by a change. It pays to check the data on who pays taxes, who owns assets and who earns the income to ensure an equitable and efficient outcome.
With articles on the pensions assets test read about 40,000 times, 3,500 survey responses and thousands of comments, there was a lot of great reader participation. A few comments added extra insights.
It is hard to think of any area of widespread public concern where the same policies have been pursued for so long, in the face of such incontrovertible evidence that they have failed to achieve their objectives.
There are reasons to believe inflation will stay under control, and although we may see a slowing in the global economy, two companies should benefit from the themes of 'Stable Compounders' and 'Structural Winners'.