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7 July 2022
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This is our annual checklist of what retirees need to be aware of in 2022. It is a long list of 25 items and not everything will apply to your situation. Run your eye over the benefits and entitlements.
Retirees require a reliable income stream to replace the wages they received when they were working and should focus on the dollar income generated over time rather than the headline yield percentage.
Last year's retiree checklist of services available was one of our most popular articles. There are some additions for 2021, and while it can take effort to set them up, they can pay off over the long term.
The deteriorating mood will bring changes that will have profound economic, financial, social and political changes that can be grouped into new, accelerated, busted and possible trends.
This list could save a retiree thousands of dollars and provides ideas for a better lifestyle. It's surprising what you might be entitled to, but it's often hard to track down the benefits.
Grattan has released a response to the above Mercer critique, with this short summary of their position and the longer paper attached. The coming retirement review will need to cope with such diversity of opinions.
Retirement is not a steady state of more time for holidays and family. Planning must allow for the onset of part-disability and disability, and costs can rise significantly in the final 'frailty' years.
Both before and after retirement, there are actions most people can take to improve the chances of attaining a desired lifestyle after paid work finishes.
It's no surprise that increasing living costs (food, energy, health care) are impacting retirees on modest incomes the most. Early planning and saving is needed to be 'retirement-ready'.
Urban growth poses many challenges. The way we live and interact as a society, especially in growing cities, will continue to evolve including the way we shop, how we move around and how land is redeveloped.
Investors need to be aware of what’s happening to productivity and how this will affect future returns and the affordability of tax-payer funded pensions, especially if company profits fall.
Despite the publicity about long life expectancy, research on Australian retirement highlights a lack of planning, and most people do not determine their own retirement date.
With 62% of Australians aged 65 and over relying at least partially on the age pension, are they better off owning their home or renting? There is an extra pension asset allowance for those not owning a home.
With 700 Australians retiring every day, retirement income solutions are more important than ever. Why do millions of retirees eligible for a more tax-efficient pension account hold money in accumulation?
Equity investing comes with volatility that makes many retirees uncomfortable. A focus on income which is less volatile than share prices, and quality companies delivering robust earnings, offers more reassurance.
A fund manager argues it is immoral to deny poor countries access to relatively cheap energy from fossil fuels. Wealthy countries must recognise the transition is a multi-decade challenge and continue to invest.
Few people have been closer to superannuation policy over the years than Noel Whittaker, especially when he established his eponymous financial planning business. He takes us on a quick guided tour.
What was bothering markets in 2006? Try the end of cheap money, bond yields rising, high energy prices and record high commodity prices feeding inflation. Who says these are 'unprecedented' times? It's 2006 v 2022.