Retirement planning

Timely planning is the key to enjoying life in retirement. Once you’ve decided on your retirement goals - such as when and how to retire - it’s important to set strategies with the help of retirement calculators and by talking to your Industry SuperFund or financial advisor.

How to plan for retirement

Here is a quick checklist of decisions that affect the financial side of retirement plans.

1. Can you retire when you want to? See information on retirement age.
2. How do you want to retire... ie. do you want to ease down or stop altogether?
3. How much super will you need for retirement? Don’t forget, you can use retirement calculators to help you.

Once you’ve worked out your retirement goals, you should draft a plan - or at least a basic outline.

This will form the basis of your retirement planning program, but you should also consider taking the guesswork out of the plan by seeking professional financial advice from your Industry SuperFund.

Retirement planning strategies

With your retirement goals worked out, you’ll need strategies to put it into place. These could include:

• Making extra contributions to build your super while you’re still working
• Taking advantage of transition to retirement if you’re able to access your super but you want to ease off from full-time work without giving up work completely.
• Using a retirement balance projector to look at the effects of making additional super contributions and/or your planned retirement age.
• Investigating how best to use an investment property.
• Working out how your super and the Australian Government Age Pension can work together. 

Not all of these strategies will be suitable for everyone and if you have a partner, don’t forget to include them in your retirement planning – you’re likely to be spending a lot more time together.

There are also the non-financial elements of retirement to think about, such as:

• How do you replace the social aspect of your workplace?
• What can you do to make up for the sense of responsibility and position that often comes with a job?
• How can you enjoy all that extra time, without becoming bored – especially if your partner is still working?
• What new hobbies or activities interest you, and how do you get involved?