This was the topic of an article in a recent edition of the Weekend Australian. It looked at some of the implications of Australians living for 20-30 years in retirement.
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Obviously there are a lot of financial issues to consider for individuals, governments, superannuation funds and financial planners. As the article was written by the CEO of a wealth management company, it’s not surprising that it was focussed on the financial challenges.
One of the reasons why a large number of people struggle in the early years of their retirement is that nearly all of the retirement planning advice they received was about their money.
However, if it’s going to become the norm for people to live for another 20-30 or more years after leaving full time work, it’s equally important to consider a range of lifestyle issues.
A happy retirement is about more than just having enough money.
Those extra years give us a lot of spare time. It can be a great opportunity or it can be cause for depression. What we do with these years is obviously up to us. If we stay active and involved with life, stay healthy, have good relationships with family and friends, contribute to our community and have a positive attitude, then these extra years can be a great bonus.
If we don’t plan to use this extra time constructively and just “go with the flow”, we run a real risk of being bored and unhappy for many years. A healthy bank account won’t make much difference.
When you think about it, not having a plan to cover the next 20 plus years of your life is a pretty weird idea. We plan our education. Most businesses and government departments work from annual plans. We plan our holidays. We plan our finances. Why wouldn’t we plan our retirement years, when we have the chance to do a lot of the things that we’ve had to postpone while we were working full-time?
We have produced a range of books under the “50Plus Books” brand. These can help you to make the most of your retirement years and give you a better chance to have plenty of fun. You can find out more details on all of them on our website at www.retirementbooks.com.au.