Retirement Planning & Experiences

[Pushka]

Updating wills is very important , our wills were well organised at the time but no longer meet our needs.
The situation of our children has evolved and the feds keep changing the rules so we are waiting for it all to settle.

Found out son and DIL didn't have wills. Two kids. Mortgage yada yada. That was last week. This week son has acted and this will happen next week. They are now divorced so have suggested he gently (shoves) his ex to getting hers done. She's very clever and incredible financial management. But pulls out stuff like this. We are his Executors until we reach a stage where we can't be. But if we can make it to grandkids adulthood then it's much easier.

 

[Pushka]

Another big vote on getting financial advice. MrsK and I paid for it in 2016 to check predictions on when I could hope to retire. We are a 'special' case, as MrsK is in the PSS scheme, while I had my own SMSF, and we're both second-timers, starting from scratch etc. In late 2019 we had the financial advice updated as MrsK was going through a horrendous time at work, and it came back that she could retire then, moving to a PSS pension payment without any impact, and me when I turned 67.

We then engaged another financial planning company in Canberra, as suggested by a friend who is the grumpiest person I know, so I thought if he thought well of them that was a good recommendation. After meeting with them twice to understand what they could do, their advice and fees, level of comfort on how well they engaged with us, we signed up with them. We started the transition to me fully retiring at the end of last year, so we had six months to pay off the remaining mortgage, payments from my SMSF account, into another account and back to reduce liabilities around estate tax etc. They understand all of the ins and outs of super, taxation, age pensions, which is invaluable. I then retired at end of June.

We also updated our wills, and have our oldest children set up as our joint executors.

MrP is supposed to be retired by now. But he just keeps winning work that he's etremely interested in. He knocks back a lot as well. Well over retirement age . But keeps him out of my hair

 

[Denali]

Updating wills is very important , our wills were well organised at the time but no longer meet our needs.
The situation of our children has evolved and the feds keep changing the rules so we are waiting for it all to settle.

We sold property and an investment house so had to redo our wills last year. Dragging Mr Denali to the lawyers is painful but done

Also old wills, made 10+yrs ago, listed the public trustee as executor because "the kids" were barely adults. Now they are old enough to figure it out or pay to have it figured out for them. I feel better now knowing the public trustee is out of the picture

 

[Big John]

I have no wish to retire soon, but have to forward plan.

I must say that TTR looks like an attractive option. Has anyone done this? If so, did you stay with the same employer? What was your TTR experience like ?

 

[RooFlyer]

When I retired (at 58) I engaged a financial adviser to guide me through the process. Very reputable company in Hobart.

Except:

I asked for a financial plan that would deliver as a priority cash from investments. The task was obviously sent to a junior as it was a badly altered 'proforma' doc that barely covered me and didn't deliver much cash. I asked for it to be altered to incorporate my request. Nup. Third attempt - else I'd report them. Got it then.

They reviewed my SMSF share portfolio. "WAY over-weight in CBA - need to sell about half, or more, to get better balance". I didn't. Since then CBA has doubled in value and given strong dividends (all tax free in retirement). Best advice I never took - CBA has financed my profligate travel spending almost by itself.

Moral - don't take the advice of these guys at face value.

 

[kookaburra75]

MrP is supposed to be retired by now. But he just keeps winning work that he's etremely interested in. He knocks back a lot as well. Well over retirement age . But keeps him out of my hair

I've said I'm available for any specific short periods of work, that interests me to add to the holiday fund. I've got no interest in getting back into the saddle so to speak, in the consulting game. I am doing some paid training work for the local TAFE to support their new surveying course, as a way of paying back to my original profession.

Although after wrapping up our first two week road trip, MrsK might also be thinking about not having me around so much too.

When I retired (at 58) I engaged a financial adviser to guide me through the process. Very reputable company in Hobart.

Except:

I asked for a financial plan that would deliver as a priority cash from investments. The task was obviously sent to a junior as it was a badly altered 'proforma' doc that barely covered me and didn't deliver much cash. I asked for it to be altered to incorporate my request. Nup. Third attempt - else I'd report them. Got it then.

They reviewed my SMSF share portfolio. "WAY over-weight in CBA - need to sell about half, or more, to get better balance". I didn't. Since then CBA has doubled in value and given strong dividends (all tax free in retirement). Best advice I never took - CBA has financed my profligate travel spending almost by itself.

Moral - don't take the advice of these guys at face value.

I agree. That's why I went on a personal recommendation, and we had two meetings with them to confirm they were people we trusted, could deal with, would listen to us, and knew what they were talking about. That's critical.

I have no wish to retire soon, but have to forward plan.

I must say that TTR looks like an attractive option. Has anyone done this? If so, did you stay with the same employer? What was your TTR experience like ?

I looked at that, but as I was aiming to build up my SMSF as fast as possible (thanks for the higher contribution limits several years ago), and my line of work was a bit inflexible, I didn't go down that path. But the advice I could offer, is get some advice on your situation and see if transition to retirement works for you.

I feel better now knowing the public trustee is out of the picture

Same here. We did have them with the ACT Trustee, but have moved them out when we redid our wills, and feel a lot better for it.

One fun fact we came across - when talking about our wants in plain english with the solicitor, we mentioned we wanted to cover three scenarios; me going first, MrsK going first, or both at the same time. The solicitor said the third scenario didn't apply, as it was automatic that whoever was the oldest was presumed to have passed away before the other. MrsK (who is the older of us) wasn't impressed when I exclaimed, "...strike one up for being the toy boy!"

 

[tgh]

I had one very negative experience a bout ten years ago with a high powered financial advisory group.
They devoted a whole day spruiking their pitch and the longer it went on the more resolute I was to never let such orgs play with a cent of our money.

Time moves on and I would like to unload as swmbo still does quite a bit of work at tax time AND we may find it all a it onerous going forward

rock/hard place

 

[SYD]

They reviewed my SMSF share portfolio. "WAY over-weight in CBA - need to sell about half, or more, to get better balance". I didn't. Since then CBA has doubled in value and given strong dividends (all tax free in retirement). Best advice I never took - CBA has financed my profligate travel spending almost by itself.

Moral - don't take the advice of these guys at face value.

Yes, I’m well “overweight” in Banks, especially CBA (but off a very low cost base). The dividends are great.

 

[Drakecula]

*sigh* Retirement.... *looks wistfully into the future of that being at least 10-15 years away if not more!*

 

[Brissy1]

A friend went to a financial planner after he retired. DINKs so the brief he gave the financial planner it was.... these are my expenses, I don't want to die rich After analysis the planner gave him the bad news, said...sorry Gary, you're going to die rich.

 

[Scr77]

A friend went to a financial planner after he retired. DINKs so the brief he gave the financial planner it was.... these are my expenses, I don't want to die rich After analysis the planner gave him the bad news, said...sorry Gary, you're going to die rich.

Is he looking to adopt?