There's More To A Fantastic Retirement Than Just Income Planning

Even if you’ve got your financial retirement plans in order, you’re not finished with designing your retirement lifestyle yet. Think back to the last time you took the day off work because you were sick. You probably wandered around in your pyjamas until midday, tried to find something worth watching on television and went through two or three boxes of tissues. Not very exciting. Now take that image and subtract most of the tissues from it. Without the right retirement information, there’s a very real chance that this is how you could wind up spending your retirement. Chilling, isn’t it? Lying around the house is all right for a day – maybe even for a week – but how would you cope if you had to do it for 20 years? After all, there are only so many episodes of The Bold and the Beautiful that a person can watch before they completely lose their marbles. Many people spend decades responsibly saving up for a comfortable retirement lifestyle and then retire to find that being comfortable isn’t enough. They need to have something to do.

As much as we grumble about it, work forms a big part of our identity. When new acquaintances ask us to tell them about ourselves we usually start out by describing what we do for a living. Work gives our lives structure and meaning. We don’t like Mondays and we do thank God it’s Friday – and ordering our week that way, with five days on and two days off, gives us a comfortable, predictable routine. Much of our sense of accomplishment comes from the things we do at work – the satisfaction of a job well done, and the bonuses and promotions that sometimes go with it. As long as we’re getting our work done, we know we’re useful members of society. We usually make a lot of our friends at work, and having lunch or drinks after work with them can be one of the highlights of our day. You did all that income planning during your working life in order to have the freedom to do what you want during your retirement, but retiring also takes all those things you’ve been depending on away. If you’re not prepared for the change, that can make you miserable.

But don’t despair: life after work doesn’t have to be boring. Nobody’s forcing you to wear pyjamas and watch daytime television. It’s just that nobody will force you to stop doing it, either. You’ve got to do that for yourself. Like most things in life, making your retirement a success requires a plan. To start with, the first thing you have to do when you’re getting ready to retire is sit yourself down and make a list of all the things that make you, you. Cross off anything that has to do with work, and what you’ve got left are the materials out of which you’re going to build your new life. Make a new routine out of all the things you love to do and note down all the hobbies and activities you’re going to be involved in; www.seniors.gov.au offers a range of retirement information that can help you find things that interest you. Try to get out of the house every day, and find time to spend with your family. And remember that your skills don’t disappear just because you’ve stopped working. George Bernard Shaw once said, ‘… he who can does, he who cannot teaches’, but that’s not necessarily true. Sometimes the best teachers are those who can and have done, so consider taking up tutoring or mentoring and contribute to somebody else’s success. If teaching isn’t quite up your alley then check out some volunteer organisations, because they’re always looking for help and you might be just what they need. Helping others can sometimes provide just as much satisfaction as earning a paycheck ever did.

Retirement shouldn’t be something that is done to you – you’re not being put out to pasture because you’ve outlived your usefulness. You’ve worked long and hard to create enough wealth to allow you to live the life of your dreams. The important thing now is to make sure those dreams don’t slip through your fingers by making the most of the retirement information that’s available to you and ensuring that you can expect a great retirement income. Planning now is going to make all the difference when it comes to making your retirement the best time of your life. And, every now and then, if you do want to lie around in your pyjamas and watch soap operas, you can do that too … you won’t even have to get a doctor’s certificate.

Back-to-School Ideas for Beating the Budget 'Gremlins'

Your kids might be too old to worry about monsters under the bed. You may no longer need to check inside their cupboards for bogeymen or leave a light on when they go to sleep. But no matter how old, how tough or how cool your children may be, there are still three little words that can chill them to the bone: back to school. 

Well, all right, maybe we’re exaggerating a bit. Going back to school isn’t all bad and some kids even look forward to it, but after a two-week break getting your family back into its usual routine can be difficult. While there might not be any monsters lurking under the kids’ beds, the disorganisation gremlins can seem pretty real – and they have a knack of sneaking into your wallet and eating up all your cash while you’re busy working on getting everybody back on track. Fortunately there are some simple money management tricks you can employ to help keep those gremlins at bay and your budget in good shape, and if you plan ahead you can be well prepared for both the rest of the school year and the rest of your child’s school career.

To get you started, here are some great back-to-school ideas that you can start using before school heads back:


    •    Get all your grocery shopping done. Canteen money can be a big expense, particularly when it isn’t something you’ve deliberately factored into your budget. By making sure you have everything you need ahead of time you’ll be able to save money and make sure your kids are getting food that’s good for them.

    •    Stock up on the school essentials. Your kids are likely to need a seemingly endless supply of pens, pencils, rubbers, rulers and glue over the rest of the school year – and most parents are unsurprised by now to see how often their equipment gets lost or broken. Save yourself time and money by buying the cheapest stuff that will work for school and buying it in bulk if you can.

    •    Plan your meals for the next week ahead of time. This is a good idea at any time, but particularly so when your kids have just gone back to school. They’ll probably come home tired and very hungry so being able to answer the question, ‘What are we having for dinner tonight?’ will save you from being tempted to get expensive (and unhealthy!) takeaway to tide them over.

These simple tips will help keep you covered in the first week back at school, but what about the future? We’re heading toward the business end of the school year now – your kids are beginning to work toward their yearly exams, there may be excursions and other unexpected expenses coming up, and soon it will be time to start preparing for next year.

Now is a great time to dust off your budget planner and make sure you’ve allocated enough money to pay for everything your kids are going to need to get through the rest of this year, and an even better time to prepare your budget for the future. You won't need sophisticated money management software to do it, just a rough idea of what the kids are gong to need in the coming years. 



If your child is just starting kindergarten, high school or university, or is entering one of the ‘big’ school years the expenses can be even heavier. Year 10 and 12 students sometimes need extra equipment for their major projects, so you might want to adjust your budget to accommodate some extra supplies, just to be on the safe side.



If your child is heading to uni, you might be in for a bigger shock – some of those textbooks really do cost an arm and a leg! Start looking in second-hand or co-op bookshops as an alternative, and keep your eye on university newsletters or message boards – students often sell their textbooks cheaply once they’ve completed a course (just make sure that you’re getting the right edition of the textbook, otherwise it’ll be a waste of money, no matter how cheap it is). 

Going back to school when the holidays are over can be a bit rough – but with a bit of organisation you’ll be able to keep the gremlins out of your wallet and your budget intact while still making sure your kids have everything they need for school.