EBOOK004 5 common mistakes that may ruin your retirement (1941 words)

Introduction

Over the past decade, the nature of work has changed significantly. As the nature of work evolves, how we define retirement is changing along with it. Back in our parent’s generation, the word retirement brought to mind images of gentile retirement living, rose beds, bowling clubs and bingo nights.

In Australia, the average age at which people retire has risen from 64 to 65.6 for men, and from 61.8 to 64.2 for women. The eligibility age in Australia for the pension, which is now 66 has been slowly increasing from 65 but will have risen to 67 by 1 July 2023.

In 2016 to 2017, there were 3.6 million Australians, aged 45 years and over, who were retired. This group comprised 1.7 million men and 1.9 million women. Just over half of all retired persons were aged 70 years and over.

Little wonder then that given these trends, around the country, attitudes to retirement planning are changing.