At this stage of your life you are well into your chosen career path or profession. You have accumulated some assets, the mortgage on your home is reducing, the kids are grown up or not far from being financially independent (finally!) and surplus income has returned to the family budget. The big question now is do you have enough to meet the retirement you have long desired or if not what can be done to bridge the gap.

Retirement planning doesn’t just start leading up to your retirement. For many it starts a lot earlier when you started thinking about your financial plan, investments and retirement goals. However it is never too late to start your retirement planning and for most this is an integral part of maximising the your financial position and the asset base you have spent your years building so that you can have the best retirement possible.

So what can you do and what should you be thinking about at this stage in your financial life and how can we help you achieve your financial goals?

• Will I have enough wealth to retire on or if not where do I currently sit and what can I do to achieve my goals? To measure this we will take your current income, asset base and financial position to prepare financial projections on where you are currently positioned financially and what sort of income stream this will provide in retirement. We will also then consider anything that can be done to improve your financial position and model this through financial projections to show you exactly how it would improve your retirement and by how much and how it will get you closer to your goals
• boosting your superannuation in preparation for retirement – consider superannuation contributions and other methods such as salary sacrifice to add to your super
• Implementing superannuation strategies that can provide extremely tax effective outcomes and significantly improve your financial position both pre retirement and in retirement. When it comes to superannuation strategies it is important to understand that planning for these should start well in advance of retirement but there is always opportunities with super no matter what stage in life
• Revising your estate plan – Do your wills, power of attorneys and succession plan still offer the most effective outcome for you and achieve your wishes?
• Reviewing your life and income protection insurances – If you already have some personal insurances like life insurance and income protection insurance in place these should be reviewed as what was originally put in place for you may need to be updated or adjusted to reflect any changes in your circumstances such as increased income, the addition of a spouse or dependants etc. You may even be able to achieve cost reductions in your premiums so feel free to ask for a quote
• Getting any surplus cash flow you have working for you through either investments or an effective savings plan
• Budgeting and managing cash flow so that you can make the most out of your income stream and work towards saving for those financial goals that you have set for yourself
• Managing/structuring your debt in the most effective and cost efficient way
• Managing/structuring your investments and earnings in the most tax effective way
• If you are looking to finance any assets such as a car or home – ensuring you structure this in the best way and get the best rates on offer