Inflation is pushing the cost of retirement to record highs, forcing Australians to rethink their plans for their golden years.
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The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) has released its latest figures, which indicate for a comfortable retirement, a couple needs almost $80,000 a year, or around $1500 per week.
“To put that in perspective, if you were just on the pension, it would only deliver about $50,000 a year, so you are way behind on the pension,” Nine money editor, Effie Zahos told Today.
“These numbers are up around two per cent more for the quarter, when you are on a fixed budget, food is obviously going to hit hard, you had energy and fuel prices up over 20 per cent, so yes… inflation is really hurting these budgets.”
But Effie said there is any easy way you can increase your retirement income.
“One thing many Aussies make a mistake with in the pension, is we automatically assume Centrelink knows exactly how much money we’ve got and they’ll work it out,” she said.
But a recent Centrelink audit showed more than $5 billion in errors were made of overpayments and underpayments.
“The thing is, you lose $3 a fortnight per $1000 you go over the asset threshold of your pension,” Effie said.
But if you look at things like taking money out to pay for renovations in retirement and declaring your car and home contents depreciation value instead of market value, this could earn you an extra $210 per fortnight on your pension.
“It’s important you not this doesn’t happen automatically, Centrelink only looks at superannuation and shares say twice a year,” she said.
“If you make changes, the important thing is to tell them straight away.”
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