Are you approaching retirement? Then chances are the funding of your lifestyle in retirement may be on your mind. Take steps now to avoid getting caught short on retirement income and live the retirement lifestyle you want.

Superannuation Guarantee (SG) requires employer to pay a minimum level of super support for eligible employees. One criteria for an employee to be eligible is based on that employee’s monthly earnings being at least $450 per month. However, this threshold is abolished from 1 July 2022.

From 1 July 2022, if you’re a first home buyer you can release up to $50,000 (up from $30,000) from your voluntary super contributions to help you buy your first home. Under the scheme, voluntary concessional and non concessional contributions made on or after 1 July 2017 may be released from super to help you purchase your first home. 

The unexpected events of the past few years, have made financial protection a front of mind matter for most Australians. Now more than ever we appreciate that life does not always go the way we plan. Having a plan in place if things do take an unexpected turn can mean that our health, lifestyle and family are better protected.

The last couple of years have been tough on a lot of people with the COVID pandemic throwing the world into chaos and taking a toll on our physical, mental, financial and emotional wellbeing. If you have had a family member in aged care over the period of lockdowns and were not able to visit them or help care for them, you were probably even more grateful to the staff who turned up day in and day out to care for the residents. This highlights, even more, the importance of having options when it comes to aged care, and getting it right for you.

We are open for the new year and taking appointments. With so many external impacts on all our lives over the past two years as we have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of you will have had a change in situation or had a chance to reflect on what is really important to you. For this reason we encourage all our clients to book a review meeting with us so we can discuss your current situation and any changes that may need to be made to your financial plan to accurately reflect your situation now.

New year is a great time for making lifestyle changes, however, for goals and changes affecting your financial health, there’s often no better time than when starting a new job.

We wish you a wonderful festive season and look forward to a bright New Year.