At work I¡¦ve run into people who are close to retirement age and are wondering what to do with themselves financially, they’ve either never had super or if they have, it isn’t much to write home about.
When Discussing ¡§life the universe and everything¡¨ with them it¡¦s amazing that Opportunities to numerous to mention have passed them by at various stages in their lives, and they regret not having taken a risk, ‘albeit’ some of these opportunities have been ‘low-risk’, consequently their main investment is only ‘the family home’… but how do you utilise the ¡¥Equity¡¦ in the family home to finance your retirement?
The pension isn¡¦t much to live on and at a senior age the last thing some of these people want to do is leverage their Principal place of residence!
The Banks now have a ¡§reverse mortgage¡¦ wherein I believe you start using the equity in your house to live on and then slowly bit by bit the bank gets your house back, result- nothing for the kids.
One of the gents I¡¦ve run into sold his 4 bedroom 2 bathroom house 8-9 years ago as it was to big for himself and his wife.
They attended a park home display at a Large event and decided to get a park home and sell their house, giving them a much smaller residence and garden to tend to.They eventually bought their park home and have $3 000 now left to pay off, asking about the park home I found out that ¡¥he¡¦ never will own the property his park home sits on, he pays $100 p/wk for the privilege of having his park home on the land, however they can put that rate up. He once got quotes to move it but the price was $10 000 and that was a while ago.
His wife works as a nurse and has recently had heart surgery, He got run over by a road rage driver 2-3 years ago, requiring him to have 4 months off work (which exhausted their cash reserves) as his hip was broken, He now limps badly.
He¡¦s looking at working another 5years and then retiring, though he¡¦s finding the world is changing rapidly, and he¡¦s hesitant to change with it (not interested in learning how to use a computer though his job requires a basic understanding of it). And when he retires he¡¦ll have what little super his employer has provided, his wife will have more due to being a nurse in a public hospital though..
What I¡¦m saying is this
„h Think about your future and providing for yourself and your own.
„h Health is important, look after your body
„h The world is a rapidly changing place, try to keep up
„h Opportunities will always pass you by, sometimes you have to reach out and take them.
„h Assess where you are now and where you want to be, then plan for it.
„h You can always learn from others, some of these people have done well for themselves, others have not, even some who spent 25+ years in the public workforce.Can anyone else think of anything to add to this ??
As talking to some of these people make you realise you have to have a plan for your retirement.. like the Axiom “that a ship without a sailing plan and a chart will just drift about in the sea wasting and burning valuable fuel”
Will your retirement be comfortable… ?
REDWING
“The man that thinks at 5o as he did when he was 20 has wasted 30 years of his life”
“This is your captain speaking
“Welcome aboard flight 321, or is it flight 123, perhaps flight 132. We are about to take off. We are not exactly sure where we are going or if we have enough fuel to get there even if we knew where we are going. Don’t worry just sit back, relax and enjoy the day”
Sad but true. Too many people live their lives this way. Luckily this forum by its nature has a number of people that know that the government will be unable to afford to keep them as they get older and are doing something themselves about it!
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