Today, we’ll check out the retirement planning journey of Tony and Anna. They’re a typical Australian couple with a mortgage, and that’s costing them $3,500 per month. They’ve got 15 years remaining on that loan, so they expect to have it repaid by the time they retire. They haven’t focused on their superannuation in the past, and together they have a combined balance of $295,000, which is roughly average for a couple of their age. Tony is 50 and he’s earning $80,000 a year, while Anna is a little younger at 48 and she earns $65,000 a year. They don’t expect that their incomes will change significantly between now and retirement, apart from just going up with inflation. So they’re starting to wonder if they’re going to be able to reach their retirement goals. Next, we’ll take a look at what those goals are.
Tony’s always planned to retire at 65, and Anna doesn’t want to work while he stays at home, so she’s planning to stop work at the same time when she’s 63. They’d really like income of $75,000 per year, which is actually more than they’re living on right now after they pay their mortgage repayment.
But they’ve always had a dream to travel both in Australia and around the world, and they’d like to use their retirement years to do that. They even have a stretch goal of having $85,000 per year until they turn 80, when they’ll be more prepared to wind down their lifestyle and start to stay at home. Lastly, they’re really concerned that their income should last for life because the last thing they want is to end up living on the age pension alone, with no savings and no other safety net. The first thing for our couple to look at is what we call the do nothing scenario. What if they just keep paying their mortgage, living their life and don’t make any extra contributions to super?
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