• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

SuperGuide

Superannuation and retirement planning information

  • SuperGuide Premium
  • Account
  • Log In
  • SuperGuide Premium
  • Account
  • Log In
  • How super works
    • Super for beginners
    • Super rules
    • Employers guide to super
    • Super contributions
    • Super and tax
    • Accessing super
    • Super news
    • Women and super
    • Super tips and strategies
    • How-to guides
    • Super quizzes
    • Superannuation Q&As
    • Superannuation glossary
  • Super funds
    • Best performing super funds
    • Super fund rankings
    • Best performing pension funds
    • Pension fund rankings
    • Super fund average returns
    • Super investing strategies
    • Comparing super funds
    • Choosing a super fund
    • Choosing an investment option
    • Super fund fees
    • Insurance and super
    • Super fund profiles
  • SMSFs
    • SMSFs for beginners
    • SMSF administration
    • SMSF checklists
    • SMSF compliance
    • SMSF investing
    • SMSF pensions
    • SMSF strategies
    • SMSF Q&As
  • Plan your retirement
    • Retirement planning for beginners
    • When should I retire?
    • How long will I live?
    • How much super do I need?
    • Will I get the Age Pension?
    • How much will I spend in retirement?
    • Financial advice
    • Retiring overseas
    • Preparing for retirement
    • Retirement planning strategies
    • Retirement calculators and reckoners
  • In retirement
    • Income in retirement
    • Super lump sums
    • Super pensions
    • Age Pension
    • Working in retirement
    • Life in retirement
    • Senior concessions and services
    • Aged care
    • Estate planning
    • Super death benefits

Home / Plan your retirement / Retirement planning for beginners / Video: The first steps to planning your retirement

Video: The first steps to planning your retirement

October 9, 2020 by Tracey Spicer Leave a Comment

Reading time: 5 minutes

Bruce Manners from retirenotes.com talks to Tracey Spicer about some of the key factors that people need to consider when planning their retirement, the importance of passions, interests and priorities and how to test-drive your own retirement.

Transcript

Tracey Spicer

Full disclosure, when I started doing this job, I had no idea what a retirement plan was, let alone how to create one. Are you the same or are you a bit more organised than I am? Well, I’m delighted to be joined today by Bruce Manners from retirenotes.com. How are you, Bruce?

Bruce Manners

I’m well, thank you.

Tracey Spicer

Now, I’ve been reading some stuff on your site about how highly successful retirees rank planning far above anything else when it comes to a positive retirement. What are some of the key factors that people need to plan first up?

Bruce Manners

Well, they have to think about the money, obviously. Always people think about the money. And it’s important. I mean, retirement, you have to somehow pay for it. And my response to people is, look, go find a financial planner, find a good one, one that fits you. Margie my wife and I went to one put on by our superannuation fund, and this guy got up the front and we nudged each other and said, you know what, we’d never go to him.

And the best way to find one is to ask around your workplace. At the time, I was working on a campus, tertiary campus. And so I just asked people, who did you go see? And this woman kept getting named and we said, okay, let’s go see her. And when we got there, here we are, I was 61 at the time. Far too late to be doing this, by the way.


Advertisement
SuperGuide Premium is ad-free

But we’re sitting down across the desk from this woman, younger than our kids, wondering what does she know about life, death and taxes? You know, she knew a lot about taxes. But as we were talking, she was warm, she was listening to our questions. She seemed to understand us. She knew where we were at. And so we were just sold. So I’d say find a financial planner who can help you. That’s a first good step.

Tracey Spicer

So think about the budget, find an external adviser, financial planner. And then I guess the third thing is timing, because not everyone wants to retire. And some people, of course, simply have to keep working.

Yes. Yes. Well, some people simply don’t want to retire. I wrote a little ebook which is called Refusing to Retire, almost forgot the title. And I interviewed 13 people who just didn’t want to retire.

One was a 90 year old guy who had built up a real estate business. His son had taken it over. But one day a week he would go into the workplace. There was a farmer at the age of 83. He had retired at 60, had a hobby of making banjoes, would you believe. And so at 83 he was still making banjoes.

And there’s a woman in Melbourne where I am and she’s now 86 I think. She has worked as a checkout chick for 50 years for Coles. Think about that. She actually was there when the store opened and at Malvern in Melbourne she’s kind of an icon there. They just didn’t want to stop. So why stop if you don’t want to. Did that answer your question?

Tracey Spicer

They’re wonderful, wonderful stories. Isn’t it great to find a passion like that? You talk about doing a self-analysis. PIP – passions, interests, priorities. Could you extrapolate on that?

Compare super funds

Read more...

Advertisement

Yeah sure. Passions – what are you passionate about? You may be passionate about a cause, for instance. You may be passionate about your garden. You know, it can be anything you’re passionate about that actually captures your imagination.

And your interests are, what are you interested in? You might be interested in golf. You might be interested in joining Men’s Shed. Those kind of things. U3A – University of the Third Age and so on.

And then priorities. Priorities tend to be things like family, your health and those kind of things. Now, if you if you wanted to say, well, look, I’m passionate about golf. Fine, I don’t care. If that’s what you want, as long as it’s on the list of things you’re thinking about. It’s really worthwhile just sitting down and saying, hey, this is what I want to do with my retirement.

And don’t forget your bucket list. A bucket list is a good thing. Make sure you can do what you put on your bucket list. I mean, if you have an ambition to walk the Great Wall of China and you’ve got a dodgy knee, that may not be reality.

Tracey Spicer

Wise words there, is there any way you can test-drive retirement to see whether the plan you’ve chosen is appropriate?

Bruce Manners

Yeah, actually there is. We have these things called holidays and we have long service leave. One of the things you can do is take a month’s holiday. But don’t go anywhere. Stay at home. What are you going to do? Because staying at home for a month. You can actually test-drive, whatever you want to call it, your retirement, by simply saying, well OK, what am I going to do. What am I going to do for this week, and next week. And you begin to look around and try to work out what you can do.

Advertisement

If you want to be a gardener, OK, spend it gardening a few days each week. And you want to discover what’s in the city. Maybe go to a show. It really is a case of suck it and see what what what can you do in your community? And I think that’s a good way just to test it out. And of course, if you’re a couple, how do you get on with each other when you’re at home all the time.

Tracey Spicer

That’s a test in itself, isn’t it? I love your expression about gifting yourself time in retirement, because often when we’re busily working full time or raising children, we don’t think about that as a gift that we’re willing to give ourselves.

Bruce Manners

Yeah, yeah. Well, I think the big thing is that when you’re coming up to retirement, if you just sit yourself down and say, well, how many hours do I work. That’s easy to work out, 38 hours or whatever. But how long does it then take you to get to work and back? And then what about the stuff you do at home, you know, the emails or the phone calls you make for work and work that out.

And I think you’d be quite surprised. I mean, some people end up with 60 hours a week. Now, others are back in the 38, 40 hours. But the question is, you are getting yourself this amount of time every week. What are you going to do with it? Sitting on the couch watching television for 40 hours a week is really not an accomplishment.

Tracey Spicer

I agree entirely. So for someone who is watching this interview, what challenge would you put out to them in the next month to take the first step towards planning their retirement if they’re in the age bracket that’s appropriate.

Bruce Manners

Yeah, yeah. Look, I would suggest they actually sit down, think about their retirement and one of the best ways to think about it that I’ve discovered is to put it into small pieces. Too often we think of retirement as this big thing and who can plan 10, 20, 30 years ahead. That’s a problem. So I would suggest they sit down and say, OK, the first six months of retirement, what will I do? You could holiday for six months, you could do some renovation around the house. Those kind of things. Easy, six months.


Advertisement

But what’s going to happen in the first 12 months? What are you going to do there? And then what, about five years? Now that’s a longer time. Now I suspect most people can’t think five years ahead. I mean, we’re in a situation now where we are saying, you know what, in five years should we downsize in five years? So we do have something you want to do in five years time.

We think we’d like to have an overseas trip in three years. Depends on the budget, but those are the kind of things. And I think if you can get it into bite-sized pieces and then say, what do we want to do. The first 12 months are pretty easy, but what about from there on? That’s a fascinating question.

Tracey Spicer

It’s how to eat an elephant – one bite at a time. Thanks very much for the chat today. Really appreciate it.

Bruce Manners

Pleasure.

Want to plan your retirement but not sure where to begin?

Become a SuperGuide Premium member and access independent expert guidance on how to plan your retirement, including how much super you need, how long you are likely to live for, whether you could be eligible for the Age Pension, the implications of retiring at different ages, how to prepare for retirement and much more.

Includes performance rankings for 235 super funds and 166 pension funds, more than 600 articles, how-to guides, checklists, tips and strategies, calculators, case studies, quizzes and a monthly newsletter.

Find out more


Learn more about retirement planning strategies in the following SuperGuide articles:

What age should I retire?

December 1, 2020

Super tips and strategies if you are in your 50s

October 6, 2020

Super tips and strategies if you are in your 60s or 70s

October 6, 2020

Am I eligible for the Age Pension?

September 3, 2020

Countdown to retirement: Tips to help kickstart your retirement plans

June 1, 2020

What strategies can I consider to reduce tax on my super pension?

April 1, 2020

Is a bucket strategy the solution for your retirement income plan?

March 23, 2020

Guide to transition-to-retirement pensions (TTRs or TRISs)

March 22, 2020

Related topics

Plan your retirement Retirement planning for beginners

Related features

Video

IMPORTANT: All information on SuperGuide is general in nature only and does not take into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. You should consider whether any information on SuperGuide is appropriate to you before acting on it. If SuperGuide refers to a financial product you should obtain the relevant product disclosure statement (PDS) or seek personal financial advice before making any investment decisions. Comments provided by readers that may include information relating to tax, superannuation or other rules cannot be relied upon as advice. SuperGuide does not verify the information provided within comments from readers. Learn more

© Copyright SuperGuide 2009-21. Copyright for this article belongs to SuperGuide Pty Ltd, and cannot be reproduced without express and specific consent. Learn more

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

How super works
Super for beginners
Super rules
Employers guide to super
Super contributions
Super and tax
Accessing super
Super news
Women and super
Super tips and strategies
How-to guides
Super quizzes
Superannuation Q&As
Superannuation glossary
Super funds
Best performing super funds
Super fund rankings
Best performing pension funds
Pension fund rankings
Super fund average returns
Super investing strategies
Comparing super funds
Choosing a super fund
Choosing an investment option
Super fund fees
Insurance and super
Super fund profiles
SMSFs
SMSFs for beginners
SMSF administration
SMSF checklists
SMSF compliance
SMSF investing
SMSF pensions
SMSF strategies
SMSF Q&As
Plan your retirement
Retirement planning for beginners
When should I retire?
How long will I live?
How much super do I need?
Will I get the Age Pension?
How much will I spend in retirement?
Financial advice
Retiring overseas
Preparing for retirement
Retirement planning strategies
Retirement calculators and reckoners
In retirement
Income in retirement
Super lump sums
Super pensions
Age Pension
Working in retirement
Life in retirement
Senior concessions and services
Aged care
Estate planning
Super death benefits
Advertisement
Compare super funds

Free eBook

Beginners Guide to the Age Pension

Find out more

Footer

Important: Disclaimer

All information on SuperGuide is general in nature only and does not take into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs.

You should consider whether any information on SuperGuide is appropriate to you before acting on it.

If SuperGuide refers to a financial product you should obtain the relevant product disclosure statement (PDS) or seek personal financial advice before making any investment decisions.

Learn more

About SuperGuide

SuperGuide is Australia’s leading superannuation and retirement planning website. Learn more

Superguide Pty Ltd ATF Superguide Unit Trust as a Corporate Authorised Representative (CAR) is a Corporate Authorised Representative of Independent Financial Advisers Australia, AFSL 464629

  • Contact us
  • Advertise on SuperGuide
  • Careers

Before using this website

  • New to SuperGuide?
  • Terms and Conditions of Use
  • Financial Services Guide
  • Privacy Policy and Privacy Collection
  • Copyright Policy
  • Editorial Policy and Complaints
  • Disclaimer

  • SuperGuide Premium
  • Subscriber feedback
  • Sitemap