Rising Tide Blog

Post Early Retirement – How can you start to plan for early retirement?

Posted by Matt Hale

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Let’s face it – if we had the choice and were in the right financial position, as much as we love what we do, we would all take an early retirement. Find me a person that doesn’t want to be sailing the Mediterranean at 50, playing golf three times a week, reading through the back catalogue of books they have been buying for years or finally learning to play the violin.

But is the reality different to what we imagine?  In our experience here at Rising Tide Financial, we don’t often see people radically changing their lifestyle when they retire.  There might be an extra trip overseas every few years for the irregular traveller, there may be an updated version of a car that you always wanted or perhaps you join the country club rather than being a casual player. Drastic changes just don’t happen as often as we think and our imagination may often be more adventurous than we are.

The one thing people enjoy most about retirement, especially when it is well planned, is the time to do the things you always wanted.  Whether that is spending time in your garden, playing golf, sailing, reading, spending time with the grandkids or chilling out in the shack down at the beach – the greatest luxury we can give ourselves, in early retirement, is time.

If you start planning early enough, you can be retired much earlier than you think.  It is about making some sacrifices now and thinking about what you want in the longer term. When you invest in your superannuation, for example, you are only paying 15% tax.  This is a saving already, and the more you can put in your super, the better the outcome in the longer term.

The first thing though is to have a plan – a sound financial plan that you can stick to and make work for you.  Start a savings plan, pay off the home loan a bit quicker if you can, take less holidays or less luxurious ones and spend on the essentials so you reduce your expenses – these are all simple ways to be retirement ready earlier.

Give us a call at Rising Tide Financial Services and we can lay it all out, have a look at the easiest ways to save or build an investment portfolio, and minimise your tax so you are better off in the long term.  Some small changes now may be the key to your retirement dreams.

It might be the smartest call you make this year.

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