Along with the raft of legislative change, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has also introduced new licensing requirements for accountants who work with and advise SMSF Trustees. Only approx. 10% of accountants have complied with these changes to date.
As such if you, as many, consider your accountant would be your 1st port of call for Financial Advice, they will likely advise you, they are unable to provide the information you require & should consult a qualified Financial Adviser / Planner.
This is general advice only & you should seek expert financial advice from a qualified financial adviser before acting on any of the information covered in these topics.
Start investing early, or you may run out of money….especially Australian women.
A recent report by the ‘World Economic Forum” has indicated “Australian workers will dramatically outlive their retirement savings”. It is estimated that on average, Australian women will outlive their retirement savings by 12.6 years, as opposed to men at 9.9 years.
As such Australians need to invest with a longer time frame in mind as well as seek expert advice around their asset allocation, being one of the main drivers to bridging the savings gap.
Many younger investors are far too risk averse and do not understand that there is a far higher probability of them outliving their savings as opposed to their fears about short term investment market volatility.
Short term swings in the Australian share market are commonplace. However over the longer term, a well diversified superannuation portfolio comprised of quality assets, with a focus on growth assets such as shares, should deliver average annual returns of 5%-7.5% over the longer term (7-10 years).
To put it another way, Australians should not be investing their superannuation in the same way they would if they were saving for a holiday in 9 months as the purpose of these savings is is to provide an income in retirement beyond the first 5 years of retirement.
For Australian women and men that are looking to retire in their mid 60’ s, they should be aiming at a superannuation balance that will support them for at least a further 20 years. A robust Financial Plan, will go a long way to achieving this goal.
As the famous English novelist ‘Lewis Carroll’ said, “if you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there”.
