When we traveled up from Adelaide to Broome/Kununurra we were quite surprised at how many grey-nomads had sold their family house and were travelling full time.
I couldn't bear to not have a "home base" to go back to. The security of a familiar place to return to rates highly with me, but obviously not those people.
I'd miss not having a shed.
Yes, I want to have a base to return too. Fortunately, the daughter and grandkids are renting our future base and we expect will be there indefinitely. Rather than just go and stay away, we'd like to go in about 3-4 month stints with periods in between at home, to keep in touch with the family and rest.
I'm deeply envious of the BIL and his wife who have arranged to have the whole of 2018 off on leave from their jobs, using accumulated long service and holiday leave and forward banked leave, taken at half pay, so they can wander off in the old 80 and caravan. Timing doesn't work for us - a year too early. Good idea though.
This is very interesting, especially for people like me who does not have any pension scheme.
According to the website, to live in QLD you currently require $5000/month to live "comfortably", $60k a year and if you plan to live say 15 years after you are 65, basically $1M is required.
I'm 51 and obviously have thought about retirement and where the funds will be coming from. I do want to leave some inheritance to the kids to.
I have invested in property albeit I still need to do something to top this up if I want to leave something for the kids.
Living in Africa is cheaper (much!) than Oz, however I want a base there too. So my plan is to have income coming in all the time, ie rental type income to fund the future.
Those that are over 55 their is a transition to retirement scheme. The way I understand it you put your full wage into super and then draw an income out of your super. Their is a minimum % that you need to draw out, and once you start their is no going back. I think the benefit is that you actually reduce the amount of tax you pay, and you build your super at the same time.
Not into my 50's yet, but we do have a basic plan in place, hopefully having a 2ndary income stream in place to go along with super.
My advice to anyone starting in the work force is while you have a disposable income use it wisely and look into some sort of investment that will give you a residual income in the future. But only invest the money that you can afford to loose.
I bought an older truck.. If I build the body badly I'll be driving a shed!
As for the plan.. Well, build the house, then the shed! Once I have a shed, the truck will become an Expedition Truck. By that time Wifetec will be due long service leave, so that will be the first big trip. If it all works out, then we plan to take a year out and travel around Australia having rented the house out. From there its a case of see how it goes.. Continue renting and keep going...? Eventually plan to sell the house and head back to Africa. The world is changing sooo fast and not for the better in a lot of ways, so having the ability to up sticks, turn the key and go wherever we feel like has quite an appeal! Spudboy, I hear you re having a base, and was always keen to have one, but I'm starting to think/realise that that may be what holds us all back. Being able to trundle around and stop where you feel like it, without having the costs of a house, cars, etc etc has to be easier, and being able to stop and work on stations, or wherever would make it fun! We'll see where the truck takes us I guess!
I retired (not really willingly) in my fifties, over twenty years ago. I thought I was reasonably well set up, with good super, my own land where we planned to build, and owning our house, which we planned to sell to pay to build a house, and a fair reserve in cash and shares.
We did not get as much as we had hoped for the house - of course, the market picked that time to fall. And, as usual, the house cost more to build than expected. But we were not doing too badly. Got the house finished more or less by the end of 1995.
Shortly thereafter, my wife became ill, which took a lot of time and effort to deal with, and also a fair bit of money, mostly from travel and accommodation, but also for oxygen and special equipment. She died in 1999, in Melbourne while waiting for a tissue match for a lung transplant, costing me nearly two months accommodation.
Since then I have seen my reserves slowly dwindling (particularly since the big super losses after 2008), and am now on a part pension. But I am still managing, even doing a bit of travelling. Last year I sold my spare block of land.
I am managing on around $25,000 a year, a bit more if I to travel. The only regular bills for services I have are phone and internet, as I am self sufficient in power, water etc.
But the power system has been fairly expensive for replacement batteries and repairs, as well as fuel for the standby generator, although I do all the repairs myself.
My largest expense categories are taxes and insurance. The major items here are rates and motor vehicle taxes, and insurance, all of which go up much faster than my income does. Other expenses include things like medical and dental, although much of that is regular under insurance, food, of course, and clothing/household/household repairs.
Other significant expenses include vehicle maintenance and fuel and oil, with tyres being the biggest repeating item, but I have just had to order a new canvas for my 2a, which was pretty expensive.
By living simply and doing most things yourself, you can live reasonably cheaply, but there are a lot of major costs that are hard to avoid, especially taxes and insurance (and not having insurance can easily see you lose your home).
John
John
JDNSW
1986 110 County 3.9 diesel
1970 2a 109 2.25 petrol
Those that are over 55 their is a transition to retirement scheme. The way I understand it you put your full wage into super and then draw an income out of your super. Their is a minimum % that you need to draw out, and once you start their is no going back. I think the benefit is that you actually reduce the amount of tax you pay, and you build your super at the same time.
Not into my 50's yet, but we do have a basic plan in place, hopefully having a 2ndary income stream in place to go along with super.
My advice to anyone starting in the work force is while you have a disposable income use it wisely and look into some sort of investment that will give you a residual income in the future. But only invest the money that you can afford to loose.
This is very interesting, especially for people like me who does not have any pension scheme.
According to the website, to live in QLD you currently require $5000/month to live "comfortably", $60k a year and if you plan to live say 15 years after you are 65, basically $1M is required.
I'm 51 and obviously have thought about retirement and where the funds will be coming from. I do want to leave some inheritance to the kids to.
I have invested in property albeit I still need to do something to top this up if I want to leave something for the kids.
Living in Africa is cheaper (much!) than Oz, however I want a base there too. So my plan is to have income coming in all the time, ie rental type income to fund the future.
Scary stuff isn't it?!!
Cheers, Jerry
That's good, and we're doing some of that right now, but I recommend you also open a superannuation account with an industry fund (not retail, they charge too much). There are significant tax advantages to saving into super. You can start a fund with any super fund, even if you don't work in the industry. I don't think you have to be living in the country, just make regular payments into the fund. Super funds have financial planners who can help with planning your transition to retirement. They will do an initial consultation free and then there are levels of planning they will do for a fee. The super fund planner will be cheaper than using an independent planner.
When you retire that will mesh with pensions.
Note also there is a rule about how long you have to have lived continuously in Australia to qualify for a pension - I think it's 10 years. There are also rules about how long you can live overseas and still receive an Australian pension. I don't know your situation of course, so I just recommend you do some research. https://www.humanservices.gov.au/cus...nk/age-pension
Bookmarks