Being able to enjoy yourself and have fun in retirement is something everyone aspires to. The one time you truly deserve to ‘let your hair down’ is when your working life is finally behind you.
Who doesn’t daydream about retirement? In fact, you may have been working on your ‘bucket list’ for decades!
All those exotic places you want to travel to are finally within reach. You will no longer be a slave to your alarm clock; your days are your own and you have unlimited free time. This is when you can finally take up a new hobby, pursue long-held interests and even pack in an adventure or two!
Fun in Retirement Comes at a Price
As exciting as that sounds, is your reality going to be retirement on a tight budget?
Could your days be spent coupon cutting instead of skydiving, and opening tins of soup rather than trying fancy restaurants?
A lot depends on answering the question “can I afford to have fun in retirement?” well ahead of time.
If you haven’t given this much thought, you are not alone. Many Australians have ambitious plans for retirement, without considering the way they can fund their post-work lifestyle.
How Much Money Do You Need to Ensure You Can Have Fun in Retirement?
Having enough to ‘survive’ on when you stop working is a long way from filling your days with entertainment, activities and travel.
How much is ‘enough’ for a comfortable retirement and to pay for fun extras is different for everyone.
The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) released a report following the 2022 March quarter, suggesting that if you are aged around 67, you will need an average budget of $29,632 as an individual to live modestly, or $46,494 to live comfortably. For a couple, the figures are $42,621 or $65,445 respectively.
That’s for those of you who are in reasonable health and own your property.
This could well cover you for many of the normal leisure and entertainment preferences and ambitions you may have. Though clearly, if you dream of exotic travel or moving to a hotter climate, that can bump up your target figures considerably.
However, with proper retirement planning advice, even those of you on a limited budget can pursue your own personal path to happiness.
Part of the challenge is deciding what you actually want – and how that can become reality.
After all, exploring the Amazon rainforest or buying a retirement villa on the Gold Coast of Australia is not for everyone. For you, retirement bliss might mean having no plans or appointments!
After a hectic working life with lots of business travel, your idea of fun might be hours spent in an armchair with a stack of books and your favourite alcoholic drink.
Even if your ideal situation is simple and stress-free, getting retirement planning advice means you have the level of financial security you need.
Money in the bank and a steady flow of cash to spend gives you peace of mind while you relax at home, wander around with your four-legged friend or take in a show.
It’s a myth that you can survive on a great deal less in retirement. Specifically, as in retirement you now have more time on your hands and a chance to get out and about. Even having sufficient cash for leisurely grocery shopping or car trips can make a big difference to your fun in retirement.
Spread The Joy
After many years of cramming most of your best times into far-too-short weekends or annual holidays, retirement means you don’t have to do it all at once!
Modern healthcare means as long as you eat well and exercise regularly, there’s a good chance you will have many active golden years to enjoy. Rather than dashing around trying to cram in as much as possible, you can spread your fun and available money over many months.
This also means spreading the yield from investments makes sense. Having one lump sum paying out when you retire is great for those who want to buy a 12-month cruise around the world, but others could find that large amount of cash too tempting to blow through too quickly.
This can be an important point for grandparents who want money to share the fun in retirement with youngsters. Having regular yields to look forward to can make regular outings, breaks, and treats your reality for many years. And of course, it can ensure you have some left for inheritance pots, too.
This means you need to plan ahead to create an income that ensures you can keep the fun times rolling, or reinvesting retirement yields in short or medium-term opportunities to make every penny count.
Invest For The Best of Times, With Extra Challenges
For some retirees, fun in all forms will depend on your state of health and fitness. This may be a product of people working much longer these days to ensure their retirement income will sustain them.
But why shouldn’t you still travel, learn new things and challenge yourself, even when you need specialist help and equipment?
Having “enough” cash can mean getting a boost to meet special challenges too.
Stretching Resources For More Fun in Retirement
Good retirement planning advice makes sure you have the cash for everyday stuff, special plans and to keep the fun times coming even when your physical abilities are limited.
When you finally do put work behind you and wake up to unfettered days full of endless opportunities, there are still things you can do to make sure lack of cash doesn’t put a stop to your fun.
Firstly, retirement planning advice can be vital after the event, as well as in advance! Stretching your more limited income further is sometimes best left to the professionals.
Also, don’t hesitate to take advantage of discounts for seniors and special deals. In fact, now you have more time, things like making meals from scratch, visiting places “out of season” and researching discounts can be much easier.
Fun in retirement doesn’t have to cost much. However, being careful with your cash and getting sensible retirement planning advice can certainly put the “fun” in your available “funds”.
If you aren’t sure whether you’ll be able to have fun in retirement, reach out to us at Yield Financial Planning. Your retirement success is more than just numbers on a page to us. We listen and get time to know you to ensure we find out what’s important to you and the retirement lifestyle you would like to have.
Yield Financial Planning is Here to Help
At Yield, we want you to be able to focus your energy on the pursuits you enjoy and the people that you love. We keep this in the forefront of our minds when discussing your retirement and finances. If you are interested in discussing a financial plan, please contact us.
