News

Retirement Planning... How Much Money Do I Need To Retire?
By Gary Lucas of DMG Financial Planning
September 7, 2011

The first step is to determine how much income you require to live the life you want.  The Association of Superannuation Funds in Australia (ASFA) Retirement Standard provides some guidance.  It contains detailed budgets of how much singles and couples need to spend to fund either a modest lifestyle or a more comfortable lifestyle.  For example to live a comfortable lifestyle, it is estimated that the following income is appropriate;

  • Single is $772 per week or $40,121per year.
  • Couple is $1,057 per week or $54,954 per year.

Of course this is only a guide and you need to tailor this amount to your situation.  You can do this by completing a budget and we have an excellent free version on our website at http://www.dmgfinancial.com.au/financial-calculators/  

It requires a brief registration before you sign in and is very easy to use from there.  Alternatively we can help you to calculate the figure as part of our initial interview.  Don’t worry, it does not have to be exact as we always ensure that your finances are structured with enough flexibility to meet your changing needs.  If in doubt allow a little extra as it is better to have the income and not need it rather than need it and not have it.  Any unused surplus can be reinvested.

Once we have a figure we can start to build the model to calculate your overall amount needed.  We will allow for any taxes (we aim to reduce this to zero and even generate refunds) and we will index this figure to allow for inflation.

Next issue: Including capital items