Client Stories explore real scenarios our clients presented in the Financial Freedom Service.
We explore their pain points, how these were resolved and what this enabled them to do in life going forward.
Customer names and some details have been adjusted for confidentiality purposes.
Background:
Richard (62) and Isabel (53) came to Jubilacion after browsing online. Richard works full time as a career academic while Isabel works part-time in health services. They have 3 teenage children.
Financially, they are on good salaries, own their home, have a superannuation balance of around $500,000 plus a share portfolio.
Why did they reach out to Jubilacion?
Richard had been in his current job for over 20 years, however there was recent talk of a redundancy. This acted as a catalyst. At 62 years old, could he afford to retire, or would he have to find another job if the redundancy affected him?
Richard had a relationship with a financial planner who had helped him with his investments but, as an academic, he realised he needed a different set of expertise to answer his long term questions about retirement projections, sustainability and safety.
Ultimately, his question was “Do we have enough to retire?”
They had goals to travel internationally every other year, complete a renovation on the house and gift money to their children.
Other questions they had were:
- If Richard retires now, will we still be able to meet our retirement goals?
- Can we afford our extra spending in retirement? Do we need to spend less on the renovation?
- How would a redundancy pay-out affect the figures?
Baseline results:
Jubilacion found that, allowing for market risk and life expectancy, Richard and Isabel’s ‘Safe Spending’ amount would be short of their retirement spending goal. This wasn’t so much of a shock to the couple as a wake up call in relation to how their finances would works in retirement and where their money will come from over the long term. They treated their baseline results as a reference point to work from, rather than a realistic target.
The issue was the renovation would put a large dent in their superannuation balance early in their retired lives.
Also, as a healthy 53 year, Isabel has a high chance of living well into her 90s. Ensuring there was still money available to fund her lifestyle 40 years into the future is a vital consideration to manage.
Jubilacion’s Age Pension calculations showed the couple would not be eligible to receive any Age Pension in future (mainly due to income generated from a defined benefit pension Richard would have).
Conclusion:
The services provided to Richard and Isabel allowed them to enter Richard’s redundancy talks armed with the information they needed to make informed decisions about their next steps forward.
Since discussions with Jubilacion, Richard has opted to take his redundancy payout and is more relaxed about looking forward to his next role as he knows they will be OK. They plan to continue in the workforce for a few more years yet, which allows them to carry out a nice renovation and enjoy their other goals with confidence.
Here’s what Richard had to say about why the Financial Freedom service appealed to him:
“I like the idea that it wasn’t financial advice per se, it wasn’t telling me which shares to buy in the stock market or how to invest my money. It was more strategic support around where I was situated in my overall financial position.”
Does this sound like you? Jubilacion can help!
Get in touch with our friendly staff today and find out how we can provide answers to your unique retirement questions.
