Noel Whittaker - Retirement made simple

International bestselling author, finance and investment expert, radio broadcaster, newspaper columnist, and public speaker, Noel Whittaker is one of the worlds foremost authorities on personal finance.

Noel reaches over four million readers each week through his columns in major Australian newspapers in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, and Brisbane. He is a contributor to various magazines and websites, and appears regularly on radio and television.

Noel is one of Australias most successful authors, with 22 bestselling books achieving worldwide sales of more than two million copies. His first book, Making Money Made Simple , set Australian sales records and was named in the 100 Most Influential Books of the Twentieth Century.

For 30 years, Noel was a Director of Whittaker Macnaught, one of Australias leading financial advisory companies, with more than two billion dollars under management. He relinquished all interests in that business in 2007.

In 2011 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia for service to the community in raising awareness of personal finance.

Noel is now an Adjunct Professor with the Queensland University of Technology and a member of the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) consumer liaison committee.

Retirement is a massive topic, because it covers such a myriad of issues, many of which are uncertain. These include how long you will live, the behaviour of markets, and potential changes to the law. So this book has been a huge project. It could not have happened without great support.

I am indebted to my wife, Geraldine, for spending many hours with me debating the content; my long time editor Helena Bond, and to our good friends Terry Quinn, Tony Hinton, Steve Williams, Susan Nutting, Doug Tynan, David Orford, and Scott Hartley, who spent so much time reading and commenting on the manuscript; and to Stephanie Ryan at the Queensland State Library for help with research.

I also must thank the following experts for their generous input in their specialist areas: Brendan Stone, Brad Monk, Michael Patman, Julie Lockeridge, Geoff Whiddon, Rhiannon Kanoniuk, and Pippa Elliott on financial advice; Stuart Forsythe and Cosette Woolley on superannuation; Ashley Owen on investing in shares; Margaret Lomas on property; Julia Hartman on tax; Tony Phillips on binding financial agreements; and Brian Herd on Estate Planning.

Special thanks to Sharon Felschow, who has been typesetting my books for 20 years; Paul Lennon, who has done a great job on the cartoons as always; and McPhersons, who have taken care of the printing as usual.

Thank you all for being on the team.

Thinking about retiring in the next 30 years? You are part of a quickly growing group. In 2019 there were 3.9 million retirees, with another 500,000 planning to retire in the next five years. And retirees are the fastest growing group in the country. In the 20 years ending 2031, the over-65s are expected to increase by 85% to 5.7 million and the over-75s by 101% to 2.8 million people.

A major factor that influences peoples decision to retire is financial security, but the sad reality is that the majority of retirees rely heavily on income from the government.

And women do it much harder than men. About 30% of retirees with no personal income are women only 7% are men. And while 36% of retired women rely on their partners income to meet their retirement living costs, just 7% of retired men do.

To make matters worse, increasing life expectancies mean growing pressure on the welfare budget, which is already strained by the massive blow caused to government budgets everywhere by the impacts of the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC) and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Its a double whammy for both the employed and the retired. The pressure to restrict access to age pensions is increasing as the numbers of over-65s increase. Yet those in the workforce are faced with trying to build funds for their own retirement at the same time as they are being called upon to support the growing number of aged people.

Thats the bad news. The good news is that accumulating wealth for retirement, and then keeping it secure after retirement, is still possible for those who make the effort to learn what to do. Better still, the recent discoveries concerning the ageing process are pointing the way to a long, healthy, and fulfilling life after 65. Thats why I call that period the years of fulfilment.

It could be a time of freedom freedom from debt, freedom from tight deadlines, and freedom from the demands of children and the workplace. It should also be a time of discovery when you are free to explore the things you have dreamed about.

But it will be a time of challenges as well. Most retirees have only two sources of income their own portfolio, usually in superannuation, and welfare. To get the returns you need for a long life, you need to invest in growth assets like shares, which by their nature are volatile. This means you need to be able to handle the share market having a big fall now and then. Furthermore, the continual changes to superannuation and the age pension system require ongoing vigilance. To this heady mix add estate planning, issues that can come with ageing parents, and ageing yourself.