Vidya Rajappa

At the last election, older Australian voters determined the outcome, sending a strong signal not to burden their residential property with new taxes. Since then, those same senior citizens have had their health, incomes and hopes hit hard by a pandemic, lockdown and endless bad news like the Aged Care Royal Commission. Moreover, the latest federal budget provided no significant new funding to meet the huge gap in aged care costs.

As super funds prepare to publish their retirement income strategies to comply with the new Retirement Income Covenant, the next question is what are they going to do differently? What innovations will be available to help members in retirement? Tom Freston, co-founder of MTV said "Innovation is taking two things that exist and putting them together in a new way". This quote highlights how sometimes a simple innovation can bring a large benefit.

There is no doubt preparing for the move from work to not working can be stressful but that doesn't mean it should be avoided. Rather, appropriate planning and access to relevant information should reduce the anxiety for this potentially exciting new stage. Many surveys reveal that retirees are reticent to spend their savings and are more willing to lower their living costs than make financial and investment decisions which can result in them running out of money.