Andrew, 62, works full time as an IT Manager earning $250,000 p.a. whilst his wife, Alice, 61, is a stay at home mum. They have two children who are no longer financial dependents and have full guardianship of Alice’s niece who is now 17.

Andrew and Alice own their home and have two investment properties that are worth $1 million combined, with total debts of around $200,000. Both are currently being rented out however they’ll need to start looking for new tenants shortly for one of the properties as the existing ones are moving on.  Andrew has approximately $780,000 in his super fund whilst Alice does not have any super.

Andrew is no longer enjoying work and wants to retire. Alice doesn’t believe they can afford Andrew to stop just yet and thinks they’d be financially ready if he could just hold on working for another two years. Andrew reiterated he’s had enough of work and, because of this, would like to stop as soon as possible.

They have also been thinking of selling one of their investment properties due to the recent changes in rental rights that are causing them headaches. Both properties have increased in value since they purchased them. However, they are not convinced they’ll continue to keep going up. Alice is also worried about any tax implications if they were to sell whilst Andrew is still working.

Andrew and Alice are very uncertain about what direction they need to take and realise they are in desperate need of some expert guidance to ensure they have a comfortable retirement whilst also minimising the amount of tax they might need to pay if they were to sell.

Our first step was to gain more of an understanding of how they felt about their properties. Alice and Andrew both responded that they were ready to sell at least one of them now that their current tenants are moving out.

As a starting point, we prepared a retirement projection for them assuming one of their investment properties had been sold and Andrew has fully retired. From this, they were able to see they had sufficient funds to achieve their retirement objectives, which was significant news to both.

We spoke about the future of property prices and, whilst it was impossible to know where to from here, their focus should be on what selling the property would achieve for them, which is Andrew being able to retire now and fewer headaches with managing their rental.

We then proceeded to discuss their investment options for any surplus funds and the possibility of utilising superannuation as a way to further build their retirement funds and possibly reduce the amount of tax they would have to pay, especially if they were to proceed with selling one of their investment properties.

I walked them through the process of setting up their super to provide them with a regular income stream to help meet their living expenses. I asked them about whether they had any other plans with the funds, such as annual holidays or lump sum purchases like a new car. I then worked on their strategy to cater for these expenses also.

It also didn’t make sense for Andrew to have two separate super funds. Alice had previously been told that Andrew couldn’t move his super until he was 65. However, after completing my research, I was able to consolidate Andrew’s funds, ensuring his investment strategy was appropriate for their situation and to help meet their objectives.

Andrew and Alice were extremely happy that they sought my advice. They felt that a huge weight had been lifted off their shoulders and they now had all the information they needed to make an informed decision about their future. Andrew and Alice couldn’t thank me enough for providing them with the clarity they needed.