If you have a choice to transition to retirement gradually rather than making a spontaneous decision to ‘just retire now’ you are more likely to have a better life in retirement by planning to retire rather than ‘just stopping work’.

Retirement forms the foundation of making another lifestyle for you and your spouse or partner.

By the time most people transition into retirement, they have raised their family and often have Grandchildren, own their own home, have a modest bank account balance and have already enjoyed a number of years with minimal financial and emotional responsibilities.

The entire above scenario exists in a perfect life and we all know that today, our prefect life, no matter how well planned, can come ‘unstuck’ very quickly through no fault of our own.

Transition to Retirement

Our Superannuation funds have been depleted severely by the continuing financial chaos in the world economy; our health costs have risen and in many cases, having health insurance has become too expensive for many people at the time of our lives when we may need it the most. Our perfect retirement is starting to look more “like a Dogs breakfast” as we say here in Australia.

In fact, many people have now put off their retirement for a few more years simply because of the uncertainty.

While some have delayed their retirement, others have been retired non-voluntarily.

The loss of a job in combination with involuntary retirement often leads to severe stress. This stress can sometimes lead to domestic arguments which only combine to make a stressful situation worse. Here we hope to be able to offer you some information and advice that will be helpful and at worst, do no more than let you know that you really aren’t alone with this sudden transition to retirement that has been forced on to you and your family. It is always good to know that one is never alone and others are faced with the same sudden scenario in their lives.

Today there are many divorced single women living alone who have been involuntary retired with no or very little superannuation and have now become totally dependent on Centrelink benefits. For non-Australian readers, Centrelink is our social security system in Australia. Most western English speaking countries are fortunate enough to have in place a social security system in one form or another.

For many baby-boomers now facing retirement, married, single, divorced they are all faced with the same financial problem of being retired without adequate funding. Superannuation was a financial product that only some of the wealthier members of the population enjoyed prior to 1986.

So what is superannuation?

Superannuation is a form of savings for a retirement pension.  The industry wide superannuation laws were only made into industrial law in 1986 in Australia so many baby boomer retirees today have not had time to build up enough savings to live on. The income from these funds in combination with a part-pension from Centrelink, now form the bulk of retired people’s income for a very large percentage of people who have recently transitioned into retirement.

Retirement is more than just about money; but without enough money to live comfortably on, life can become very unhappy, unhealthy and lead to a very sad, boring and often lonely life.