Will my super feed me or will I be singing for my supper?

Young women, you think you have plenty of time… the world is yours, but time flies—take it from this Baby Boomer looking to retire.

As discussed in my last post, I found myself in the role of a struggling single parent with two children to support. I had to have a plan to survive.

If it wasn’t for negative gearing and superannuation contributions, I would not have been able to turn my life around and be in the position I am in now.

My one regret

When I was younger, I did what a lot of young women still do… I decided my future lifestyle was way too far off to care about. It was around 20 years ago when a financial planner worked out a sensible plan to prepare for my retirement, but I did not follow his advice. This is a rare regret.

If I had made more contributions to superannuation when I was in a position to do so, it certainly would have made a difference now.

But I had goals…

Let me share it with you as it is possible to get ahead, I promise you. My plan:

• To turn my life around;
• Deal with each challenge and not let it beat me;
• Provide a better lifestyle for my children;
• Change my career path;
• Work my career around my children’s lives;
• Gain my degree;
• Pay off my house loan;
• Buy a new car; and,
• Invest in a property.

From years of discrimination and knock backs (in that era) I knew my objectives were going to be difficult to meet, however I was determined to meet them and I finally did.

Returning to university for my degree has been the best “foot in the door” ever for successful employment opportunities including years of sacrifice to pay off  my home loan.

Changes for the better

There was no compulsory superannuation early in my career, however the law changed for the better. I am thankful that in 1992 the Keating government introduced a compulsory “Superannuation Guarantee” system to address our retirement income.

Later in life as my career progressed, and as my income increased, I took advantage of the opportunity to buy an investment property and I was able to negative gear the property.

For approximately eight years now, I have worked with a financial planner and at last feel as though I have some control over my life.

Losing faith, hoping as I wait

Only recently when I read of potential new changes to the law for superannuation, negative gearing and the pension rules do I feel unsure about my quality of life in my retirement years!

Consequently when our present government raises topics such as ‘reviewing negative gearing” and ‘reviewing superannuation plans’ do I feel like standing on a huge platform to protest!

How dare the government change their minds and even consider touching our savings that will support us for our remaining number of years as we age.

Life gets shorter and we deserve a break. After all the majority of us have worked hard and strived in readiness for our later years in life and to become self sufficient and avoid living off the government.  I tend to wonder if this is the right way to go after all.

And… if you are a pensioner the age pension rules are changing and it is  likely there will be a reduction in pensioner entitlements as of 1 January 2017.

Playing catch up

Baby Boomers began ‘behind the eight ball’ and women are still trying to catch up. To hear things could change makes me lose confidence and trust in a system that I believed was there for the Aussie worker who does a ‘fair days work for a fair days wage’.

For the moment it seems that it is a waiting game to see if my super will finally feed me my supper accordingly and in a manner that I struggled for in the first place.

Time will tell and in the meanwhile I will stick with my plan.

Your thoughts?