What’s Planned for 2024
HAPPY NEW YEAR
I do hope you had an amazing Christmas with your loved ones, and that you managed to welcome the New 2024 Year with people that you care about, family or your friends.
I have a feeling that 2024 will not be an easy year (again!) but it will not be as difficult as the one we just completed.
I think markets will continue to be volatile, government will continue introducing lots of changes that will impact your financial decisions, so you need to stay updated to be able to make informed decisions. Technology will continue to evolve and will become a great part of our life, even within our financial decisions.
Let’s first review what happened in 2023:
1. Our government has introduced few changes in relation to the Downsizer Contributions encouraging retirees to utilize funds from the sale of their family home to improve their retirement incomes and quality of their lives. You can read: “Downsizer contributions updated: good, bad and smart”
2. Then we had a very controversial tax being introduced to super: “Extra tax for Super, not only for wealthy”
3. We had a new budget introduced for 2023-24 that will continue impacting your financial position this year as well, so if you need a refresher: “Government Budget 2023-24 – what in it for you?”
4. From 1st July 2023 we had some super changed introduced that will also apply in 2024: “Super changes from 1st July 2023”
After having gone through the last year, this is what I have planned for you in 2024:
1. Changes to superannuation that impact you immediately or in the near future, especially when preparing for retirement,
2. Tax issues that soon to retire Australians should consider very seriously
3. Superannuation and death taxes – well it might surprise you to find out, but super is one f the very few places death taxes are imposed upon, so what can you do to reduce or remove those altogether
4. Age Pension – obviously I will provide you with all the updates of any changes either introduced or to be considered by the government, so you can get ready and choose the best course of action how to minimise impact on your situation
5. Retirement income streams – this is on our government’s agenda now, so it is imperative that you fully understand choices introduced to you and which one is really of benefit and which one to avoid, no matter what your super fund says.
6. Advice – our government has been reviewing the way financial advice, retirement and superannuation advice has been provided to Australians over the last couple of years, and it is determined to introduce lots of changes how the advice is being delivered to you, so I will explain different options becoming available, benefits and traps of those new forms of advice.
7. Technology – due to technological advances, you will find more and more information will be available to you by the use of internet, the problem is that it is becoming more and more difficult to distinguish the difference between a legitimate information and a scam, so as much as technology can assist, this can also potentially increase the risk of incorrect financial decisions.
8. Your questions answered – I have a whole collection of different questions from viewers, so I will most certainly now start creating videos to answer you questions to your real issues.
For now, I would like again to take this opportunity to wish you a very happy and prosperous New Year 2024.
If you would like to gain my knowledge about how to set up your savings in your particular situation, feel free to set up a meeting for us.
On each page of my website there is a button to book a meeting.
This will take you to my personal calendar, where you can choose the day and time for us to meet either in my office in Boronia if you are in Melbourne or digitally via Zoom if you are elsewhere.
To learn more, this is my recommendation for today:
- “What can I do with super in retirement” – explains your retirement options.
- “The challenges of retirement in Australia” – great eye opener about real issues of retirement.
By: Katherine Isbrandt CFP®
Money Strategist & Retirement Planner
Principal of About Retirement
