Doing these things in 2024 can help you retire comfortably

The holidays are over for most people on Monday, so this week I want to inspire you to go beyond your New Year’s resolutions and get practical with your money.

Happy New Year! My first column for the new year appears in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Brisbane Times and WA Today today. And our first Prime Time podcast for the year went out on Thursday too. So that’s all today’s email will cover. I’ll send a full Epic Retirement newsletter later in the week.

I’m back to the office full bore on Monday after three wonderful weeks off! So I’m enjoying my last day on the beach - I hope you are too! Make it epic!

Many thanks! Bec Wilson

Author, columnist, retirement educator, podcast host and guest speaker

Doing these things in 2024 can help you retire comfortably

The holidays are over for most people on Monday, so this week I want to inspire you to go beyond your New Year’s resolutions and get practical with your money. It’s time to really put in place the actions that will allow each of us to build a better life.

This is the time of the year when intentions meet reality, when the rubber hits the road (or it doesn’t). It’s time to take the financial actions you promised you would, establish some new habits, and prioritise what truly matters.

If you’re heading for or in the second half of your life in 2024, I want you to set out and start working on some achievable and incrementally rewarding financial goals, designed to prepare you for your prime time and retirement years. I want you to get comfortable with gradually building up your nest egg, your financial confidence and your sense of purpose this year.

It doesn’t matter what stage of life you’re at, these steps are always important – but the closer you are to your prime, where the kids are becoming more independent, and you are too, the more important they become. Allow me to propose a few – see which ones resonate for the year ahead.

Step up your budgeting

If you don’t have an up-to-date budget you are flying blind or sailing rudderless, both of which are crazy things to do. So, with the start of the year, it’s time to build your 2024 cost-of-living budget afresh, taking in inflation.

Use this time of renewal to really dive in and explore how you can make your spending more intentional and less haphazard. (I have a free template you can use here.) And if you already have one, give it a good revision to make sure it accurately reflects your spending patterns.

Then take a long hard look at where you can save some money to put towards your important future-state goals like paying off your mortgage, putting extra money into superannuation or building your investments.

Dive into your direct debits and recurring expenses

The beginning of the year is a good time to stop, pull out your credit card and bank statements, and have a look at all the subscriptions and recurring payments you’ve signed up for, and see which ones you’re still using, which ones you can aggregate more efficiently and which ones you think you can forgo for a while.

There much more in this article. Read the rest of it here in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Brisbane Times and WA Today.

Happiness, marriage and mismatched expectations in retirement with bestselling author Joanna Nell

This week we talk about the secrets to success in retirement. It's particularly poignant for couples approaching retirement together.

Joanna Nell is a doctor, an advocate for positive ageing and the author of five best-selling novels. Her latest book, 'Mrs.Winterbottom takes a gap year', is a heartwarming exploration of mismatched expectations in your Prime Time years and early retirement. And it reinforces some of the importance of living life in the moment. 

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When I read her book, I felt like I was reading a fiction version constructed on many of the lessons I talk about in ‘How to Have an Epic Retirement’. So chatting with Joanna about the process of approaching a modern retirement was fun indeed. 

The idea and role of a ‘retirement gap year’, which can be a real time of reinvention, between one phase of life and the next. A gap year or a period of transition, seems like a terrific concept for early retirement, now that we are having a more active phase of life in retirement than ever before. A time to challenge ourselves and find out who we are for the next stage of our lives. 

Listen now

LISTEN HERE - LATEST EDITION (S1E11) - OMNY

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In episode 11 of Prime Time we have some great fun.