Budgeting in pre-retirement and cleaning up your finances for the new year
The cost of living is really biting hard this year, so it's time to talk about how we can squeeze a little more out of our budgets, and reshape our finances for 2024.
The rising cost of living is biting everyone hard right now so this week I chat again with friend of the show and Brisbane radio personality, Spencer Howson, talking about how we can squeeze more out of every dollar.
We work through some helpful tips for managing the cost of living, how to go about budgeting in your pre-retirement years, and how to take a hard look at your big financial picture, contemplating the changes you might need to make in the months and years ahead.
We all need ways to save money right now - and this episode is packed with them.
Listen now
LISTEN HERE - LATEST EDITION (S1E10) - OMNY
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In episode 10 of Prime Time, we dive in and discuss:
Some simple tips and examples of how we can bring down our cost of living. The best ways to look over your expenses, subscriptions and costs of the things you buy regularly and reduce unnecessary expenses quickly.
What did you learn about money as a child from your parents? We discuss some of the big lessons that were taught to us as children that sit as the foundation of how we think about money today.
Setting your savings goals in your pre-retirement years, understanding your superannuation and how much you want to have in the account when you retire.
Understanding how much we spend on everyday cost of living expenses and how we can benchmark that. Figuring out where we can squeeze it, so we can get money into savings.
The importance of building our ability to have ‘choice’ in life and how to prioritise the things that are going to get you into the position of having it.
The big red flags that we are not managing our cost of living well or budgeting effectively.
What are the key things people should think about when they think about their budgeting?
How can we account for the cost of living changes? Working through the cost of the lifestyle you want to live. Understand your basic costs and how much you can afford to live on versus how much you do live on. ‘
Think about your debt, and reconsider how you might want to think about debt as you approach retirement.
We need to talk about your bank - and how you get good interest rates in the second half of life. In the pre-retirement years, your banking needs change, particularly as you pay down your mortgage and have to generate a return from cash. And banks remain focussed chiefly on home lending.
Understanding passive income and when to start drawing on it. Understanding at what point you move from needing your working income to live off; to living off income from your savings and superannuation.
Transition to retirement - the phase where you can enjoy some passive income and some working income, as you move between the stages of life.
The biggest traps that people fall into when predicting and planning for their retirement income
Loyalty tax - when was the last time you reviewed whether you are getting a fair deal from you utilities, insurances and other service providers. Are they offering you the same rate they offer the market?
How do we build flexibility into our retirement budget? A helpful way to think about emergency funds, and what you might need to have at your fingertips.
A warm Christmas message
The holidays are here. I want to say thank you to everyone in our Prime Time community for listening in, and to thank you for spreading the word! Our little podcast has already reached more than 35,000 downloads! A great feat for 2023. I also want to say a huge thank you to our wonderful guests this year and give a big shoutout to Genevieve Rule, the show’s producer and the whole team at 9 Podcasts!
Prime Time will be taking a very short break, for the Christmas week, and we’ll be back in the second week of January, ready and roaring with new episodes.
So have a wonderful Christmas and happy New Year and please, take a minute to leave us a review on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
If you are enjoying Prime Time with Bec Wilson, or have feedback, ideas or thoughts on things you’d like us to cover, drop me an email at bec@primetimers.net.
Together let’s make our prime time count.
Many thanks! Bec Wilson
Author, columnist, retirement educator, podcast host and guest speaker