Simon and Kerry were looking for guidance on when they could realistically retire. At this point, Kerry was 60 and Simon was 65 and they were looking at working for a further 10+ years to enable them to hopefully retire on an income of $56,000 per annum. They have two investment properties and strong cash flow. Unfortunately, they were not making headway with their retirement planning as they did not have a budget in place, nor did they understand how to manage their cash flow.
What they wanted from us was to review their timeframe on when they could retire and we were committed to doing what was necessary to enable this to happen.
We started the process by asking them to complete our Cashflow Management Sheets to get a feel for how much it cost them to live at the time. It was important that they tell us as much detail as possible to enable us to design and implement a plan tailored to achieving their goal.
Once we understood their cash flow and spending habits we were able to develop a customised solution to maximise the income they earned, enabling them to pay down debt and increase their contributions to superannuation.
We went on to implement a seven year plan (three years shorter than their initial thoughts) and they are now on track to pay off $250,000 of debt and increase the balance of their superannuation fund by $168,000. This is a simple case of understanding cash flow and ensuring that it is allocated correctly for best future results, without impacting on their current lifestyle.