

I’ve watched my aunty move into retirement over the last few years, transitioning from uncertainty and worry at what her new world would look like, to lately, really embracing this new chapter of her life.
In fact, she’s really helping me to redefine what it looks like to be retired.
The old cliché is that retirement means whiling away your days playing golf, buying a caravan to tour Australia and joining a Bridge club.
But my aunty is a divorced woman, and for her, retirement has so far been about making travel plans, trying new things, and volunteering her time in the community.

Luckily, she had a long and successful career in education, and made some really smart choices with her super long ago which are now paying off.
I am taking note, as a single woman myself, newly self-employed! – and I realise watching her now, that it’s so important to plan for your retirement earlier rather than later.
I spoke to Damian Lillicrap, Head of Investment Strategy at QSuper, who moonlights as the Bare Naked Economist, about the latest thinking on how much money we need to retire comfortably.
The industry releases figures every few months calculating what a ‘comfortable’ retirement costs.
Top Comments
I understand this is an ad for a Super Fund. What readers need to know though that someone of that age working in Education would have been in a Defined Benefit fund. The majority of the workforce won't get to experience the returns you get from DB funds.