Financial Planning
Insights & Advice

Is superannuation the same as pension? Learn the key differences between super, account-based pensions, and the government Age Pension in Australia.

The most important non-financial issues to consider in retirement are housing (where and how you’ll live), daily purpose and routine, social connection, mental health and emotional adjustment, relationships with your partner and family, and physical health. Research from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare puts social isolation and poor mental health among the biggest wellbeing risks for older Australians, and the pattern we generally see in practice is that the retirees who struggle in the first year are almost never the ones with lower super balances. They are the ones who did not think through how they would spend their time.

This guide covers the non-financial side of Australian retirement planning: what actually shapes quality of life after work, what the current research shows, and how the non-financial decisions connect back to the financial ones.