Financial Planning
Insights & Advice

You can retire whenever you want. That is the short answer, and it surprises people every week. A lot of Australians treat 67 as “retirement age”, but 67 is only the Age Pension age. Your actual retirement date is your call, and for most people the real question is how to fund the gap between stopping work and the Age Pension starting.

That gap, typically from around 60 to 67, is the most dangerous stretch in most retirement plans. We recorded a podcast episode on exactly this, because the strategies that soften it are legal, well established and almost nobody has heard of them.

Why your super doubles fastest late in life, the rule of 72, and how inflation quietly compounds against you. Real examples from Australian advisers.

On 23 June 2026, the federal government agreed to ban self-managed super funds from using new limited recourse borrowing arrangements (LRBAs) to buy residential property. The Bill passed both houses of Parliament in under 48 hours, received Royal Assent on 26 June 2026, and the ban commences on 10 August 2026.

If your SMSF already holds residential property under an LRBA, nothing changes. If you were planning to set one up, the window has effectively closed. And if you were relying on this strategy as a core part of your retirement plan, it is worth understanding what happened, what the numbers actually show, and what still works.

A YouTube channel sent in by a client looked like genuine financial guidance from a retired accountant. It was entirely AI-generated. Here’s how to spot AI financial advice, what ASIC says about it, and how to check whether the person giving you guidance is real and licensed.

Three big SMSF rule changes hit Australians in 2026, including the residential property borrowing ban. Here’s what changed, who’s affected, and what to do.

ASIC just secured a record $300 million Federal Court penalty over CFD trading misconduct. Here’s what CFDs actually are, why 95 to 99 per cent of retail traders lose money, and how to protect yourself and your family.