Empower Blog Age Pension

Improving Financial Literacy

In previous newsletter articles, we looked at the results of an international study which highlighted the high poverty rate amongst older Australians compared to other countries. In this newsletter, we look at a recent international study which casts Australia in a more favourable light. The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (P...

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Key Changes you need to know about your Retirement and Pension

So with the recent budget in May this year, the Federal Government announced a few changes in relation to Centrelink. In particular, the one that got a lot of media attention was increase in the age entitlement. It was recommended or suggested to increase the age pension entitlement from age 67 to 70. This would be phased out over the next few year...

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The Impact of the Federal Budget on your retirement

In recent articles in this series, we have discussed the state of incomes of older Australians compared to other developed nations, and concluded that we fare very poorly in such a comparison. In this article, we take a look at the proposals contained in the May 2014 Federal Budget and how they may impact on the wealth and lifestyle of older Austra...

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Whose Responsibility?

If Old age poverty rate were to still be at its current level of 35.5% by 2050, we would be facing the prospect of over 10% of Australians living in poverty at a time when they should be enjoying their desired retirement lifestyle. Would it be the responsibility of the Superannuation or the Age Pension to avoid this? Will they even work? In an e...

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Nothing ever Changes if Nothing Ever Changes

Have you considered if your retirement income will sustain your lifestyle? If not perhaps it is time to put away the fear of change and act now. Households are going to be in for a rude shock in retirement, as they come to terms with reduced income and the impact on their lifestyle unless they start acting now. There is a rule of thumb to help ...

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