I have been back at work for just over a week and I’ve enjoyed my Christmas New Year break immensely. In fact, probably a little too much as it did take all week to adjust my mind and life once again to the rigours of a working week. For example, no longer am I able to take a small nanna nap in the afternoon.
To overcome the need for this adjustment, there is, of course, the Powerball jackpot. No doubt, like me, a huge number of people are dreaming of starting the year off with a bang by winning the 100-million-dollar jackpot. The chances of winning this jackpot are 1 in a 135 million, as opposed to the chances of being struck by lightning which is far better at 1 in 12,000. However, regardless of the odds and the fact I have no control over the result, I will invest some money and buy a ticket and dream.
At this time of the year, New Year’s resolutions are also a very common factor in people’s lives. I have never been big on making New Year’s resolutions, only because I can be a little weak-willed and find that within a couple of months I have broken them and fallen back into the habits I had committed to break.
However, there is one resolution every year which I do not break, and this is an important one at my age, my commitment to growing the balance of my superannuation.
At the beginning of every year, I look at the balance of my account and then budget for the following 12 months – working out how much I am able to salary sacrifice on top of my SGC and how much I can contribute post-tax.
At the end of the year regardless of how the markets have performed, I do feel a sense of achievement if I have been able to meet the targets I set myself at the beginning of the year.
At the age of 62 and with an ambition to retire in a few years, this is one resolution I do not break.
I should mention that of course, this does not consider any changes in the legislation because of the government’s budget, which will be bought down on April the 2nd instead of the usual date in May. Nothing suspicious about the change of date, it is more to do with a federal election which will be held on either the 11th or 18th of May.
So, I do urge you all to make one New Year’s resolution in relation to your superannuation and retirement savings – commit to it. Ensuring that when you to decide to leave work and drift off into the sunset you can do so in style, without having to worry about winning Powerball.
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