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I want to don my purple hat early - to be confident, authentic and just a little bit nuts!

nookodea

Superannuation changes have been prevalent in the press recently. Now, to be clear, I'm not up on all thing’s wealth management, but I’m trying to learn. I'm looking at financial advice, hoping to significantly improve my literacy and start putting a plan in place—whatever that might look like.


My darling Mum has been in care for almost 10 years, and in palliative care for more than 12 months. She battled chronic depression from about the age of 62, with physical symptoms like dizziness, exhaustion and respiratory issues. We lived half an hour from town so had to make the difficult decision for poor mum to go into care. Dad went to visit her every day, and the rest of the family visited every other day.

Even the best facilities are not fun places to visit. Hotel California—you can check in any time, but you can never leave. The average time in care for women is 3-5 years, for men it's less. And the costs are enormous: entry can range from $300k to $1.1M, depending on the care needs and the facility. Costs for care are around $100 per day, not including things like hairdressing, podiatrists, geriatricians and dental care - additional care or specialist services.


I won't even attempt to explain the aged care assessment and how the process of going into permanent care works. It's complicated and I'm still not clear about it. Thankfully I have a family member who’s taken control of this. What I do know is that it’s costly—not just financially, but also in time, energy and the emotional toll it takes on the whole family. There’s guilt, a sense of obligation, an overwhelming burden that’s felt by all. We love our mum, more than anything, but witnessing her slow decline is heartbreakingly difficult for us all.


This makes me think about how I'd like to see out my final years—what will my twilight look like?

I think we all want to be healthy and happy, to be surrounded by people you love, doing the things you love to do. However, I have been thinking about this and it seems very unlikely that this will be the case for us all. We are living longer than ever before (currently the average age of death in Australia is 83 for women and 81 for men) and modern medicine is keeping us alive, but not necessarily "healthy". There are greater instances of loneliness and depression in the aged sector, increasing year on year, one could conclude the happiness we seek may be just a bit more tricky to obtain. We will have some of the people we love, but we will also be experiencing the loss of our friends and family, our shared history, part of our identity. As our bones age and our body begins to break down, we lose our independence and our confidence, and our world becomes smaller, in which we do less of the things we love.


So, I've been thinking about a new approach. When I turn 65 (ish), I'm going back to my more reckless years (there have been a few) and doing it all again! I’d like to take up base jumping, street luge and any other high adrenalin sport/hobby. I'm keen to do cage swimming with Great Whites in South Africa, or just a dip in Sydney Harbour at sunset. I might even get a motor bike, despite the fact I struggle on a pushie. I'd like to travel to Berlin for the Love Parade and take a truck-load of party drugs, bought from some dude who thought I looked like a "Hip Gran". I want to increase my risk profile, tenfold.


How would this be perceived, you may wonder. Well, they say the difference between eccentric and mad is money.


To live out the latter years of my life on my own terms, I’ll need to be in a position to make decisions for myself and still have a significant degree of independence both physical and financial. While many of you may have realised this a long time ago, it’s only just occurred to me: I have 20 working years to get myself sorted for the final years of my life. It’s time to get my head around finance, superannuation and retirement planning. I need to get my “A” into “G”.


I've got a couple of things working against me. I'm single, female and had my super in a fund that was earning next to nothing once fees were taken out.

With a single income—around the average Australian wage—and a career that’s included stints overseas, working in the family business, hospitality and now sales, my super contributions are, frankly, crap. Making changes now is absolutely crucial for my future. I need time to grow some wealth, so I can live out my life the way I want to.


I've taken the first step and spoken to someone about my super. It was really interesting, and I actually learned a bit about myself. My understanding of finance isn't great, but it's better now. I've got another meeting with my "financial advisor" (such an adult!) next month to look at some other money stuff, that I don't yet understand but soon will.


Anyhow, however you want to see out the end of your life, it's worth thinking about it now. If you want to spend your time traveling around the world, ticking things off the "bucket list" you need to be financially competent and confident. If you want to be healthy and happy, start looking after yourself and your relationships, spend time nurturing the things you love. Good things take time, and our time is finite.





Excerpt from Erma Bombeck "If I had my life over"

(written after she found out she was dying from cancer). 


Age 3: She looks at herself and sees a Queen.

Age 8: She looks at herself and sees Cinderella.

Age 15: She looks at herself and sees an Ugly Sister (Mum I can’t go to school looking like this!)

Age 20: She looks at herself and sees “too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too straight/too curly”- but decides she’s going out anyway.

Age 30: She looks at herself and sees “too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too straight/too curly” – but decides she doesn’t have time to fix it, so she’s going out anyway.

Age 40: She looks at herself and sees “clean” and goes out anyway.

Age 50: She looks at herself and sees “I am” and goes wherever she wants to go.

Age 60: She looks at herself and reminds herself of all the people who can’t even see themselves in the mirror anymore. Goes out and conquers the world.

Age 70: She looks at herself and sees wisdom, laughter and ability, goes out and enjoys life.

Age 80: Doesn’t bother to look. Just puts on a purple hat and goes out to have fun with the world.


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