Retired

Maintaining your standard of living in retirement 

Retirement is a major milestone. A downside is that your meagre state pension will only stretch so far. In many cases, it just won't be enough to maintain your pre-retirement lifestyle, especially when you factor in some extra expenditure for medical costs or the maintenance of your house. 

Fortunately, if you had a group insurance plan through your employer, you can cash in on this extra nest egg when you retire. When you add any additional retirement or long-term savings to your total pension pot – statutory and complementary retirement benefits combined – then you're probably in good financial shape.

Important tip: figure out for yourself how much you'll need per month to retire without worry or regret, and don't wait until after you've retired. This is an important exercise that involves estimating different inputs such as the length of your retirement and how long you expect to remain in good health but also how much to set aside for home maintenance or improvements and whether you have major expenses in the pipeline (e.g. buying a new car).

Once you've monetised all these factors, you'll have a good idea of how much you'll need to live comfortably and how much will have to come out of your pension pot. Based on your calculations, you may decide that you don't need to use any or just a small portion of your group insurance proceeds to achieve your retirement goals. If this is the case, reinvestment may be a good option.

Reinvesting your group insurance proceeds 

Once they retire, many people opt to reinvest some or all of their group insurance proceeds as an opportunity to further grow their nest egg. If you want to go this route, there is a vast array of investment products to choose from. For example, investment funds are a popular solution, especially if you lean in the direction of minimising risk. Some of the best known vehicles are Branch 21 and Branch 23 insurance funds: 

• The main benefit of a Branch 21 fund is the security of a guaranteed return.
  
• If you have a higher risk tolerance, you may want to consider a Branch 23 fund without a guaranteed return. In exchange for the higher risk and the absence of a guaranteed return, you get the potential for a greater investment return.

More details on Branch 21 and Branch 23

What if you want to work past conventional retirement age? 

The fact that you've reached statutory retirement age doesn't necessarily mean that you have to stop working altogether. If you think you might go a bit stir-crazy in the years of endless summer, work is still an option. Over the past few years, the federal government has put incentives in place to keep people on the job beyond statutory pension age, which is currently 65.

Find out more about working after your retirement