Hi , I'm looking for some advice on the following.
I'm 50 , working full time , married. We have combined super of 330k , 200k savings , A mortgage of 250k. The house is valued at 550k.
My goal is to pay of my home and live comfortably into retirement. Should I put the 200k onto the mortgage , or into my super, or invest it to gain more growth?
On top of that Im looking at having a career break for 12 months.This would be unpaid.Any help would be great.

Hi Paul,
Sounds like there is a bit going on in your life at the moment and a bit of thinking to do about your future.
If you want to live comfortably in retirement, I would suggest you see a financial planner/advisor about how to invest tax effectively whilst still a lifestyle that you can be happy with for the next 20 years.
You obviously have personal reasons for the career break but you will have to make up your own mind about what sacrifice that will be to your retirement
Best of luck with it
Regards
Scott

Hi Paul,

Very difficult one to answer on a forum such as this.

There’s an argument to be made for investing the $200k (if you think you can earn more than the interest rate on your mortgage). Just as there is a more conservative argument for using the money to pay down your mortgage.

What is appropriate for you will be determined by your appetite for risk.

Living comfortable in retirement means very different things to different people, so you’d need to work through what this actually means for you. Just as you’d need to give some thought as to how much longer you want to work for - 5, 10, 15 years or more? This will greatly impact your planning options and ultimately what retirement may look like for you.

The final thing I would caution is the career break. If your employer supports this type of thing and will keep a job for you - go for it. If you need to quit your current job then try and find something to go back to later - you might find getting employment again difficult. This all needs to be built into your retirement planning.

Please reach out if I can be of any more assistance.

Regards
James
03 9909 5800
james.wrigley@firstfinancial.com.au

Hi Paul.
As james has very rightly advised, your appetite for risk will determine what is appropriate for you.

Let me say that I have never seen anyone take a massive punt with their life savings and NOT regret the decision. It may be that I have been working with people at a time where things were a bit shakey.....eg GFC......eg droughts.....eg mining downturns........eg Wool Floor Price collapse (remember that one???). Or maybe bad shit happens all the time????

And remember that your ability to recoup losses associated with investment decisions at the age of 50+ is WAAAAYYYY less than your ability to recoup investment losses at the age of 40.

get some advice about what you should do with the $200k. It seems logical to conclude that if you are having a year off unpaid, the mortgage could use a fair chunk of it?


good luck
bc