We have been using a financial planner for about 3 years, Troy McPhee (
www.adviserfp.com.au). The key message he gives us is that the decisions we make when we are young have a huge consequence on the funds we will have in our old age.
If I squirrel away a little bit each year, when I am young, I can double or triple what I will have in retirement.
When we rely exclusively on the 9% super plan, in most instances this will provide insufficient funds for retirement.
Every year that we postpone retirement, we considerably increase the value of our retirement savings, as those savings have had an extra year to grow before we start chipping away at them. Retiring at 55 sounds attractive, but could be a very poor financial decision in the long run. Even pushing on to the age of 58 or 60 will make a huge difference later on.
Most financial planners will charge their fees from your super monies, so you do not have to part with your current cash flow to get that advice. It has been great for my wife and I, as for a modest fee from our financial planner, we have been set some achievable targets which will make a huge difference in retirement. Having someone to report to each year keeps us accountable, and takes some of the angst out of the discussion that might otherwise exist between spouses with competing ideas.
I cannot recommend more highly the value of getting some advice from a financial planner. They are like consulting a doctor, except for your financial health rather than physical health.
There are some shonksters in the financial advisory industry, so one has to be careful. As a litigation lawyer I have brought cases (and have one currently) for clients who have lost lots of money in dodgy investments. Be careful who you consult.