If you could retire today what would you do?

• Spend more quality time with your family and loved ones.
• Spend more time on hobbies.
• Try out new things.
• Travel to exotic destinations.

Whatever your retirement plans are, your dream retirement is a attractive goal to work towards.

After years of hard work, retirement is the time to enjoy yourself and live your dream. Retirement is the time to enjoy the things that you never had time for because of your work. And to fully enjoy your retirement days, you need to be free from financial stress. To be able to achieve that, you need to plan for your retirement earlier. The earlier you plan the better more prepared you are to live your dream retirement.

How To Design Your Dream Retirement

Here are the simple steps that can help you ensure that you enjoy your golden years from financial stress:

1. 1. Make a plan. We cannot stress enough how important planning is when you want to enjoy a stress-free retirement. Consider all your circumstances, including children and grandchildren, travel, health costs and spending changes in retirement. You should have a holistic plan that covers all of your needs, and risks that may have. Having a proficient financial advisor can help you get on the right track towards the retirement of your dreams.
   2. Establish goals. Break down your savings and investment goals into smaller goals. Instead of working towards one benchmark, work on multiple smaller goals, and put labels on them. For example, you can call your first batch of retirement savings as ‘renovate/move house fund’. Call your salary sacrifice as a ‘retirement travel fund’.
   3. Know where your money is invested. We cannot stress enough how important planning is when you want to enjoy a stress-free retirement. Consider all your circumstances, including children and grandchildren, travel, health costs and spending changes in retirement. You should have a holistic plan that covers all of your needs, and risks that may have. Having a proficient financial advisor can help you get on the right track towards the retirement of your dreams.
   4. Pay off your debts. When you are nearing retirement, paying off debt should be your top priority. Every time you don’t put a dollar towards paying off debt, you are charging yourself interest that you’ll have to deal with later on. That may sound hard, but retiring comfortably while making debt payments might be hard to achieve. So while you are earning a health income through your salary, focus on having a debt reduction plan.
   5. Look beyond your super. There are possibilities and entitlements to help you set up streams of income beyond your super. All you have to do is look beyond, government benefits are one of them. Check how much you may be entitled to receive from Centrelink in the form of an aged pension. If you are planning your retirement earlier, you may also be able to build another source of income such as cash-positive property or a share portfolio.
   6. Talk to a professional. The most important step of designing your dream retirement is seeking help from a trusted advisor. At Sheffield Financial Group we only work with clients who we can add significant value to. Our team of experts have successfully helped hundreds of clients optimize their Superannuation in preparation for retirement.

We work with Australia’s leading financial providers to assist in providing the best strategies and products. Whether you are seeking retirement, Superannuation, or investment advice, our advisors provide a tailored & transparent solution based on your personal situation. Sheffield Financial gives you peace of mind knowing you have a team of experts looking out for your best interests.