Your home is a lifestyle asset not a retirement plan
Over the decades owning a home has proven to be a great way of forced savings. Property prices have increased at a great pace and although this is fortuitous from a building increased equity point of view, it also comes with the potential danger of leading people into a false sense of security.
Developing an asset base that will help you in your golden years needs to be a factor of developing assets that are more than lifestyle assets. So whilst owning a home is important and a good starting point it is not the whole answer to retirement planning.
KiwiSaver can be a challenge due to its inception date
KiwiSaver is a starting point but not a means to an end. In order for a program like KiwiSaver to work you will need to contribute to the fund for your entire working life and likely need to have had 12% of your income contributed into the fund.
Success is reducing the mortgage and building wealth at the same time
There are plenty of successful people who have built wealth and reduced the mortgage at the same time. Waiting until the home is paid off before prepping for retirement is wasting opportunity.
You do need money in retirement
So many people believe that retirement is a time where money isn’t in as much need due to the mortgage having been paid off but reality paints a very different picture. Medical expenses increase, bills don’t go away and you have so much more time on your hands. Don’t fall into this trap.
I’m going to work until the grave
Your employer or your body might have different thoughts about that one. It is easy to come up with excuses as to why these scenarios won’t apply to you. The reality is the fear of the unknown is the big stopper, however, once you realise how easy it can be you will be on your way.
