COVID-19 effect on retirees

{Note from mods - this thread split from here: Coronavirus and property values}



I think in 6 to 9 months, baby boomers who were planning to retire but had their superannuation whacked hard recently will be very inclined to take offers .. as they may not want to stick around to wait for a long recovery time .

The bigger the size of their super, the harder the fall...

poor thing...those in the 60 and above age group, had to face 2 stock market crashes in their lifetime...

 

The smart ones would have only had minor exposure to equities if they were near retirement age, that's what most financially literate people do.

 

You will also see big demand for semi rural locations from older Australians as they try and escape the the heavily populated cities.
Hopefully they don't all try and sell at the same time, especially those with high blood pressure, respiratory problems and diabetes,which probably accounts for half of the baby boomers or their partners .

 

Could not agree with that statement. "Minor exposure" so how much is that? Where else would you put your super? hopefully not cash, financially literate people know that cash doesn't work and hasn't for quite some time, any advisor will tell you that. It is easy to be an expert after the fact. I would like to know the average percentage of super money invested in cash. Maybe 20/30% if so where is the rest being invested? Lets say property and now experts are saying that is going to crash too and the list goes on.

 

Do not agree with this at all. Those people that are approaching retirement, or are retired, if financially savvy will be protecting their capital, hence moving their Super into the least riskiest avenue available to them.....Cash! Whilst not getting much of a return on their monies, they are not having it eroded when equity markets go south.
When younger I had my Super invested initially in equities for the opportunity of high growth, but also knew there were no guarantees. Time was on my side back then. About 2 years out from retirement I switched my holdings across to the Balanced portfolio. Still had exposure to equities, but on a lesser scale. Then just prior to retirement switched 80% of my holdings to Cash, for the reasons outlined above. I didn't want my capital to take a hit when things went pear shaped.
Glad I did this, as inevitably things always hit the fan at some stage!

 

Perhaps, but at the last election for political advantage the Libs were actively encouraging pensioners to go for high yielding shares with dividend imputation.

For myself, pension age but still working, I moved my super from high growth to balanced in January - my financial adviser's comment at the time was "Thanks for your email. Whilst I share your concern to an extent (in terms of share markets being highly valued at the moment) we always take a long term view and focus on the long term investment outlook. There may very well be a correction on the cards, but that’s been the case for several years now and it hasn’t really eventuated yet. In fact the last 12 months has seen exceptional returns against most expectation (your fund has done 18.2%)." True, but as the small print says, the past is no guarantee of the future!

 

Not sure if you guys are the exception to the rule or not. Anyone who has moved their money from super to cash on or about the beginning of this virus would have to be classed as genius. Genius or a fluke , My original query was regarding having nearly all of one's super in cash at retirement which I disagreed with. Not sure how many retirees in Australia would have less than a balanced portfolio at the age of 65 when you have 20 years to live or even more. One of the only ways I could see that happening is if you had a very large amount in your superfund which the average Australian hasn't and that is a fact. I live next to a couple of wealthy people and they didn't touch their super based on historical events and I am in that same boat.
Based on a suggested loss of $70k I would suggest that it was not a large super fund....cheers

 

Well , you never lost it so it was a very good result. I am down a bit more than that but based on advice I pay it will bounce back especially as it was coming off record highs. So basically I made bugger all from my super fund in the past 2.5 years.

 

https://www.canstar.com.au/superannuation/super-life-stage/

 

Not sure why this market fall is different from any other. Gfc, etc what happened after 2008? Corrections happen every 10 years or so. Most people would experience multiple crashes, if they pay attention they would learn from them.

 

The OP should have prefaced the introduction with the assumption retirees will survive the coronavirus and have a need for Super.

As for facing financial crisis, this is not uncommon. In the first half of the 20th Century there was WW1, Spanish flu pandemic, the Great Depression and WW2. The point is, major disruptions are not everyday events but are historically expected.

 

Or a good chunk of their Super in cash, say 30+%

 

... and regional hospitals, maybe hours away. No thanks.

 

Smart baby boomers where financially independent 20 years ago, and have high exposure to equities and arent doing anything they want to retire from.

 

Poor @kierank, just moved to the retiree hotspot of Australia with its brand new state of the art hospital just up the road. I'm staying right where I am, three suburbs away from Prince Charles and saving myself the hassle of moving.

 

I would rather be living in a retiree hotspot than an idiots/bogan hotspot like Bondi Beach .

Where is the army when you need them ?

 

Preparing trucks for transport of [insert morbid thought] too........?

 

Should we set up a Crematorium Joint Venture? Commercial Venture re Funeral Business? Are you suggesting Sydney's Lane Cove property prices are about to crash?