This year has been my first full year of retirement. We did a couple of interstate trips (to Cairns and Adelaide). I moved my super into a retirement account, which means slightly less tax.
The bad news is that every asset class has gone backwards in real terms. And because I don’t have an income, this isn’t covered up any more :(. The good news is most of the decline has been in real estate.
Because of the high inflation, I’ve been tracking the change in spending power since Jan 2022. It’s gone backwards in real terms by about 4.5% since then. Which is a bit disappointing considering our spend levels are quite low.
Headline Figures
| 2023 | 2024 | Percent Change | |
| Cash | $347,623 | $341,331 | -1.8% |
| Superannuation | $2,305,764 | $2,256,664 | -2.1% |
| Primary Residence | $2,207,866 | $1,938,000 | -12.2% |
| Investment Property | $771,001 | $520,600 | -32.4% |
| Shares | $236,936 | $226,940 | -4.2% |
| Total Assets | $5,869,191 | $5,282536 | -10.0% |
The percentage change on assets that are not real-estate was -2.3%. The investment property significantly declined in value, however this was really due to an inaccurate original valuation. Super went down slightly, however we are now drawing from Super rather than contributing. Share performance has been disappointing.
Spending and Income in 2023
Spending in 2023 was about $50.5K. However, we had an extraordinary cost of $11K as we removed our ageing pool (and also spent quite a bit on landscaping afterwards). Once the pool removal cost is accounted for our spending was about $39.5K, which is quite low, especially taking into account inflation. Maybe the retirement lifestyle really does result in lower spending.
The percentage spend against financial (non-realestate) assets is 1.8%, which is well below the “4% rule”. If I take into account rent received, the spend is 1.4% and if I remove the once-off extraordinary cost, it is 1%!.
Here is out spending breakup:
Per month spending is shown below:
Income in 2023 was $26K.
Updated Spending Patterns
My online calulator shows a spend of $155K, If we sell the investment property at a later date, it goes up to $169K.
Conclusions
Our spending levels remain low, especially when compared with financial assets. Although assets have gone backwards, the decline has been mostly in real-estate, which is not a big concern to the retiree. I’m thinking about splashing out on big holiday in Europe. Stay tuned to the next update to see if it happens!
Retiring early for Australians 
Well done! Retiring at 60 with very substantial funds is an achievement, even it it’s not your original plan to retire at 52. We both retired at 60 – 11 years ago – and spend around 8 weeks a year travelling overseas ‘off the beaten track’.
The main thing after 60 is to maintain your health! The second most important is financial planning, ours is much more basic than yours. We still have slightly more funds than when we retired, we spend down more than 4%. Our goal is to spend most of our retirement funds, not to leave a huge amount, but still have over $3.0M combined in super which is more than expected.
Best of luck for a long retirement!
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