Feature: The retirement tool the industry doesn’t want you using (but you already are)

From Bec’s Desk: A new project I am curious about your interest in

The Age and Sydney Morning Herald: Not ready to stop work or retire? You’re not alone

Prime Time: Finding meaning outside of work

The retirement tool the industry doesn’t want you using (but you already are)

Something is happening at kitchen tables across Australia, and the financial advice industry is losing its mind, loudly, about it.

People are asking AI about their retirement. How much money they need, and how to invest, and how to plan for it. They’re even asking Claude to build Excel-style financial models, and it can do that straight from the ordinary chat window, no special setup needed.

They’re not asking their adviser first, or their superfund hotline, or even their brother-in-law who works in finance and holds court at Christmas. They’re opening up ChatGPT or Claude on their phone and typing the questions they’ve been too embarrassed to ask anyone: What does concessional mean? Is my super actually being invested well? If I retire at 62, will I run out of money?

Let’s face it - that last question matters and there’s a particular kind of shame that comes with not understanding your own financial situation in your 50s, when you feel like you should have it sorted by now. AI gives people a judgment-free place to start asking questions and building understanding.

And here’s where I part ways with most of the financial industry on this. I love it. The agency it gives you to be curious and consider things from different perspectives is powerful. The fact it can build you a genuinely useful spreadsheet, one you can fill in with your own numbers and take straight to your adviser, is nothing short of fabulous.

The standard adviser response to AI is some version of “be careful, it gets things wrong, come and see a professional instead.” And yes - AI does get things wrong. I catch it out all the time. It uses old data, leaves a critical number like inflation out of a calculation or a spreadsheet, or simply doesn’t grasp the interplay between the age pension and super - unless you prompt it to. I push back, ask it to check things, or feed it the correct facts straight from Centrelink, and you need to be aware of those limitations if you use it.

There’s lots of studies being done on this. In one study, it gave incorrect or incomplete answers to about a third of the financial questions it was asked. Worth knowing as you go in.

So let me be clear. It probably doesn’t know your full picture. And without it, it can’t model your real tax situation, and even with it - I’d be worried you left something out. It has blind spots around things like sequencing risk and aged care costs that could actually hurt you if you act on its answers without understanding what’s missing.

But the solution to that isn’t to avoid AI. It’s to know enough that you’re not dangerous when you use it.

Here’s what I mean by that. If you ask AI “will I have enough to retire?” and you don’t know what questions to follow up with - about drawdown rates, about inflation, about what happens if markets fall in your first few years of retirement - you’ll get a confident-sounding answer that might be wrong in ways you won’t spot. AI doesn’t volunteer what it left out. It answers what you asked. If it was a simple question you might get an overly simplified answer.

But if you understand the basics? Suddenly you’re having a completely different conversation. You’re the one steering. You’re asking better questions, pushing back when something doesn’t add up, and using AI the way it’s actually meant to be used - as a thinking partner, not an oracle.

That’s always been the whole point of what we do here with education. Not to replace professional advice, but to give you enough understanding to be a smart consumer of every resource available to you. So that when you talk to your super fund, you know what to ask. When you see a financial adviser, you understand what they’re telling you. And yes - when you open up Claude at 11pm with a question you’ve been sitting on for months, you know how to make that conversation count.

So use the tools and ask the questions you’ve been too embarrassed to ask. Just make sure you’re building the knowledge alongside it, so you’re the one in charge of your retirement decisions, not the AI bot. Because that could get messy.

I’m smiling ear to ear this week because the mid-course feedback rolling in on our Australian and UK Epic Retirement courses, both running right now, is just so good. I feel incredibly proud of our six-week retirement education program which just keeps getting better.

It’s the main part of what we do here at the Epic Retirement Institute: helping people understand how retirement actually works so they can make better decisions and feel more confident about the future with a 6-week course.

Humour me while I share some of the shorter comments:

“The course is fantastic: so clearly and well structured. Thank you”

“We love this course content and the structure of it - will be recommending it to others!”

“I’m really enjoying the course, I think it should be government funded for all people in Australia age 50 plus.”

“This course has changed my life!!”

“I have been enjoying this course immensely. I feel much more confident in my understanding of how this thing called retirement works!”

That's the kind of confidence I want people to have. It's the same reason we built the Epic Retirement Tick, so you can work out whether the service you're getting from your super fund is genuinely delivering on performance, fees and service, or whether it's time to start asking some tougher questions as you head for retirement, and you can download the report here: www.epicretirement.net/epictick

I’m extremely tempted to put together some kind of assessment similar to the Epic Retirement Tick to help people consider their options for and evaluate financial advice and the investment management process as they head for retirement advice - what do you think? Would that be useful?

We’re not government-funded consumer advocates or anything, just aware that there’s really no one else in the retirement space who doesn’t make money from selling you a financial product or service, and who can have your education about all the choices available to you as the priority. But we don’t want to waste time on projects you won’t use. So help us filter the ideas - please!

Now, back to your Sunday programming! Our next epic retirement course is kicking off in August - so plenty of time to talk about it next week! You can register your interest for the Earlybird 25% off deal here.

Make it epic!

Cheers - Bec Xx

Author, podcast host, columnist, retirement educator, and guest speaker

Not ready to stop work or retire? You’re not alone

We have all inherited a traditional idea of retirement and frankly I think we need to push on its boundaries because it really was designed for a different era.

Retirement was created in the early 1900s to get old people out of the workforce where they were slowing down the factory lines. Most people who made it to retirement arrived in poor health and didn’t survive long enough to enjoy it.

Then, over the next hundred years, it morphed to become a period of life: one where we largely expected to live a more quiet existence in old age, on a pension. But even that idea has been thwarted.

Thanks to longer lives and superannuation, retirement today is a multi-stage period of life that could last 30 to 40 years. On average, just a quarter of that time will be spent in poorer health.

A 65-year-old woman today is expected to live to 90 at the median and she has a one in four chance of living to 95. A 50-year-old should expect an even bigger bounty: a median life expectancy of 91, and a one in four chance of getting to 97, which will surely expand in their lifetime. That’s not a wind-down at the end, it’s multiple phases of life where you really get to come into your own.

For a growing number of Australians this new chance for a longer life, and new financial freedom via superannuation, is reshaping how midlife and retirement years are viewed.

And superannuation arrived just at the right time to make this possible.

In fact, superannuation climbing to meaningful contribution rates is what has given us the financial means to truly change things up and actually start to choose what those extra years can look like. For the first time, reaching your sixties doesn’t have to mean the beginning of the end. It can mean the beginning of something entirely new, fresh and exciting.

This article continues. It was published in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday 20th June 2026. Read the whole article here. Note - it has a sign-up gate but no paywall.

Over the past month, we’ve talked about planning for retirement, finding purpose beyond work and creating a life you’ll actually want to wake up to.

But there is one final piece of the puzzle: how do you pay for it?

In the final episode of our New Rhythm of Retirement series with Aware Super, I’m joined once again by Peter Hogg and Lynda Cross to tackle the money mechanics of retirement.

We discuss one of the biggest psychological adjustments retirees face: moving from the predictable rhythm of a regular paycheck to funding your lifestyle from your own savings. We also explore the opportunities hidden within your biggest assets, including your super and family home, and unpack some of the strategies that can help stretch your retirement income further.

As we know, retirement isn’t just about having enough money. It’s also about having the confidence to use it.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST HERE:

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Feature: Are you ready to retire? Depends which kind of ready you mean

From Bec’s Desk: Letting life happen

The Age and Sydney Morning Herald: Over 50? Use these seven ways to boost your super before July 1

Prime Time: Finding meaning outside of work

Are you ready to retire? Depends which kind of ready you mean

Type “am I ready to retire” into Google and you’ll get calculators, checklists, and articles telling you to aim for 70% of your pre-retirement income. All these tools are useful. All are focused on your money.

But that’s not really what you’re asking at 11pm on a Tuesday when you type those words, is it? What you actually want to know is: will I be okay? And that’s an entirely different question.

I’ve spoken with hundreds of people who had their finances completely sorted and still hit retirement like a concrete wall. It wasn’t the money that caught them off guard. It was the regularity of Monday morning. The empty diary and no plans, and no rhythm or social framework to slot into. That plus the odd feeling of invisibility. There’s often a realisation that most of their social life had been running through their work or at the very least, through their work networks, without them ever noticing it.

The first few weeks of retirement can feel like a holiday. Then something shifts, and suddenly “what am I actually doing today?” starts to feel like a question that needs a more valuable answer than just “whatever I want”. You’ve got skills, you’ve got a brain, you’ve got time. But you haven’t worked out how to use them differently, for the social benefits, the lifestyle moments and the pure joy of it.

This is something we call the adjustment phase. Be alert to it, even prepared for it. It’s completely normal. But most people have never heard of it and don’t talk about the tough bits, so most aren’t ready for it.

So how do you really actually know if you’re ready?

It’s not about whether you feel excited for or nervous about retirement. Most people feel both. It’s about whether you’ve thought through the things that work has been taking care of for you - the social networks, the adrenalin rushes of achievement and the feeling of having purpose.

Sit with these before you hand in your notice and think about them:

Where does your sense of self come from right now? If the honest answer is mostly your job title, worth knowing that before you walk out the door.

Who will you actually spend time with in retirement? And I don’t mean on holidays. I mean on an ordinary Wednesday. Work friends are great until they’re not your colleagues anymore. And people you do deals with might not need to take you to lunch when there’s no deals to be done.

What’s going to get you out of bed? I don’t mean a vague plan to read more or potter in the garden. Think up something specific, with enough pull to give your week some shape.

Then contemplate - if you are you running toward something, or away from something? Retiring to escape a bad job or a shitty boss is very different from retiring toward a life you’ve designed, thought through and have a vision of. The people who land well usually have the second picture sorted.

And have you actually tested any of this? Take a longer break. Spend a week without work structure. Take your long service leave - if you dare. See how it feels in real life, not just in your head.

And then remember, you don’t need to have it all figured out. Nobody does. Retirement isn’t a moment you either nail or don’t. It’s a transition, and transitions take time to find their shape. But going in knowing that the emotional side is just as real as the financial side puts you in a much stronger position than most people who only run the numbers to check if they are ready.

So yes, check your super, do the sums, make sure the money works. Then ask yourself the harder questions too. Because those are the ones that will really tell you whether you’re ready.

Cold, wet and rainy - in Queensland. Have we got the wrong weather report? I’ve been dodging downpours every morning on my walks this week. My littlest dog and I have come home a few times looking like drowned rats.

But another very entertaining week running retirement courses in two countries and writing more programs in-between for future rollouts with funds.

And this week we’re celebrating the 4th birthday of The Epic Retirement Club on Facebook! It’s the biggest retirement club or Facebook group on retirement in the world. There’s 22 moderators around the world who work together - all volunteers - keeping the club safe, free of inappropriate stuff and full of fun! A huge thanks to all those mods! And to everyone who enjoys being part of it.

This week the Epic Retirement Course in Australia has hit week 5. The money lessons are done and we’re onto health, purpose and happiness - some of my favourite topics. We welcomed David Lane for our Live Q&A on Investing your super, SMSFs and Financial Advice. And we held our first Live Q&A in the UK too - a lovely 3.30am event to keep me on my toes.

Then I closed my week in the emergency room for two days, with my son needing an emergency appendectomy (is there any other kind?) right in the middle of his senior exams. Nothing like Murphy’s law is there. But his appendix is now out and he’s doing well - lapping up all the attention with all the exams delayed.

So this weekend I’m taking a digital detox. Unusual for me. You’ll see everything is scheduled to happen just like it should - the reels, the podcasts, the newsletters and the newspapers. I will just be letting life happen, with a cup of tea, a good book and some board games in the periodically rainy queensland weather.

I hope you find time out occasionally too.

Make it epic!

Cheers - Bec Xx

Author, podcast host, columnist, retirement educator, and guest speaker

Over 50? Use these seven ways to boost your super before July 1

The end of financial year is just two weeks away. But for everyone in a major Australian super fund, you don’t actually have the full two weeks – it’s actually closer to one week before the big super funds close off their contributions for the end of this financial year.

So snap to it! It’s time to take advantage of all the little incentives available to get ahead. Here are the things I think anyone looking into the second half of life should consider doing before the doors of this financial year close, especially if you can see retirement in your future.

1. Look for co-contribution opportunities

My first suggestion is for those who don’t have a lot of money coming in, who can take advantage of the government co-contribution that’s designed to boost the super of those who need it. Yes – you heard me right – free money from the government!

If you’re eligible, all you need to do is make a voluntary contribution to your super of $1000 and the government will top it up with up to $500, depending on your eligibility.

If you or your partner or adult children earn less than $47,488 and the account holder contributes $1000 as a personal contribution, that person will receive the full $500 bonus. It’s an amount that gradually phases out up to the top income threshold of $62,488.

If all this baffles you, and you want some help, call your super fund’s help lines.

There are some conditions, of course, to qualify. Ten per cent or more of your total income must be from working or running a business, and you must be under 71 years of age at the end of the financial year. Also, you can’t claim a tax deduction for the personal contribution.

This article continues. It was published in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday 13th June 2026. Read the whole article here. Note - it has a sign-up gate but no paywall.

In the second instalment of our New Rhythm of Retirement three-part mini series with Aware Super, we’re tackling a question that doesn’t get nearly enough attention:

What are you retiring to?

For many of us, work isn’t just how we earn a living. It’s how we spend our time, build relationships, challenge ourselves and make sense of who we are, which is why retirement can sometimes arrive with an unexpected identity crisis.

In this episode, I speak with clinical neuropsychologist Professor Nancy Pachana about finding purpose beyond your job title, overcoming the shock of the first “workless Tuesday”, and why curiosity may be one of the most important ingredients for healthy ageing.

Then I sit down with Lynda Cross from Aware Super to explore the financial side of the equation: how to build enough flexibility into your retirement plan to fund not just your lifestyle, but the passions, projects and experiences that give life meaning.

There’s more to retirement than money; it’s also about creating a life you look forward to waking up to. Don’t just retire from something, retire to something.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST HERE:

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Feature: Six things to do well before 30 June

From Bec’s Desk: A much quieter week

The Age and Sydney Morning Herald: Half of us are terrified of retirement. Here’s why you might be OK

Prime Time: Two shows: Thinking about Antarctica - the things you need to know; and How to soft launch your retirement

Six things to do before 30 June

30 June might feel like it’s a few weeks away, but your super fund has other ideas. Most funds stop processing contributions a week or so before the end of the financial year - so the real deadline for all things financial is closer than the calendar suggests. If you’re somewhere between 45 and 65, the next two weeks are some of the most valuable weeks in your financial year. Worth snapping to it.

Here are six things worth doing before the financial year closes.

1. Top up your concessional contributions

The concessional contributions cap for 2025–26 is $30,000. That includes your employer’s super guarantee (currently 12% of your salary), any salary sacrifice you’ve set up, and any personal contributions you choose to make.

If your employer contributions are sitting well under that $30,000 mark, you may be able to top up the difference yourself with a ‘personal contribution’ - and claim a tax deduction for it. That means the contribution is taxed at just 15% inside super, rather than at your marginal tax rate, which for many people in this age bracket is 32.5% or higher.

To do this, you transfer money directly into your super fund (most funds accept BPAY or EFT - check your member portal for the details). It’s straightforward but you can always ring your fund’s hotline for help.

But after you move the money - there’s a step 2 that you need to take, if you put in a personal contribution… and it’s the step a lot of people miss.

2. Lodge your Notice of Intent to Claim form

Simply putting money into super doesn’t automatically make it a concessional contribution. Without one extra step, it defaults to a non-concessional contribution, and you lose the tax deduction entirely. [Trust me I have had many frustrated people write to me wishing they knew this]

That extra step is lodging a Notice of Intent to Claim a Tax Deduction - sometimes called a NOITC, or ATO form NAT 71121 - with your super fund. Most large funds let you do this online inside your member portal in a couple of minutes. Smaller funds may ask you to complete a paper form.

The form tells your fund: “I want this personal contribution treated as a concessional contribution, and I intend to claim a tax deduction for it.” Your fund will then acknowledge receipt in writing, and that acknowledgment is what you use when you lodge your tax return.

The notice must be lodged with your fund and acknowledged before you lodge your 2025–26 tax return - whichever comes first. Don’t wait until tax time and assume you can sort it then. If your return goes in first, you’ve missed the window.

No form = no deduction. It’s that simple, and that easy to get wrong, and no begging of the tax department or your super fund overturns it - even if ‘you meant to do it’.

3. Check your carry-forward contributions - you might have more room than you think

If you haven’t maxed out your concessional contributions in previous years, you may be able to contribute more than the standard $30,000 cap this year. It’s called the carry-forward rule (sometimes called catch-up contributions), and it’s frankly underused.

The rule you need to look for: if your total super balance was under $500,000 on 30 June 2025, you can carry forward any unused cap space (the $30,000 concessional caps) from the past five financial years and use it this year. So if you had years where you contributed less than the annual cap - maybe you were working part-time, taking time out, or just weren’t focused on super and didn’t top up your employer’s contributions, you may be sitting on a sizable unused allowance.

To see exactly what’s available to you, log into myGov, access the linked ATO service, and in the super menu select Information, then Carry-forward concessional contributions. This will show your unused amounts by year, and confirm whether you’re eligible based on your total super balance.

A few things to note:

• Unused cap amounts from earlier years don’t last forever - the carry-forward window is five years, after which they expire. The ATO applies the oldest available year first. In practical terms, any unused amounts from 2019–20 that weren’t used by the end of 2024–25 will have already expired, so it’s worth checking sooner rather than later.

• The $500,000 balance threshold is assessed at 30 June of the prior year (so 30 June 2025 for this financial year). If your balance has since grown above $500,000, you can still use carry-forward amounts this year, as long as you were under the threshold on that date.

• If you do make a personal contribution using carry-forward amounts and want the tax deduction, the NOITC form in step 2 still applies.

4. Check your minimum pension drawdown if you’re already retired

If you’ve moved your super into a retirement income stream (account-based pension), the government requires you to draw down a minimum amount each year. That minimum is based on your account balance and your age.

Make sure you’ve met your 2025–26 minimum pension drawdown before 30 June - and check what your 2026–27 withdrawal requirement will be, particularly if your minimum drawdown rate is increasing. Missing the minimum drawdown can have real tax consequences, so it’s worth confirming with your fund if you’re unsure.

5. Move savings into super

If you have money sitting outside super - in a savings account, offset account, or just cash - consider whether any of it could be moved in before 30 June. Non-concessional contributions (after-tax money) don't attract a tax deduction, but once inside super your earnings are taxed at just 15%, and at zero once you're drawing an income in retirement. The annual cap is $120,000 this financial year, rising to $130,000 from 1 July. That's worth knowing if you're thinking about using the bring-forward rule - because the amount you can bring forward depends on which year you trigger it, and the numbers change on 1 July. If you're considering a large lump sum contribution, it's worth getting advice before you act, because timing can affect how much you're able to put in. Your fund’s intrafund advice team can help with this.

6. Review your total super balance - the 1 July changes matter

From 1 July 2026, contribution caps are indexing upward and the transfer balance cap rises to $2.1 million. Your total super balance on 30 June 2026 determines which contribution rules and thresholds apply to you in the next financial year.

The amount you can bring forward depends on your total super balance on 30 June 2025 — the higher your balance, the less flexibility you have. If you’re thinking about a large lump sum contribution, get advice before you act, because the rules are tiered and the thresholds are changing on 1 July.

It’s also worth noting the Division 296 tax kicks off - from 1 July 2026, individuals with super balances above $3 million will face an additional tax on earnings linked to that portion of their balance. This affects a small number of people, but if you’re approaching that threshold, it’s worth getting advice before the new financial year begins.

A little note on getting help

None of the above is financial advice - it’s a prompt to act, not a prescription for what to do. How much you contribute, and which strategy makes sense for your situation, depends on your income, your balance, your age, and your broader financial picture. If you’re not sure, a financial adviser or your super fund’s helpline can walk you through it. But the window closes on 30 June - or frankly about a week before for most funds. So if any of this applies to you, now is the time to look into it.

Winter arrived this week in Queensland. Chilly, windy and sunny… delightful. It’s the sort of weather that makes you want to walk outdoors and feel the sun on your face. And so I have, every - single - day. With no travel for a few weeks, I’m delighting in getting through the workload on my desk, rebuilding my website, supporting the courses currently underway in Australia and the UK; and preparing for the launch of the next programs.

I’ve also signed my next book deal - a fun project to get started on. And this time I’ve gone with Penguin Random House as the publisher - a big change for me. When I wrote my first retirement book only one publisher was curious - all the others said there’s no market for this stuff. ☺️ Three years later I had a few wanting a piece! Must be doing something right. I’ll tell you more about the 2 book deal I’ve signed on for once the books take shape.

Our Epic Retirement Courses are going great guns. This week in Australia we held our Week 3 Live Q&A with Jen Harding from HESTA; and next week it’s Week 4 with David Lane, Senior Adviser, from Ord Minnett. And in the UK, we host our first live Q&A - cant wait to get up at 3am for that.

Feedback is rolling in from our mid-course survey - get some of these!

“This course is mind blowing!!”

“Pleased I'm doing the course as it's raising awareness of all the gaps in my knowledge. Currently know just enough to be dangerous.”

“Great content. Learning a lot. Easy to understand.”

“I'm finding the content very informative but feel that it has just highlighted my need to seek more information relative to our particular situation.”

Our next program is gearing up to begin on the 13th August - if you want to lodge an expression of interest, we’ll let you know when it goes on sale.

And now you’ve read all the EOFY stuff to the bottom - get out and enjoy some winter sun. Have a lovely long weekend - to everyone other than us Queenslanders!

Make it epic!

Cheers - Bec Xx

Author, podcast host, columnist, retirement educator, and guest speaker

Half of us are terrified of retirement. Here’s why you might be OK

Last year I wrote a column taking a long hard look at a pattern I kept seeing in the superannuation industry: report after report measuring how anxious Australians feel about retirement, with very little action to show for it.

PR dressed up as progress, I called it, and my readers agreed loudly. We don’t need more reports, we need more action to help members navigate their retirement.

So when Colonial First State’s annual Rethinking Retirement report landed on my desk this week, I’ll admit I picked it up with a slightly raised eyebrow. But then I read it properly. And then I read it again. Because CFS has actually done a lot of work on its retirement and advice propositions this year, not just commissioned another survey.

And there was a finding buried in that report truly worth sharing and talking about today. It could be the most important thing I’ve read about retirement all year.

It concerns the amount of worry people are expending on retirement, possibly unnecessarily, and how such worry has surprisingly little to do with the money they have as they approach retirement but more to do with how proactive they are in understanding their real position.

This article continues. It was published in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday 6th June 2026. Read the whole article here. Note - it has a sign-up gate but no paywall.

For years, Antarctica has sat on many people’s bucket lists.

But unlike most holidays, it’s not the sort of trip you book on a whim. It’s expensive, remote, weather-dependent and often requires planning more than a year in advance.

So is it actually worth it?

In this week’s episode of Prime Time, I sit down with regular Prime Timer Mike Chesworth, who has just returned from Antarctica, to get the unfiltered truth about what it’s really like.

We talk about everything from choosing the right expedition, booking timelines, the level of fitness required and costs, to the wildlife, the scenery, the notorious Drake Passage and the unexpected highlights of travelling through South America along the way.

If Antarctica is on your list for 2027, 2028 or beyond, this conversation will help you understand what the experience is really like before you commit.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST HERE:

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BONUS EPISODE: How to soft launch your retirement

Retirement doesn’t have to be a hard stop.

In fact, for many people, the best transition is a gradual one — reducing work, exploring new interests and creating a lifestyle that balances income, purpose and freedom.

In this special June series, I’ve teamed up with Aware Super to explore the new rhythm of retirement and what it really looks like in practice.

In this episode, I sit down with Bambi Price, founder of War On Wasted Talent, and Peter Hogg, General Manager of Guidance & Advice at Aware Super, to discuss how to “soft launch” your retirement without losing your sense of purpose, or your paycheck, overnight.

Together, we explore why more Australians are choosing a phased approach to retirement, how to stay connected to meaningful work, and the practical steps you can take now to design a transition that works for you.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST HERE:

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Feature: Love, grief and the life that follows

From Bec’s Desk: A trip to the Chant West awards

The Age and Sydney Morning Herald: The hidden super tools you’re paying for – but probably ignoring

Prime Time: The EOFY checklist and what you need to think about for the year ahead

Love, grief and the life that follows

Nobody puts grief and losing their partner or a loved one on their retirement plan. But for most of us, it shows up anyway.

By the time you’re in your 50s or 60s, loss is no longer an abstract concept. It's happened to most of us. The loss of a parent, a close friend, a sibling. And for many people, eventually, a partner. The second half of life is richer in a lot of ways, but it also asks more of you than the first half did - in managing grief and moving forward anyway.

There’s a particular kind of grief that doesn’t get talked about much. And it’s not the acute, early grief - the shock and fog of loss and the casseroles on the doorstep from well-meaning friends. But the longer grief - the one that settles in after the noise dies down, when everyone else has gone back to their lives and you’re left figuring it out, with all your hopes and plans broken and sadness in your soul.

Today I’m releasing a special edition of my podcast - a conversation with former NSW Premier, the Honorable Bob Carr. He lost his wife Helena suddenly two years ago after 50 years of marriage to an aneurysm while on holiday in Vienna. And this week, when we talked, he spoke about what he called “the leftover life” and how he’s moving through his grief. He’s still here, still functioning and had to learn how to cook, clean and do his own domestic duties, after losing the love of his life. But he’s missing the person who was woven into how he thought, how he planned, and how he made sense of the world.

As someone who’s been married for 25 years, our conversation quietened me. Because it’s not something we talk about. So much so that he wrote a book about it called Bring Back Yesterday. In it he reflects on his wife, their life, grief and his future.

It’s a book about the devastation, the early days and then the path forward. How uncomfortable it was yet how he wants to talk about grief, about Helena and about how it feels - so others can remember her, and feel a little more normal as they traverse their own.

We all need to remember that a long partnership isn’t just companionship. It’s the very architecture that holds our life in a structure. This is someone who holds half your memories. Who knows your real history. Who you process things with, even the small things - what happened at dinner, what you’re worried about, what made you laugh today. When that person is gone, it’s not just their absence you feel. It’s the absence of the version of yourself that existed with them.

And then there’s the social reality of grief. Some people think you should move on, or that you should ‘get over it’. Couples drift away, not unkindly, but gradually losing interest in your sadness. You become, without meaning to, someone who makes them uncomfortable about their own happiness.

This is the part people aren’t prepared for. The loneliness isn’t just about missing one person. It’s about finding yourself on the outside of a world that assumed you’d always be paired up in.

So what actually helps?

From Bob, and from the many people I’ve spoken to who have navigated this: it’s rarely the big things. Bob shows us it’s walking. Building a new routine. Showing up to something, even when you don’t feel like it. One friend who calls regularly. A reason to get up and go somewhere in the morning and a weekend, planned ahead and filled with activities to look forward to.

It’s also, when you’re ready, allowing yourself to imagine that the life ahead can still be good - not the same, but good.

Grief in the second half of life deserves more honest conversation than it usually gets. Not clinical nor relentlessly optimistic. Just the real kind - acknowledgment that this is hard, that it changes you, and that you’re allowed to take your time finding your footing again.

If this resonates, Bob’s memoir Bring Back Yesterday is worth picking up. And our full conversation is on Prime Time today, wherever you get your podcasts.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST HERE:

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This week I headed to Sydney for two days partly to interview Bob Carr in person - which was really special; and partly to attend the Chant West Superannuation Fund Awards, one of my favourite industry events of the year. Super is a relatively small sector, so it feels like a gathering of friends and colleagues. Competitive but collegiate. Everyone wants their team to win - which is a good sign that the superfunds are upping their game in 2026.

The big winners on the night were Aware Super, who picked up four of the biggest awards including Super Fund of the Year, Pension Fund of the Year, Best Fund for Member Services and Best Fund for Insurance. That is an extraordinary result that reflects a fund firing on every cylinder at once, and one that should make every other fund in the industry sit up and think hard about what they're building.

And AMP, who picked up three awards including Best Fund for Digital Advice, Best Fund for Lifetime Product and Advised Product of the Year for their MyNorth platform, a result that tells an important story about a fund that has been through significant transformation and is now competing seriously and winning in the retirement space too.

Both results are worth understanding, because they point directly to the services and products that can change your retirement outcome, most of which you're probably not using. I’ve written about this in the national newspapers this week (below).

Alongside this, this week we’ve launched our Epic Retirement Flagship Course in the UK, and we’re mid-course on our Australian Epic Retirement Flagship Course. We enjoyed our Week 2 Live Q&A with the Aussie Epic Retirement Flagship Course for Winter here, with Ashton Jones from MLC joining us. Week 3’s lessons have dropped for members doing the Aussie program. Our next program is in August - if you want to lodge an expression of interest, we’ll let you know when it goes on sale.

It’s been shocking weather in Brisbane with loads of rain and storms, and we lost the footy too. So, I’m going to be enjoying any skeric of sunshine I can get this weekend. I hope you get some too.

Make it epic!

Cheers - Bec Xx

Author, podcast host, columnist, retirement educator, and guest speaker

The hidden super tools you’re paying for but probably ignoring

The federal budget on May 12 made superannuation the most compelling place to build wealth in Australia, and not because of anything it did to super directly. It’s what it did to everything else.

The reduction in the CGT discount on investments held outside super has fundamentally shifted the maths on wealth building. Shares, investment properties and managed funds in your own name just became considerably less tax-efficient than they were. Super has been crowned the winner.

Which makes what I’m about to tell you either really exciting or mildly embarrassing, depending on how you look at it.

Most Australians are barely using their super fund before they retire. Sure, their employer deposits the 12 per cent contribution. But after that, people largely ignore them, sitting in a default investment option they set years ago and never reviewed, paying for services they have never accessed and leaving advice on the table they’ve already paid for.

The fund is doing the work. The member is nowhere to be seen. And if they did pay attention they would realise they can squeeze more juice out.

Once a year, superannuation research firm Chant West sends its researchers into super funds and interrogates them for weeks. It’s not a tick-box survey or a marketing submission where everyone gets a ribbon, but a forensic examination of what funds are building and delivering for members across every dimension of service.

Your super fund is working hard for you. The question is whether you’re working with it.

It’s primarily an industry exercise recognising genuine excellence, but it gives the rest of us a remarkably useful window into what the leading funds are doing and, more importantly, what you should be looking for in your own fund.

I was at the awards this year, donned a frock, sat among 300 industry people and watched each winner announced to a room that really did care about the result. Here’s what the best funds are building, and what you should use.

This article continues. It was published in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday 30th May 2026. Read the whole article here. Note - it has a sign-up gate but no paywall.

The EOFY checklist and what you need to think about for the year ahead

Every year around this time, we start hearing the same things: Top up your super. Save on tax. Don’t miss the deadlines.

But this year feels a little different, especially off the back of the budget, and a lot of people in midlife are wondering: are the old strategies still worth it?

So in this week’s episode of Prime Time, we cut through the noise and put together a practical end-of-financial-year checklist for real people.

I sit down with financial planner Paul Benson to talk through the smartest EOFY moves for people in their 40s, 50s and 60s; from super contributions and tax strategies to debt, investments, insurance and the changes people should be thinking about now.

I also chat with Peter Hogg from Aware Super about the superannuation housekeeping tasks many people overlook, and why a few small actions before June 30 can make a meaningful difference to both your tax position and your long-term retirement balance.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST HERE:

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Feature: Not quite retiring - it’s a thing

From Bec’s Desk: Bushwalks and awards

The Age and Sydney Morning Herald: The super shake-up that could change how you spend in retirement

Prime Time: The top-to-bottom mid-life health audit

Not quite retiring - it’s a thing

A friend of mine handed in his notice this week, three months until what he’s calling his “second retirement.” He turns 60 next year, and when he talks about it, he’s genuinely convinced this is it.

So I got him talking. And for the first ten minutes, it was all about time. How he has none of it right now. How he’s craving it in a way that feels almost physical. How he came back to the workforce after retirement number one feeling ready, energised even, and how somewhere in the past year that feeling quietly drained away and left him with a diary full of other people’s priorities and almost none of his own.

But then something shifted. As the conversation went on and I kept asking questions, his tone changed. Because when I asked him what he might actually do next, he didn’t dismiss work entirely. He paused. He knows his knowledge is valuable. He likes being useful, genuinely likes it, and he’s self-aware enough to know that the feeling of usefulness doesn’t automatically follow you into retirement just because you want it to. He’s watched it disappear once before, and he hasn’t forgotten what that felt like.

So what he actually wants isn’t quite retirement. It’s time. Space in his life. Room to think, to breathe, to decide what the next chapter looks like without the current one consuming every available hour. The problem is that in the role he’s in right now, there is no version of that on offer. So the only move he can see is to leave completely and create the vacancy himself.

I thought that was one of the more honest things I’d heard someone say about this stage of life in a while. Because I think a lot of people in their late 50s are carrying exactly that tension, not wanting to stop contributing, but not willing to keep going the way they have been. Wanting the usefulness without the exhaustion. Wanting to feel like their experience still matters, just in a different configuration, on their own terms, with some of their own time back.

It’s harder to navigate than a clean retirement, because there’s no obvious template for it. But if you’re sitting somewhere in that territory, here are the questions worth actually working through.

Is it the work itself, or the terms you’re doing it on?

This one matters more than most people realise, because the answer changes everything. A lot of people who think they want to stop working actually want to stop doing so very much of it, under these conditions, with this much pressure and this little control over their own time. That’s a different problem with different solutions. The question is whether those solutions are available to you where you are right now, or whether, like my friend, the only realistic path to the life you want runs through leaving first.

What would you actually do with the time, specifically?

Most people haven’t thought this through beyond a vague sense of relief, and the first few months of stepping back tend to feel wonderful regardless. After that, a lot of people find the days harder to fill than they expected, particularly if work has been the main source of structure, identity, and connection for the last few decades. It’s worth asking yourself honestly what a genuinely good week looks like when you’re not working full-time, and whether you have enough of the right things already in your life to fill that space well.

What would usefulness look like, redesigned?

This is really the question underneath everything else. If you know, like my friend does, that pure retirement didn’t fully work last time, then the goal isn’t to stop contributing. It’s to find a version of contributing that doesn’t cost you everything else. Consulting, a board position, mentoring, building something smaller on your own terms. These are real options worth thinking through properly, not filing away as vague possibilities to sort out later.

Have you actually modelled what stepping back costs you financially?

Not in the general sense of whether you have enough saved, but properly stress-tested. What does reducing your income cost you per year, and what does that do to your long-term position? A lot of people are more financially ready to make a move than they think, and some are less ready than they assume. Getting proper advice from someone who understands this phase of life is worth doing before anything is decided.

And have you had the real conversation with your partner?

Not just about the money, but about what the day-to-day actually looks like when one or both of you is renegotiating how you spend your time and maybe the other one is already retired. Talk about what you each need from the next chapter, and what it means for how you live together day to day. It’s one of those conversations that’s easy to keep putting off and genuinely important to have before anything is locked in.

My friend might be doing exactly the right thing. Sometimes the only way to get your time back is to clear the diary completely and start again. But the vacancy only works if you go into it with some sense of what you’re hoping will show up.

Get your copy of my books here: How to Have an Epic Retirement and if you’re not ready for retirement, Prime Time: 27 Lessons for the New Midlife.

Or explore the course here: Epicretirement.net/upcoming-courses

I’m writing this on Saturday afternoon after a day out hiking and enjoying nature in Mt Glorious. I don’t do enough of this stuff - pleasant bushwalks through countrysides within an hour from home. But this winter I’m promising myself more of it. It’s all part of my midlife health audit - which you can listen to more of on my podcast.

I’m also on the hunt for a destination multi-day hike, something enjoyable but not too punishing, to give myself a proper project to work towards. Having done the Three Capes in Tasmania in late 2024, I think it’s time to be proactive again. If you have any good suggestions for a winter or spring walk, hit reply and tell me about it. I’d love to hear what you’ve done and what you’d recommend.

Now, onto the work stuff!

This week we ran our first live event for the How to Have an Epic Retirement Flagship Course, and it’s been our biggest cohort ever, so we’ve been well and truly on our toes. We welcomed Ashton Jones, Retirement Expert and Director of Innovation at MLC, to talk about longevity, and it was the most question-packed session we’ve ever had. The curiosity in this group is something else.

In Week 2, everyone is getting into the Age Pension and building their retirement budget, and on Monday evening we have Andrew Lowe from Challenger joining us for our live session on Safe Spending. It’s shaping up to be another good one.

If you missed this round and want to be the first to know when the next course opens, you can add your name to the expression of interest list here. The next intake kicks off on 13 August.

We’re also launching our pilot program in the UK this week, which is genuinely exciting.

And I’m off to Sydney for the Chant West Superannuation Fund of the Year Awards, an industry night celebrating the super funds and the teams behind them. I have the privilege of presenting one of the awards this year, and I always love seeing who takes out Retirement Fund of the Year. I’ll report back next week!

Now - go enjoy your Sunday - but before you do, read my article in The Sydney Morning Herald. It’s on a topic I have resisted writing about despite many PR people trying to convince me to over the last couple of years. But the market and the products weren’t ready for consumers to buy them and advisers have been slow to engage with them (as I explain). That all changed this week Innovative ‘Lifetime Income Streams’ are going to be a much bigger part of the conversation from now on - and something you need to be aware of and contemplate whether you want to advocate for them being included in your mix. I explain them in my column in detail in a way I hope everyone can grasp.

Make it epic!

Cheers - Bec Xx

Author, podcast host, columnist, retirement educator, and guest speaker

The super shake-up that could change how you spend in retirement

Many people approaching retirement feel a deep, gut-level fear about how to spend. They have spent the past decade, or maybe two, saving hard for what could be a 30-year retirement, and most have no real idea how their money will work once they get there.

Financial advice, the only industry legally able to help with that fear, has spent years rewriting its business models around managing investments for an ongoing annual fee, making it expensive and largely the domain of the wealthy.

Super funds have been left to solve the problem for everyone else, and they have been loudly encouraged by the government to step up with a combination of digital advice and lifetime income products.

This week, two announcements signal that everyday people should start getting excited about doing retirement income differently.

This article continues. It was published in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday 24th May 2026. Read the whole article here. Note - it has a sign-up gate but no paywall.

The top-to-bottom mid-life health audit

Today, I’m getting personal. Turning 50 this year has been a real wake-up call for me when it comes to my health. Not in a dramatic way, but in a very honest, “I need to start thinking differently about the next few decades” kind of way.

Because the reality is, midlife is when many of the things that weren’t really on our radar in our 30s and 40s start to show up. - in my bone health, blood pressure, muscle loss, menopause, dementia risk, balance, hearing and eye health. Even the way we think about longevity starts to shift.

So, in this episode, I wanted to take a really practical, top-to-bottom look at what we should actually be paying attention to at this stage of life and what we can still do now to dramatically improve the decades ahead.

I sit down with renowned GP Dr Ginni Mansberg to talk through the midlife health changes we should all be preparing for, the preventative tests that matter most, and why the “unsexy stuff” like sleep, movement, muscle and social connection turns out to be the stuff that really works.

Then later in the episode, I also chat with Lenette Gear from Australian Unity about health insurance - how our cover needs change as we get older, what people often misunderstand about private health, and how to think about the role it plays in supporting us through the next phase of life.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST HERE:

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Feature: The case for getting more money into super - now

From Bec’s Desk: My position is simply to get proactive on the right stuff

The Age and Sydney Morning Herald: Seven money tricks that just became a whole lot better

Prime Time: Has this Federal Budget just fundamentally changed the way middle Australians build wealth?

What actually makes sense now

Four and a half days on from the budget and I’m done reacting to it. The proposed changes are real, the direction is clear, and there’s plenty of time for the politics to play out before anything actually becomes law. So let’s talk about what to actually do and shut up on the whining about what sucks.

If the budget has done anything useful, it’s simplified the question of what to do now if you’re planning for retirement. The system is increasingly rewarding two things and two things ONLY: Super and the family home. So the smartest thing most people can do right now is get more money into one or both of those as deliberately as possible. Here’s how:

Get more money into super

This is especially important if you can see the time when you’ll be able to access these funds coming up (60-65).

The concessional cap is $30,000 a year. Most people aren’t hitting it. If you’re salary sacrificing nothing beyond your employer’s super guarantee, you’re leaving a significant tax advantage on the table.

But the bigger opportunity is the carry-forward rule. If your super balance is under $500,000, you can use unused concessional caps from the last five years – potentially contributing well above $30,000 in a single year. Log into MyGov, go to the ATO section, and check your available carry-forward amount. For many people in their 50s it’s substantial.

Non-concessional contributions (after-tax money) are also worth considering if you have savings sitting outside super earning returns that will soon be taxed more heavily. You can contribute up to $120,000 per year, or $360,000 in one hit using the three-year bring-forward rule.

The goal is simple: get as much as you reasonably can into a zero-tax retirement environment before you need to draw on it. And that’s what super is AFTER retirement - a zero tax environment for funds up to the transfer balance cap which will hit $2.1M in July.

Pay down the home – or upsize or both

I can’t believe I’m now suggesting to people with excess funds to consider upsizing rather than downsizing, but that’s a sign of the times. After the budget, the family home remains the most tax-effective asset you can own. No capital gains tax when you sell, exempt from the age pension assets test, and now looking even more central to retirement planning than before.

If your mortgage isn’t paid off, paying it down faster is one of the most straightforward things you can do. Every dollar of equity in a paid-off home is a dollar sitting in a CGT-free, pension-exempt asset – growing at whatever rate property grows at in Australia from here, and that’s a genuine question mark.

But here’s the less obvious move. If you’re in your 50s and have free cash sitting outside super and want to secure some long term growth, you might find yourself thinking about upsizing to a better home, a different location, something that genuinely suits the next stage of life. Doing it now locks more of your wealth into a CGT-free asset before the rules tighten further. It feels counterintuitive. But the numbers may support it, depending on what happens to property prices from here and whether you believe they’ll continue to grow; and of course whether you need or want access to those funds.

The thread connecting all of this

None of these strategies are new. Super contributions, paying down the home, thinking carefully about your asset mix – this has always been good retirement planning. What the budget has done is make the case for doing them more deliberately, and sooner, harder to ignore. And it’s rendered all the other types of investment outside super more expensive today than they were last week.

The window for most people reading this is the next five to ten years. That’s enough time to move the dial significantly… if you start now rather than waiting for the politics to settle.

Get your copy of my books here: How to Have an Epic Retirement and if you’re not ready for retirement, Prime Time: 27 Lessons for the New Midlife.

Or explore the course here: Epicretirement.net/upcoming-courses

I won’t beat around the bush. I’m unimpressed with the budget. I love Australia’s have-a-go spirit – the slightly uneven playing field that people can learn the rules to play on. The government has decided that’s unfair, and they’ve moved to level it. I get it. But these changes make getting ahead harder for anyone who planned to self-fund and isn’t already in the right asset structures. Some serious strategies have been rendered a lot less profitable, and once you factor in higher tax and fees, some investments outside super start to look a lot less attractive than they did. Which means some people have a real rethink ahead of them.

For the average person – simple super, family home, not much else – it doesn’t change a great deal. It probably just shuts up the mate at the pub who’s been bragging about his multiple investment properties. Because unless those are inside super, that strategy is looking a lot less clever than it did a week ago even with grandfathering.

But I’ve always tried to stay out of politics and get on with the job of understanding how the system works and making the most of what’s in front of us. So that’s where my head is this weekend. I hope you’re with me.

Now onto more fun things:

The first week of our Winter How to Have an Epic Retirement Flagship Course is underway. I love the first week of a new course. There’s energy, comments, buzz and excitement. Hundreds and hundreds of people are in there starting out. They’re sharing stories and curiosity. It’s our biggest course ever. We sold OUT of workbooks it surprised us so much.

We’ve just launched our UK pilot for sale too.

And this week I did a live event online for Aware Super Members, preparing them for the End of Financial Year: For Couples. I love these events. Hundreds of curious members came along, stayed for every single minute of the event and hung around for the huge Q&A at the end too. Thanks for coming - if you were there!

And that’s it. It’s been a long week of money talking. So I’m having a quite Sunday in the garden, ignoring social media. I hope you are too.

Make it epic!

Cheers - Bec Xx

Author, podcast host, columnist, retirement educator, and guest speaker

Seven money tricks that just became a whole lot better

Australians are a pretty resilient bunch when it comes to money. Every time the rules change, we find the new angles, the smarter structures and the opportunities still sitting in the system for us to use. And after the budget, a few specific ones come into focus.

Yes, this budget will sting for some people, particularly those with wealth sitting outside super and younger Australians still trying to build a deposit.

The government’s decision to replace the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount with an inflation-adjusted cost base indexation and a minimum 30 per cent tax on capital gains from July 1, 2027, is a significant shift. Combine that with negative gearing being limited to new builds from the same date, and the investing landscape has truly changed.

But here’s what I want you to do: instead of spending the next six months fuming about it, look for the opportunities that just got a lot more interesting – particularly if you’re a Gen X parent trying to help your adult kids get ahead while also navigating your own path toward an epic retirement.

Here are seven money moves worth paying attention to this week that might not have been as appealing before.

This article continues. It was published in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday 16th May 2026. Read the whole article here. Note - it has a sign-up gate but no paywall.

Has this Federal Budget just fundamentally changed the way middle Australians build wealth?

In this special post-budget episode of Prime Time, I sit down with Senior Financial Adviser and State Manager of Ord Minnett, David Lane, to unpack what could become one of the biggest shifts to retirement planning and investing in decades.

Thanks for reading Prime Time! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Together we break down the proposed changes to capital gains tax, negative gearing, trusts and superannuation and what they could mean for ordinary Australians in their 40s, 50s and 60s trying to build security, prepare for retirement and help their kids get into the housing market.

The conversation explores whether Australians are watching the old wealth-building playbook being rewritten in real time. From investment properties and rent-vesting to franking credits, shares, trusts and superannuation, David and I discuss the winners, losers and unintended consequences buried inside the Budget.

We also tackle the emotional tension many Gen X Australians are feeling right now: following the rules for decades, only to find the rules changing late in the game.

This is a practical, plain-English conversation about what may happen next and the decisions Australians may need to start making over the next few years.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST HERE:

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Feature: The most googled retirement question in Australia... answered

From Bec’s Desk: The course is kicking off: sold out of workbooks!

The Age and Sydney Morning Herald: Didn’t retire with ‘enough’? Here’s how to make the most of it

Prime Time: How to get a handle on subscription creep

How much super do you actually need to retire?

This is the most Googled retirement question in Australia. And the answer most people get sent to is a number (usually a big one) that leaves them feeling left behind before they’ve even started. So let’s sort this out properly.

The numbers people quote most often

ASFA, the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia, publishes a quarterly Retirement Standard that most super funds and financial websites point to. Their December 2025 figures say a comfortable retirement costs $54,840 a year for a single person, and $77,375 for a couple. To fund that, they estimate you need $630,000 in super if you’re single, or $730,000 as a couple and a fully paid off home, and access to a part age pension.

Those are the numbers doing the rounds. And for a lot of people, they land like a punch in the stomach. But the headline numbers leave a lot of information out. Let’s explore what they forget to tell you:

The age pension is part of the plan

Those ASFA figures assume you’ll receive a part age pension at 67. That pension is doing a lot of the heavy lifting, and it should be, because it’s designed to. Around 62 per cent of Australians over 67 currently receive some form of it. It’s not a fallback for people who didn’t save enough. It’s a legitimate, designed-in layer of the system, and most people are entitled to at least a part pension.

The full age pension currently pays $31,223 a year for a single person and $47,070 for a couple, including supplements. When you stack that alongside even a modest super drawdown, you’re already in the ballpark of a decent lifestyle. The practical upshot: you don’t need your super to replace your entire income. You need it to work alongside the pension. That’s a very different planning problem and a much more manageable one.

The number that might actually reassure you

Research from Vanguard’s How Australia Retires 2025 report found something worth sitting with: people consistently overestimate how much they’ll spend in retirement. Couples aged 65–74 expected to need around $59,000 a year. Retired couples their age actually reported spending $55,000 on average.

Most people spend less than they expect. Especially in the middle and later years, when the urge to travel and spend big tends to quietly ease off.

What the number actually depends on

There’s no single answer to “how much do I need?” because the question has three moving parts:

What you spend. Not what you think you spend: what you actually spend. Run the real numbers and you’ll often be surprised how manageable it looks.

What your super generates. A balance of $400,000 drawing down at 6 per cent produces $24,000 a year. Add a part age pension and you’re already approaching a liveable income, especially with no mortgage, no kids to support, and super income that’s completely tax-free.

What the age pension adds at 67. Even a part pension makes a meaningful difference to how far your super needs to stretch. And for many Australians, it’s the layer that makes the whole plan work.

When you know those three numbers (your spending, your super projection, and your likely pension entitlement )you have an actual picture of what’s possible. Not uncertain anxiety - a real plan!

The thing most people forget about super income

Once your super moves into the retirement phase, the income it pays you is tax-free. That changes the comparison completely. People who’ve been living on $80,000 or $90,000 a year are often genuinely surprised by how comfortably they live on $55,000-$60,000 in retirement, because the tax that was quietly disappearing from their pay packet every fortnight is suddenly gone.

Don’t rely on a number on a website. Build yourself a picture of how your life actually works.

The Epic Retirement course and/or book walks you through exactly this process building your own retirement picture step by step, so you can move from worry to excitement about your retirement.

Get your copy of my books here: How to Have an Epic Retirement and if you’re not ready for retirement, Prime Time: 27 Lessons for the New Midlife.

Or explore the course here: Epicretirement.net/upcoming-courses

Happy Mother’s Day! I’m looking forward to being pampered today and I hope you’re already enjoying it too.

I’ve been on the road again this week for the fifth week in a row and honestly, I’m a little travel wearied. Sydney first for some podcast recordings, then up to beautiful Cairns to speak at the Financial Counselling Australia National Conference. My topic was: Epic Retirements Are Not Just for the Wealthy. Up to 900 financial counsellors in the room. It’s also the inspiration for this week’s newsletter column.

I have to say I came home genuinely moved by the people I met there.Financial counsellors are doing some of the most important, most underrecognised work in this country. They sit with people in real distress: people drowning in debt trying to find a way out, people in frightening and vulnerable situations who need someone to help them navigate through. They build financial literacy with Australians who need it most, and they do it with enormous hearts and quiet dedication.

And one thing that really stayed with me: some wonderful Indigenous educators taking that financial literacy work back to their communities – their mobs – in ways that only they can. Reaching people that no one else could reach, in language and with trust that only comes from within. That’s powerful work.

Most of their clients arrive in despair and there are no quick fixes. So if you know a financial counsellor, give them a cheer, a shout out, or just a quiet thank you. They deserve it.

—

On a less sombre note - friday we packed and sent all the Welcome Packs for the enormous How to Have an Epic Retirement Flagship Course kicking off on Thursday. The Earlybird deal is closed. You blew us away! You can still get some last minute tickets but we’ve completely sold out of printed workbooks until the next program. Sorry about that. This is the biggest flagship course we’ve ever done by 25%. The demand has been AMAZING. You can book here if you’re keen to do the program using the digital workbook (it’s good!) but don’t delay. We’ll give yo 10% off for being a community member 😉. Use the code LATE10 - It’s already applied if you click this link.

Now - back to your Mothers’ Day. Get spoiled! Think about retirement!
Big hugs to everyone who has lost their mum today too! Thinking of you! 🥰

Cheers - Bec Xx

Author, podcast host, columnist, retirement educator, and guest speaker

Didn’t retire with ‘enough’? Here’s how to make the most of it

I spent the latter half of this week at the Financial Counselling Australia conference, and it really brought something into focus for me. Many Australians aren’t retiring in comfort.

We don’t talk nearly enough about what retirement looks like – or how to plan for it – if you don’t have a lot of money. We also don’t rave about financial counsellors enough and how they help people in tough situations, or who are deep in debt, to get back on track.

We tend to talk about retirement as if it’s something people move into by choice, confidently and with excitement. You’re expected to build up your super, pay off your home and step away from work with a fair bit of control over what comes next.

But that’s not how it’s playing out for everyone right now. In fact, close to half of Australians retiring today rely on the age pension for a significant part of their income, and only a third or so retire by choice.

So what does retirement planning look like for people who don’t have “enough”, who didn’t get the chance to plan or who step away from work because their health shifts or caring responsibilities take over?

In that world, it’s not about optimising your retirement and choosing the date. It’s about learning to live with choices that may have been forced upon you and making the best of the opportunities you do have.

Rebuilding your financial confidence is the first step, and the best way to do that is to understand how the financial systems that support retirement work, and how much money you can rely on coming in from passive income sources such as the age pension or superannuation.

This article continues. It was published in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday 9th May 2026. Read the whole article here. Note - it has a sign-up gate but no paywall.

Today’s episode is about something many of us don’t realise is happening until we stop and really look at our bank account… subscription creep.

All those streaming services, apps, software subscriptions, food boxes, memberships and cloud storage plans that quietly pile up over time. In fact, ING’s latest research found Australians are now spending a staggering $26.5 billion a year on subscriptions - and the number keeps growing.

Because most of these services are only “a few dollars a month”, they often fly under the radar, even as they slowly start taking a bigger bite out of the household budget.

So in this episode, I sit down with Matt Bowen, Head of Consumer and Market Insights at ING Australia, to talk about the huge price tag of Australia’s subscription addiction, why these business models are so effective, and the practical things we can do to get the costs back under control.

We also tackle another financial task many people avoid entirely: opening their super statement. Kate Rolfe from Aware Super joins me to explain the three key numbers everyone should be checking, why fees matter more than people realise, and the important detail too many people leave blank.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST HERE:

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Feature: The two things that will shape your retirement more than money

From Bec’s Desk: Very interesting weeks

The Age and Sydney Morning Herald: The silent deadline that could make or break your retirement

Prime Time: The hidden ways you’re being nudged to spend with Chris Kohler

The two things that will shape your retirement more than money

There’s a question I get asked a lot, in various forms….

“Am I on track financially?”

It’s fair, and it matters a lot to retirement planning. But after years of working with people navigating this transition, I’ve come to believe there are two things that matter just as much as your super balance and almost nobody talks about them.

Curiosity and courage.

And, not in a motivational-poster way. In a very practical, neurological, life-outcome kind of way.

What happens to curiosity in midlife

For most of us, the years between 45 and 65 are full of work, family, ageing parents, financial pressure. And somewhere in the middle of all that busyness, curiosity quietly goes into hibernation. We stop asking “what if?” and default to the routines of life, not because we’re lazy, but because routine is efficient when life is demanding.

The problem is that retirement is precisely when curiosity becomes most important. Because retirement, at its core, isn’t a financial event, it’s an identity event. And navigating it well requires genuine openness to who you might become next. If you arrive at that transition without having exercised your curiosity, the blank page can feel terrifying and well… blank… rather than exciting.

But the science says we can get past this. And here’s how. When you become genuinely curious about something, your brain releases dopamine, a real reward hit that motivates you to keep exploring, which is why curiosity tends to build its own momentum. But it goes deeper than that. Curiosity also engages the hippocampus, the part of your brain responsible for memory and learning, which means you don’t just feel more motivated when you’re curious, you actually retain and apply what you learn better.

This matters enormously for anyone approaching retirement, because this is a period of significant learning: new financial decisions, new routines, a new relationship with time and your identity. The more curious you stay, the better equipped your brain is to process all of it. And because of neuroplasticity – or the brain’s ability to rewire itself – staying curious is also one of the best things you can do for your long-term cognitive health.

And then there’s courage

Curiosity is what opens the door. Courage is what gets you through it. Truly!

Most people misunderstand what courage actually is. It’s not the absence of fear, it’s acting in spite of it. Every time you consider doing something outside your comfort zone, the brain’s amygdala fires up a threat signal. That’s just your nervous system doing its job - like it did in caveman days when you were under threat. Courage happens when your prefrontal cortex takes the wheel anyway, weighs the actual risk, and moves forward.

Here’s the part I find genuinely encouraging: every time you act with courage – even in a small way – you’re rewiring your brain to be less reactive to that fear signal next time. You practise it, and it really does become easier.

Why does this matter? I hear you asking. The years just before retirement bring a cascade of genuinely difficult decisions: when to stop working, whether to downsize, how to align your timeline with your partner’s, what you actually want this chapter to look like. These aren’t purely financial questions. Stop and look at them! They’re all questions about identity, risk, and change. The people I see navigate them well tend to be curious about what’s possible and have enough courage to sit with uncertainty while they figure it out.

Here’s how to get started

If you’re feeling less curious and less courageous than you’d like to be, you don’t need a dramatic overhaul.

For curiosity, start with some small questions rather than grand intentions. Follow something that mildly interests you and see where it leads. Talk to people who think differently to you. Read outside your usual lane.

For courage, start with small risks and practise visualising the upside rather than fixating on what could go wrong. And be kind to yourself when it’s hard because courage means trying, not being perfect.

Retirement planning done well isn’t just about the money. It really is about having the curiosity to imagine what’s possible, and the courage to pursue it. And you’re never too old for that!

Where has your curiosity been hiding lately? Hit reply and let me know.

The Epic Retirement course and/or book walks you through exactly this process building your own retirement picture step by step, so you can move from worry to excitement about your retirement.

Get your copy of my books here: How to Have an Epic Retirement and if you’re not ready for retirement, Prime Time: 27 Lessons for the New Midlife.

Or explore the course here: Epicretirement.net/upcoming-courses

I’ve been to the other ends of the country this week - Adelaide and Perth. Both quickly, on the North platform Adviser roadshow. A fascinating room full of Advisers in each location, learning how to improve and expand their advice offerings for people over 50 (or 47.5 as I teach). I love playing my role in talking about what people approaching retirement want, need and can be doing better with the Advice industry - many of whom are focussed on retirement.

Alongside this, we’re in course preparation mode. The Epic Retirement Course is on its last weekend of promotion before Earlybird pricing (25% off) closes. It’s the biggest course ever with hundreds and hundreds of people registered. So if you’ve been on the sidelines thinking ‘I’m not sure’ - don’t delay. The price jumps from $374 to $499 next week - and I want you all to enjoy the discount.

What do you get?

1. 6 weeks of structured, well-organised education designed to walk you through the big lessons everyone needs to navigate as they approach and make decisions about retirement. (100 lessons, structured into 15 modules)

2. A 170 page print and digital workbook, mailed to you

3. A signed copy of the new edition of How to Have an Epic Retirement

4. 6 Live Q&A Events, held on Monday evenings each week with some of Australia’s most respected retirement experts

5. Challenges and quizzes to bring the program to life.

It’s a great way to really learn about all the choices you have, and to shape your plans for the future, without pressure. So - want to learn more, here’s the website. Head to www.epicretirement.net/upcoming-courses to learn more, download a brochure and book your place.

Now, the week ahead is an interesting one. I'm heading to Cairns to speak at the Financial Counselling Australia National Conference — presenting on how people who don't have a lot of money can still build an Epic Retirement. It's had me thinking deeply about what that actually looks like in practice: understanding what government support is available, yes, but more importantly, shifting the focus from money to constructing a life that genuinely brings joy. And it turns out curiosity — the very thing we've been talking about today — becomes even more important when resources are limited. Maybe that's next week's topic. Watch this space.

Anyway - have a lovely Sunday, and for Queenslanders enjoy your long weekend! I know I will.

Cheers - Bec Xx

Author, podcast host, columnist, retirement educator, and guest speaker

The silent deadline that could make or break your retirement

I turned 50 at the start of this year, and it’s been the trigger I needed to get serious about my own retirement plan.

As the author of two bestselling books on retirement, I know exactly what to do. But there’s something very different about actually sitting down and doing it yourself, with your partner beside you, setting real goals for your super and other assets, working out how much you can both contribute and how quickly, and running the numbers on what compound investing actually does over a 10- to 15-year runway.

Goals not just to grow your money, but to one day use it. It’s made something that I teach every day feel genuinely more exciting. Because what we’re working towards isn’t just a goal number.

It’s a number that we understand, and that allows us to have choice: the choice to work after 60 because we want to, not because we have to, if life pans out according to plan.

As I’ve stepped through it, something has become obvious to me. The choices available to us right now, in our early to mid-fifties, are remarkable. But a lot of them won’t be there at 65. Some will be weaker. Some will be entirely gone. And that’s the main reason to take your super and savings seriously now, rather than later.

Let’s look at how we can make a big difference:

This article continues. It was published in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday 2nd May 2026. Read the whole article here. Note - it has a sign-up gate but no paywall.

It’s time for this month’s Prime Time Book Club episode, and this one might just change the way you look at your everyday spending.

Our April Book of the Month was How They Get You by Chris Kohler - a brilliant, slightly unsettling look at all the ways modern life quietly nudges us to spend more money. From subscriptions to loyalty programs, food delivery and even the way we pay.

These are all things we use every day… but rarely stop to question.

And what’s fascinating is, many of these systems didn’t always work the way they do now. They’ve evolved quickly, and often in ways that benefit businesses far more than consumers.

I’m joined by Chris himself to discuss how it all works; how companies get into our habits, our decisions, and ultimately… our wallets - and what you can do about it.

It’s one of those episodes where you’ll find yourself thinking, “I do that… I never realised why.”

You can find a copy of ‘How They Get You’ at all good book retailers & online here.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST HERE:

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Feature: The retirement date you pick vs the one life picks for you

From Bec’s Desk: On the road again!

The Age and Sydney Morning Herald: $1 million used to be the retirement dream. Now, it might not be enough

Prime Time: Could you stop working tomorrow… and still get paid?

But first, an ad for our upcoming course…

Last chance to secure an Earlybird ticket!

Our next program kicks off on 14 May, and our Earlybird deal (25% off) is now open—but places are limited. Hundreds of people have already booked and this is on track to be the biggest Epic Retirement Course yet!

This is a six-week retirement education program designed to build your confidence and help you make sense of the many decisions ahead.

Learn more about the course here ➡️

The retirement date you pick vs the one life picks for you

Most people have a number in their head. Maybe it’s 62. Maybe 65. Maybe “when the mortgage is paid off” or “when the kids are sorted.” It’s the date you’ve been quietly working toward – the finish line you’ve drawn in pencil on the wall of your mind.

But here’s a stat that tends to stop people in their tracks: only 31% of Australians retire by choice. The rest are pushed, by redundancy, by health, by a partner’s illness, or by a workplace that quietly makes it clear their time is up.

That means roughly two in three people don’t get to retire on their own terms. Life picks the date for them. This isn’t meant to be alarming information. It’s meant to be useful.

The gap between planned and actual

There’s often a significant gap between when people expect to retire and when they actually do. And that gap almost always runs in one direction – earlier than planned. An unexpected redundancy at 58. A health scare at 61. A parent who needs care, a partner who can’t wait, a job that disappears in a restructure.

When retirement arrives ahead of schedule, people who have a plan adapt. People who were counting on “a few more years” to get ready can find themselves scrambling.

What you can control

You can’t always control when you leave work. But you can control how prepared you are when it happens. A few things worth thinking about now:

Know your numbers today, not later. What would your retirement actually look like if it started next year? Run that scenario: super balance, likely pension eligibility, expenses. Even a rough picture is better than none.

Don’t put all your preparation into the final years. It’s tempting to think “I’ll sort the finances when I’m closer.” But if those final years get cut short, you want the groundwork already done.

Think about your non-financial readiness too. Identity, purpose, routine, social connection – these things really do take time to figure out. People who’ve thought about what they’re retiring to, not just from, tend to land better when the transition comes unexpectedly.

Consider a gradual exit. Moving to part-time or consulting before you fully retire gives you a trial run and keeps income flowing longer, which buys flexibility.

The silver lining

Here’s what I’ve seen again and again: people who are nudged into retirement earlier than planned often adjust faster than they expected. The fear of it is usually worse than the reality. Especially when the basics are in place.

The goal isn’t to panic about what you can’t control. It’s to make sure that whenever that date arrives – whether chosen or not —–you’re not starting from scratch.

Plan like it could happen sooner than you think. Hope it doesn’t. Either way, you’ll be ready.

The Epic Retirement course and/or book walks you through exactly this process building your own retirement picture step by step, so you can move from worry to excitement about your retirement.

Get your copy of my books here: How to Have an Epic Retirement and if you’re not ready for retirement, Prime Time: 27 Lessons for the New Midlife.

Or explore the course here: Epicretirement.net/upcoming-courses

I’ve been on the road all week keynoting the AMP North Adviser Roadshow through its biggest cities in Sydney and Melbourne. It’s so much fun! The adrenaline is addictive. The energy is fabulous. I love it when people queue up to get a copy of the book after too. I’m talking to Advisers about how important it is help people have not just an Epic Retirement, but a Prime time too, and how that Prime Time can be structured, into a setup phase, a lifestyling phase, and a part-timing phase. Lots of nodding heads and agreement from them! Which is terrific. Next week I’m off to do it all again in Adelaide and Perth.

In other things, this week our podcast was awesome - I hope you’ve had a listen. It was two people - Xavier O’Halloran from Super Consumers Australia and Kate Rolfe from Aware Super - talking about layering your super and the age pension.

And we’ve seen the How to Have an Epic Retirement Course hit awesome new heights. This is going to be the biggest course ever. I’m holding Earlybird 25% off open for a couple more days. Don’t delay though - I have to close it very soon to place the final book orders and get them in the mail.

On the side of all my Epic Retirement work, I’ve been loving every minute of working with my daughter, Paris, on An Epic Start - helping her learn how to budget, save, and invest. We’ve each been making little videos for Instagram and Tiktok to help adult kids and their parents learn the ‘new stuff’ we all need to know (us and them) so our kids can have an epic start. So much of investing, home buying and starting out has changed since we did it. Come and follow the channel (I’m super impressed at the videos Paris is making - making it real for all the younger gen).

More here:

• Instagram.com/an.epic.start

• Tiktok.com/@an.epic.start

And if you have adult kids starting out - tell them about it please. We want to help!

Now, on with the Sunday - make it Epic!

Cheers Bec

Author, podcast host, columnist, retirement educator, and guest speaker

$1 million used to be the retirement dream. Now, it might not be enough

For years, $1 million has been the number people carry around in their heads as the amount you need to have a good retirement. Get to that and you’ve done well in life. You’ll be comfortable, and you won’t need to worry.

Piffle.

What I’m seeing now is that more people are getting close to that figure, or even reaching it, and instead of feeling secure, they feel uncertain. They’re not stressed, and they’re not struggling, but they’re certainly not as confident as they expected to be that they have enough.

And the reason is pretty simple. The number hasn’t kept up with how retirement actually works any more.

A million dollars in super still puts you in a strong position. But when you translate it into income, it starts to look very different from the old idea of being “set for life”.

This article was published in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday 25th April 2026. Read the whole article here. Note - it has a sign-up gate but no paywall.

We spend our working lives earning an income. But at some point, the game changes completely.

The paycheck stops. And suddenly we’re not earning an income from full time work anymore, instead, we need to learn how to manage a more passive set of income streams. Super, the Age Pension, maybe a bit of work, some investments on the side. And for each layer, there’s different sources, different rules, and different timing. All of it needs to work together to replace the one simple income most people had before.

And that’s where most people get caught out. It’s not because they haven’t saved enough. It’s simply because nobody ever taught them how to actually run this thing called retirement.

This week on Prime Time, I sit down with Xavier O’Halloran from Super Consumers Australia and Kate Rolfe, Head of Retirement Strategy at Aware Super. We get into the real mechanics of layering a retirement income; what the sources are, how they shift across different phases of retirement, and how to build a picture that actually works for your life.

In this episode we also discussed the Super Consumers Australia’s Retirement Savings Targets. You can find them here.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST HERE:

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Feature: Nearly half of Australians heading into retirement are worried they’ll run out of money. Are you one of them?

From Bec’s Desk: Extra seats

The Age and Sydney Morning Herald: Worried you’ll lose your job before retiring? Try these six steps

Prime Time: Are you proactive about the risk of losing your job with Jannine Fraser?

But first, an ad for our upcoming course…

Booked your place on the next Epic Retirement Flagship Course yet?

Our next program kicks off on 14 May, and our Earlybird deal (25% off) is now open—but places are limited. Hundreds of people have already booked and this is on track to be the biggest Epic Retirement Course yet!

This is a six-week retirement education program designed to build your confidence and help you make sense of the many decisions ahead.

Learn more about the course here ➡️

Nearly half of Australians heading into retirement are worried they’ll run out of money. Are you one of them?

A new study released this week by Australia’s corporate regulator, ASIC, found that nearly half of Australians aged 50–66 are worried about running out of money in retirement. Almost a third say they feel behind in their preparations. And only 18% have a clear retirement plan.

Those are striking numbers. But here’s the one that really caught my attention:

Only 26% of pre-retirees demonstrate a strong understanding of retirement finances, yet 41% say they feel confident they can manage.

Read that again. More people feel confident than actually are. And far more people feel worried than have actually done the maths.

What this tells me isn’t that Australians are bad at money. It’s that most people are operating on a vague sense of where they stand – and vague is almost always worse than the actual reality.

The problem with “I think I’m okay”

Retirement anxiety thrives in the gap between what you feel and what you know to be true. When you don’t have a clear picture of your numbers, your brain fills in the blanks (usually with the worst version of events).

The fix lies in building your own clear picture. And it doesn’t need to be complicated.

Here’s where to start.

Step 1: Know your number – what will retirement actually cost you?

Before you worry about whether you have enough, you need to work out enough for what.

Most people skip this step. They focus on the balance in their super account without ever defining the lifestyle it needs to fund. Start with a budget in today’s money. What does a good life look like for you each year? What are your non-negotiables – the trips, the weekends away, the dinners out, the golf, the grandkids?

The ASFA Retirement Standard gives you a useful benchmark: a comfortable lifestyle for a single retiree currently costs around $55,000 a year, and for a couple around $77,500. If your vision of retirement is more active or ambitious than that – and for many in the Epic community, it is, then your number will be higher.

Map that out honestly. That’s your target income.

Step 2: Know what you’ve got

This sounds obvious, but most people have a rough idea rather than a real picture. Take stock of:

• Your super balance (and what it’s invested in)

• Any other investments or savings outside super

• Whether you’re likely to qualify for a full or part Age Pension

• Any income you expect to generate – part-time work, rent, a business

Don’t forget: for most Australians, super plus a part Age Pension will form the backbone of retirement income. You don’t need to fund everything yourself from super alone. The Age Pension can be juicy in the amount of support it offers.

Step 3: Bridge the gap – or confirm there isn’t one

Once you have your target income budget and a picture of what you’ve got, you can actually do the maths. This is where a lot of people get a pleasant surprise: the gap is smaller than they feared, or maybe doesn’t exist at all.

If there is a gap, you’ve still got time to do something about it – whether that’s contributing more to super, adjusting your retirement timing, or rethinking what a great retirement actually costs.

The point is: you can’t fix a problem you haven’t defined and understood. And you can’t feel genuinely confident without actually running the numbers.

The real issue

The research found that 58% of pre-retirees want to learn more about superannuation and retirement. That’s not a lack of interest. It’s a lack of clear, practical guidance that speaks to their actual situation.

If you’ve been in that “I think I’m okay... probably” camp, this is your nudge. Not to panic – but to look. Because for most people who actually do the work, the picture is better than they expected. (Trust me - I see it all the time in my course)

And if it isn’t? Better to know now, when there’s still time to act.

The Epic Retirement course and/or book walks you through exactly this process building your own retirement picture step by step, so you can move from worry to excitement about your retirement.

Get your copy of my books here: How to Have an Epic Retirement and if you’re not ready for retirement, Prime Time: 27 Lessons for the New Midlife.

Or explore the course here: Epicretirement.net/upcoming-courses

30 degrees in Brisbane, 13 degrees in Adelaide and 5 degrees in Hobart. That was my week of weather. Next week I’ll get to see what Sydney and Melbourne weather is like, on the road again with AMP North, keynoting at their Adviser roadshow. I’m talking about the future of retirement as I travel around. It’s super-fun because I’m sharing what everyday people (YOU!) want!

This week I’ve been working on reels, and podcasts while on the road and I really need your help. I’m hoping a few of you might want to tell your story of finding your sense of purpose and trying new things on a short 3-4 ish minute audio clip. Just script out your message, record it on your phone and send it to me via messenger on FB or email by replying to this email. We want to include your stories (and your real voices) on the podcast - and think of how much fun this will be if we can get you doing it.

And in other news, my new project with my daughter, Paris is well underway designed to teach parents and kids how they can start from nothing, save, invest and build their own journey onto the housing ladder. You can find An.Epic.Start as a new handle on Instagram, Tiktok and Facebook. That’s stage one (come along and have a look - I’m very proud of the work Paris has been doing here - and her friends and our growing younger community appears to be enjoying int). Then there’s going to be a book too! It’s filling every spare crack in my brain - which is fun. I enjoy research.

And lastly, the How to Have an Epic Retirement Flagship Course kicking off in May is definitely going to be our biggest yet! Hundreds of people have registered. I’m extending the Earlybird 25% off deal through this weekend because it’s already hit its limited number of seats. Remember, you can come along as a couple and do it together. You can also ask your employer to pay for it if you want!

Now, the sun is out, it’s Sunday morning, so go enjoy the peace and tranquility.

Until next week — make it epic.

Cheers, Bec xx

Author, podcast host, columnist, retirement educator, and guest speaker

Worried you’ll lose your job before retiring? Try these six steps

There’s a worry appearing in the minds of fifty- and sixty-somethings in Australia right now. People who’ve had long, successful careers are lying awake wondering whether their number is coming up before they’re ready.

Whether AI, a restructure, or a shifting market will cut their runway short before they’ve hit their super goal, cleared their mortgage, or got themselves thoroughly prepared.

It’s not an unreasonable fear. According to the ABS, in 2024-25 only one in three Australians retired because they actually chose to, reaching retirement age or becoming eligible for their super on their own terms.

Everyone else was pushed out by health, redundancy, caring responsibilities or circumstances well beyond their control. And that was before AI genuinely entered the workforce equation.

And there’s one thing we’re not telling ourselves loudly enough: it won’t just be one type of worker who feels this next wave. It will be anyone doing work that can be replicated faster, cheaper and more accurately by technology, and that cuts across every level of an organisation.

This article was published in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday 18th April 2026. Read the whole article here. Note - it has a sign-up gate but no paywall.

We spend so much time obsessing over our super, property and portfolios, but we often ignore our most valuable asset: our ability to earn.

Think about it… your career isn’t just a job - it’s an asset that needs constant reinvestment.

And yet, I see so many people with big, successful careers getting caught off guard by restructures, redundancies or shifts in the market, suddenly unemployed and underprepared for what comes next. So how do you protect your employability in midlife and beyond?

In this episode, I sit down with Jannine Fraser, who works right at the coalface helping people navigate career transitions when things go wrong. She’s the managing director of outplacement firm Directioneering, which means she’s the one helping people pick up the pieces and reshape what comes next.

This is an open honest conversation about what’s actually changing in the job market and what you can do now to stay relevant, ready and resilient.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST HERE:

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Feature: Scientists have proven that ageing doesn’t have to mean decline

From Bec’s Desk: A quiet week

The Age and Sydney Morning Herald: How we invest our super is changing – and not necessarily for the better

Prime Time: The truth about financial advice with Paul Feeney

But first, an ad for our upcoming course…

Booked your place on the next Epic Retirement Flagship Course yet?

Our next program kicks off on 14 May, and our Earlybird deal (25% off) is now open—but places are limited.

This is a six-week retirement education program designed to build your confidence and help you make sense of the many decisions ahead.

Learn more about the course here ➡️

Scientists have proven that ageing doesn’t have to mean decline

I’m going to ask you to set aside everything you think you know about getting older for a minute. Because a study has just been published in the the journal Geriatrics, from Yale, one of the world’s most respected research institutions, that has basically torn up the standard story about ageing. And I think it deserves way more attention than it’s getting.

Here’s the headline finding: nearly half of the older adults in the study actually improved in brain function, physical capacity, or both, over a period of up to 12 years.

Not “saw their health decline more slowly” and not “held steady as they got older!” They IMPROVED!

Just soak in that for a second!

The stories of getting old we tell ourselves become our reality

We have been marinated, from childhood, from every insurance ad, from every well-meaning doctor’s appointment, in a single story about ageing. That it goes one way - downhill, in a gradual and inevitable way, universally.

And, that story has been shaping your biology all throughout your life. But now, you could choose a different story to shape yourself around. One that has scientific backing!

The Yale researchers, led by Dr Becca Levy, followed more than 11,000 people aged 65 and over for up to 12 years. When they averaged everyone’s results together, which is how most ageing studies work, they saw what you’d expect – Decline. Cognitive scores dropped and walking speed slowed.

But then they did something different. They looked at individual trajectories instead of group averages. And that’s where things got interesting.

Nearly 45% showed improvement in cognitive function, physical function, or both. Around 32% actually improved their brain scores. Around 28% were walking faster at the end of the study than they were at the start.

So what made the difference?

Here’s the part that will either make you nod and smile or make you a little uncomfortable.

The researchers tested whether what people believed about ageing – the assumptions they brought into the study – predicted what actually happened to their health over the following decade.

And it did! Significantly.

People who held more positive beliefs about ageing were measurably more likely to show improvements in both brain function and walking speed, even after you account for age, sex, education, chronic disease and depression.

Your beliefs about ageing appear to be a biological input into how your body responds. Not just a mood or attitude. Something that’s actually shaping what happens inside your body over time.

Dr Levy has a name for this: ‘stereotype embodiment theory’. The idea is that from a young age, we absorb messages about what ageing looks like from ads, media, culture, the casual way people talk about getting old. Eventually those messages stop being abstract and become deeply personal. They shift from describing other people to describing you. And at that point, they start showing up in the body.

Her earlier research linked negative age beliefs to poorer memory, slower walking speed, higher cardiovascular risk, and brain markers associated with Alzheimer’s disease. This new study adds the other side of that coin: positive age beliefs predict improvement.

I find this extraordinarily exciting.

Something important to think about

I want to flag something specific in this research that I think it’s the most important part. The researchers didn’t just look at people who were struggling and got better. They did a separate analysis on people who had normal cognitive and physical function at the start – people who were already doing fine.

Among that group? Around 28% still improved their brain function over time. Around 23% improved their walking speed.

This wasn’t recovery from illness. This was people who were already healthy getting better as they got older

The researchers call it “reserve capacity.” The idea that later life holds more potential for growth than our culture has been giving it credit for. I’ve been saying this for years, and honestly it’s kind of wonderful to see Yale prove it.

So, what do you actually believe about getting older?

I ask this genuinely because I want you to stop and think about it.

If you’ve absorbed the standard cultural story (decline is inevitable, the body just fades, the brain slips, the best years of your life are behind you), that story may be doing you real harm. Not just to your mood or your motivation. Potentially to your actual health trajectory.

The good news and I want to be clear this is genuinely good news is that the researchers say age-related beliefs are modifiable. You can change them. And because you can change them, there’s real scope for doing something about it.

That might look like this:

• Noticing the internal voice that says well, at my age... and asking whether it’s actually true

• Deliberately seeking out people who are thriving – not just surviving – in their 60s, 70s, 80s

• Pushing back when the cultural narrative around you defaults to telling you about your imminent decline

And let me be clear. None of this is about toxic positivity or pretending the challenges that come with getting older don’t exist. They do – ageing is real. But the research is telling us that the trajectory into later life is far less fixed than we’ve been led to believe – and that what we expect from life has a measurable effect on what we experience.

Maybe, if you already believe you’ll have an epic retirement, then you’re on the right path.

So here’s my challenge for you this week: Think about one story you’re telling yourself about ageing that might not actually be serving you? It might be time to rewrite it.

Source: Levy, B.R. & Slade, M.D. (2026). “Aging Redefined: Cognitive and Physical Improvement with Positive Age Beliefs.” Geriatrics, 11(2), 28.

Want to read more, I have two books - How to Have an Epic Retirement and if you’re not ready for retirement, Prime Time: 27 Lessons for the New Midlife.

I realise every day, whether I’m walking downstairs to my little home office or driving to the airport for a speaking gig, that I’m a very lucky person to love what I do so much.

This week was a full week at the desk. Articles, podcasts, newsletters, courses. No events, no travel, no distractions. I got a lot done, but it also means there’s not a huge amount to report from the road. Next week makes up for it though: Adelaide and Tassie, here I come.

On the content front, the government dropped an important consultation this week on how they plan to change the rules around financial advice – specifically around how people can pay for advice when they’re thinking about switching super funds. I wrote about it in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, so check that out if it’s relevant to your situation.

My podcast this week was a good one too. I sat down with Paul Feeney from Otivo to dig into the real challenges people face trying to get financial advice today – it’s a conversation a lot of you will relate to.

And if you haven’t caught my recent reels on social media, I’ve been doing a lot of short micro-lessons breaking down how to navigate retirement step by step. Worth a follow if you’re not already across them — link below.

• Facebook.com/becwilsonepic

• Instagram.com/epicretirement

Finally, it’s been a huge week of sales for the next 6-week course which kicks off on 14 May. The 25% Earlybird offer is available for the first 200 people to book but we’re already over 150 booked as I write this Friday afternoon! So don’t delay!

👉🏻 You can book your place here

👉🏻 Or learn more and download a brochure.

Now, have a lovely Sunday. The real, post-Easter year starts next week. I hope you’re ready!

Until next week — make it epic.

Cheers, Bec xx

Author, podcast host, columnist, retirement educator, and guest speaker

How we invest our super is changing – and not necessarily for the better

When it comes to managing your super, especially as you get closer to retirement, you really have two broad paths to choose from. I find it helps to think of them like two different ways of eating out.

The first is a well-run large scale mass-market restaurant with a carefully standardised menu. Think of your big industry or retail super fund as exactly that. In these, big professional investment teams do the cooking.

The menu has been curated tightly, the ingredients vetted for cost and importance, and the whole thing runs at scale for millions of members. Your job is to pick what suits you from what’s on the menu, using the waiter’s help.

For most Australians building their retirement savings over a working life, this is a genuinely good option. Reliable, cost-effective, and much more sophisticated than it used to be.

The second suits people with more complex needs. Think of it as hiring a professional chef who shops at a premium wholesale supermarket on your behalf and tailors your meal plan. The chef is your financial adviser, and the supermarket is an investment platform, one that ordinary consumers can’t just walk into.

But here’s what most people don’t realise: many of these chefs work inside what are effectively chain restaurants. The franchise has already decided which products they allow their chefs to use from the supermarket and which dishes are on the approved menu.

While we are debating how to stop people being exploited when they seek advice, we have paused the reforms that would have made it that advice easier to find.

Your chef personalises your experience within that framework, and they genuinely can do a great deal for you within it. But by the time your meal arrives, quite a few hands have shaped what was possible.

This article was published in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday11th April 2026. Read the whole article here. Note - it has a sign-up gate but no paywall.

One of the biggest challenges I see for people in Prime Time isn’t a lack of money. It’s a lack of clear, trustworthy guidance.

People know they’re making big decisions. They know the stakes are high. But full financial advice can feel expensive or intimidating. Free information often comes with hidden incentives. And online tools, including AI, can leave you feeling more overwhelmed, not less - or with more questions to answer.

So, this week on Prime Time, I chat to Paul Feeney, founder and CEO of Otivo and someone who has spent years inside the advice industry in a variety of roles. It’s a refreshingly honest take on where it works, where it falls short, and what everyday Australians can do about it. The reality is that quality personalised advice has historically been more accessible to people with significant assets, leaving many everyday Australians without affordable guidance at the very moment they need it most.

We dig into the real difference between information, guidance and advice, because these words get thrown around a lot and they don’t mean the same thing. Information educates, guidance helps, and regulated advice is personalised to your exact situation.

And he’s offered everyone listening an opportunity to try out Otivo. To set up a free Otivo account you can go to www.otivo.com and use the discount code ‘Otivo4EpicRetirementor’. This coupon is only valid until 30 June 2026.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST HERE:

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Feature: The ages every pre-retiree should know

From Bec’s Desk: Read the feedback!

The Age and Sydney Morning Herald: Thinking about helping your adult kids?

Prime Time: Two shows: A guide to downsizing from your family home; and Kathy Lette on the power of ‘I don’t give a shit lit’

Booked your place on the next Epic Retirement Flagship Course yet?

Our next program kicks off on 14 May, and our Earlybird deal (25% off) is now open—but places are limited.

This is a six-week retirement education program designed to build your confidence and help you make sense of the many decisions ahead.

If you’re starting to think seriously about what comes next, this is the perfect way to get prepared.

Learn more about the course here ➡️

The ages every pre-retiree should know

One of the most searched questions around retirement is simple: when can I retire?

But the real answer isn’t one age. It’s a series of ages, and each one opens up a different set of options.

What I see all the time is people anchoring to one number. Usually 60, 65 or 67, as if that’s when everything suddenly changes and the finish line appears. But the people who navigate this well don’t wait for one moment. They understand how the system works across time and use it to shape their transition.

If you’re looking towards retirement, these are the ages that actually matter.

First, there’s 55. This is when the downsizer contribution becomes available. If you’ve owned your home for ten years and lived in it for some of this time as your PPOR, you can contribute up to $300,000 per person into super from the sale of that home without it counting towards your contribution caps. It’s a powerful option if you’re thinking about moving to a lifestyle property or freeing up capital.

Then, at 60, the doors to super really start to open.

This is the age where you can access your super if you retire from a role and meet a condition of release, even if you later return to work. If you choose to keep working, you can also consider a transition to retirement income stream (TTR), which allows you to draw between 4% and 10% of your super balance each year.

From age 60, payments from super become tax-free. With a TTR, those payments are tax-free, although the earnings in the fund are still taxed until you fully retire and move into retirement phase.

Some people use a TTR to reduce their hours and ease out of full-time work while maintaining an income. For many, this is the first time work starts to feel more like a choice than a necessity.

Age 60 is also where the tax system begins to work in your favour. Once you’ve met a condition of release and moved your super into retirement phase, the income your super earns and any capital gains become tax-free. Withdrawals are also tax-free.

That’s a big shift. It opens up the ability to combine part-time work with tax-free income from super, and to make lump sum withdrawals when needed. For many people, this is the point where they can start reshaping how they work and live.

At 65, things become simpler again. Turning 65 is itself a condition of release, which means you can access your super regardless of whether you’re working. The focus shifts from eligibility to strategy, and how you structure your income and investments becomes the priority.

Then there’s age 67, which is when most people become eligible for the Age Pension.

This is the age everyone knows, but it’s often given more weight than it deserves. The Age Pension is an important safety net, but it’s not the whole plan. For those with lower balances, the focus is on how the Age Pension and super work together. For others, it plays more of a supporting role.

And then there’s age 75, which tends to fly under the radar.

At 75, a number of contribution opportunities come to an end. You generally can’t make non-concessional contributions anymore, and the bring-forward rule is no longer available. Most voluntary contributions, other than employer contributions, effectively stop at this point, with contributions only allowed up to 28 days after the end of the month you turn 75. One of the few contributions still available beyond this is the downsizer contribution.

This matters because the years leading up to 75 can be some of the most valuable for shaping your financial position. It’s often the window where people consider strategies like recontribution to reduce the taxable component of their super and improve outcomes for their beneficiaries. Miss that window, and you lose flexibility.

When you step back and look at all of this, the idea of a single retirement age doesn’t really hold up.

Retirement isn’t a switch you flick at 60 or 65. It’s a transition that unfolds over a number of years. The real opportunity is in how you use that time — easing back rather than stopping suddenly, starting to draw on your super while you’re still working, and making deliberate decisions about how you want your time and energy to be spent.

The people who get the most out of this stage aren’t waiting for a date. They’re using these ages as guideposts and adjusting along the way.

Want to read more, I have two books - How to Have an Epic Retirement and if you’re not ready for retirement, Prime Time: 27 Lessons for the New Midlife.

Happy Easter! I hope the bunny has delivered a few eggs to your house this morning.

Hard to believe it’s April, isn’t it? And fuel prices are the biggest conversation of the week (and possibly for many months in the future). Gulp. I almost don’t want to admit I’m a Tesla owner at times like this. My car, a bottom-of-the-range Model 3, is no ego-wagon. It’s seven years old, white, and has cost me a grand total of $400 in servicing over its lifetime, and one set of tyres. So it’s quietly holding up its end of a bargain I didn’t know I was making. How’s yours going?

Anyway, onto more serious things. This week was deliciously short. I keynoted two Adviser events for AMP North, one in Brisbane and one on the Gold Coast, which were both fantastic.

It also marked week 6, the final week of our Autumn How to Have an Epic Retirement Flagship Course. We held our last live session with Fiona Dalton on how to get the most out of travel, which is always a crowd favourite.

And in the HESTA Exclusive Epic Retirement Course, we wrapped up with Tania Phillips from CareAbout, who walked us through how to plan for care and how the system actually works. Such an important topic, and one most people don’t feel confident about until they’ve had it explained properly.

I genuinely love running these courses and being part of the live sessions. And I’m thrilled to say that the first round of finishers seem to be enjoying them just as much as I do. Here’s some fresh feedback that came in this week:

“I would consider this an essential course for everyone. I would recommend reading Prime Time and Epic Retirement, and unlike me at 62 years old and retired to do so earlier in life to be ready. Great coverage of lots of topics relevant to all of us. Thank you for the books and the course.”

“Feeling in a better place to handle everything now. Thank you”

“Terrific program. We loved the content and Bec’s delivery style is just so engaging. Highly recommend the course, and likewise Bec’s wonderful books “How to have and Epic Retirement” and “Prime Time”, and her podcast “Prime Time”.”

And one from the HESTA course too:

“This course has been very helpful. It has put the planning for retirement in to a structure I can follow and given me hope for an Epic Retirement. I was very anxious about my low super balance and nil savings, being divorced and having to do it all on my own. But now it feels doable. I can still do some of the travel overseas I have always dreamed of. Thanks for this opportunity to participate in this great course. Highly recommended to everyone over 50 years old.”

100% of people who finished so far said they’d recommend the course to their friends too! Honestly, what a buzz.

The next 6-week course kicks off on 14 May. It’s just opened for enrolments, and the 25% Earlybird offer is available for the first 200 people to book. We’re booking fast.

👉🏻 You can book your place here

👉🏻 Or learn more and download a brochure.

Now, that’s enough of the heavy stuff - it’s time for some chocolate.

Hope the bunny delivered, and that you’re having a lovely, family-or-friend-filled Easter. And there’s plenty of chocolate around you today.

Until next week — make it epic.

Cheers, Bec xx

Author, podcast host, columnist, retirement educator, and guest speaker

Why a large super balance can actually reduce your retirement income

Young Australians are being locked out of the housing market, and if you’re a parent or grandparent watching it happen, it’s genuinely painful.

Home ownership for people in their 20s and 30s has been falling for years. Your children are buying later than you did, borrowing more than you ever considered, or giving up on the idea altogether, scared off by the size of the mortgage they’d have to sign on for. And, it doesn’t look like the system is going to fix this for them any time soon.

I’ve been having this conversation with my 22-year-old daughter. When you actually sit down and do the sums with them, what it costs to save a deposit in one of our capital cities, on a starting salary, with the life expenses that come with being young, it feels scary.

It’s not impossible. But it takes real discipline, real commitment, and increasingly, it depends on whether family support is sitting behind them to catch them if the economy gets tough or they lose their job.

The money exists in our economy to help. In fact, trillions of dollars will move between generations over the coming decades, from Australians in their late 80s and 90s to their children, who’ll be in their late 50s and 60s by then. By the time that inheritance lands, for many it will be too late to change very much.

This article was published in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday 4th April 2026. Read the whole article here. Note - it has a sign-up gate but no paywall.

A guide to downsizing from your family home

Downsizing the family home is one of those decisions that sits in the background for years…until suddenly, it’s right in front of you.

This week on Prime Time, I sit down with regular guest Mike Chesworth to talk about the good, the bad and the reality of downsizing after more than 30 years in the same home.

Big house. Kids grown. Life shifting. And like so many people in this stage of life, the question becomes… is it time?

In this episode, Mike shares what actually goes into making that decision, from figuring out your “why”, to navigating timing, finances, bridging loans, strata, inspections and the chaos of moving just before Christmas. Along the way, he reflects on what it means to future-proof life in your 60s, let go of the weight of a big home, and create a lifestyle that offers more freedom, flexibility, and ease.

Mike offers hard-won insights into choosing the right property, getting clear on your priorities, managing costs, and treating a move like a project rather than a challenge.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST HERE:

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BOOK CLUB: The power of ‘I don’t give a sh*t lit!’ with Kathy Lette

It’s month two of the Prime Time Book Club, and this one is an absolute hoot.

This month we’re diving into The Sisterhood Rules by the one and only Kathy Lette - and yes, she’s back on the show with us for a proper book club sit-down… and the kind of girl talk we don’t have nearly enough of.

If you’ve ever read chick lit, chances are Kathy has been part of your life. From Puberty Blues to now, she’s been soundtracking the different stages of womanhood, and this latest book is firmly for us in midlife.

I’ve just finished it and I loved it. It’s sharp, funny, rebellious… and underneath all of that, it’s about something much deeper: what happens when women of a certain age stop playing by the rules and start leaning into the power of the sisterhood.

In this episode, we talk about everything from falling out with the women closest to you, to ageing, sex, reinvention… and why midlife might just be the moment you stop caring what anyone else thinks and start having a lot more fun.

You can find a copy of ‘The Sisterhood Rules’ at all good book retailers & online here.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST HERE:

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Feature: Your first year of retirement: the biggest challenge might not be your money

From Bec’s Desk: I want your feedback on something

The Age and Sydney Morning Herald: ‘This mess is eating our super’: Why retirees are starting to get nervous

Prime Time: How AI will become part of the everyday lives of Prime Timers: with one of Australia’s leading futurists

Our next Epic Retirement Flagship Course is now on sale: Earlybird 25% off won’t last

We’ve launched the Winter Edition of the How to Have an Epic Retirement 6-Week Flagship Course this week. It kicks off on the 14th May.

• It’s a 6-week online program, that you can complete in your own time. (new content drips each week)

• There’s 6 live Q&As with some of the country’s leading experts in retirement

• A 170 page workbook professionally printed and mailed

• A signed copy of How to Have an Epic Retirement - the book

• The Excel budgeting tool

• And a whole heap of helpful quizzes

You can download a detailed brochure here to see what’s in store. And book your place. The first 200 people to book get our 25% off Earlybird Discount.

Find out more

Your first year of retirement: the biggest challenge might not be your money

Most people spend more time planning their retirement finances than they spend thinking about who they’ll actually be when they get there. That’s a problem, and it tends to show up about six months in.

Here’s the question I want you to sit with this week: if someone asked you to describe yourself at a dinner party the week after you retire, what would you say? For most of us, the answer has been the same for twenty or thirty years. You lead with what you do. Your job title, your industry, your company. It’s shorthand for competence, status and purpose all at once. And then one day, it’s just gone.

This isn’t a small thing. Research on retirement consistently shows that identity loss, not financial stress, is the most common cause of what people describe as a difficult first year. The people who struggle most aren’t usually the ones who ran out of money. They’re the ones who ran out of answer to the question: what do I do with myself now?

The good news is that this is entirely workable, but only if you start thinking about it before you get there, not after.

So here are three questions worth sitting with this week:

What do you do that has nothing to do with work? Not what you’d like to do in retirement, but what you actually do now, outside of your job. If the honest answer is not much, that’s important information. Retirement doesn’t conjure purpose out of thin air. It just removes the structure that was filling the space.

Who are you to the people who matter most to you? Your partner, your kids, your close friends. How do they describe you? What role do you play that has nothing to do with your career? That version of you is the foundation you’re building on.

What would you do on a Tuesday at 11am if you had no obligations and no agenda? Not a holiday Tuesday. A regular one. If you can’t answer that with something specific and genuine, it’s worth spending more time on that question than on your superannuation projections this week.

Retirement is long. For most people reading this, it’s twenty to thirty years. The financial plan gets you there. The identity work is what makes it worth arriving.

Start that work now. It’s more important than you think.

Bec Xx

I cover a lot more on this in both my books - How to Have an Epic Retirement and if you’re not ready for retirement, Prime Time: 27 Lessons for the New Midlife.

This week was a big one.

We launched the next How to Have an Epic Retirement Flagship Course, and the response has been fantastic. Truly fantastic. I have a strong feeling this will be our biggest course yet.

You can download a brochure here

Or book your place (the first 200 places get our Earlybird price which is 25% off rightnow)

There’s also been a lot of course updates happening behind the scenes. With new Age Pension caps, updated super contribution limits, and changes to deeming rates, I’ve been busy recording fresh content to make sure everything is up to date.

Make sure you listen to the podcast this week – it’s an absolute ripper. I’ve got one of Australia’s leading futurists on the show, Dr Catherine Ball, and she completely blew my mind. We talked about the kind of world Prime Timers and Epic Retirees are stepping into as AI starts to roll into everyday life and she did a lot of predicting the future - and WOW!

On top of that, I hit the road, starting in Canberra for the first of five weeks on the AMP North Adviser Roadshow as one of their keynote speakers. I’m talking about the future of retirement – a topic very close to my heart, and one I never get tired of exploring. Next week I’ll be hitting the Gold Coast and Brisbane events.

—

And finally, I’d love your thoughts on something.

I’ve started considering a new book concept with my daughter, Paris. It’s a real journey as she starts from scratch as a 22-year-old trying to get ahead. She’s learning to budget, understand super, building her savings, investing for the first time, riding bumpy markets, with the goal of working towards getting into the property market so that one day she might be able to afford a home of her own.

It’s tough out there.

And we’re very aware this is going to be a multi-step process — potentially starting with an affordable investment property before she’s in a position to buy a home to live in. (We’re at the ‘exploring her options and setting goals’ stage).

In fact, it’s a big financial literacy journey, and we’re only just at the beginning. She says her friends are interested in learning alongside her. So, I’m contemplating working with her to share the good lessons we learn, so others have a resource. (She’s also planning to start a TikTok channel so people her age can follow along, which I love.)

She’s at the centre of the story, and I’m more of a guide, helping her ask the right questions and, when we don’t know the answers or how to work it out, going out and finding them together by speaking to experts.

We’re learning a lot already… and honestly, it’s not an easy road. Working through the process with her has given me a whole new perspective on just how tough it is for young people trying to get into the property market without support.

While I’m very aware that I don’t want to shift my focus from midlife and retirement to young people. But, I do think we can create something quite useful here – a simple, practical resource that actually helps. And if you’re part of the industry, with your own kids this age and ‘get’ the problem - I’d genuinely love your input.

I’m really curious… is this something you’re navigating with your adult kids too? Or are yours already past this stage?

Now - thanks for humouring me. I’m going to be on the journey with my daughter anyway - so curious whether the lessons we learn can help others. If you have thoughts - drop me an email. Just hit reply!

Now - let’s get back to that epic retirement of yours - have an Epic Sunday and an amazing week. Don’t forget to book your course spot.

Author, podcast host, columnist, retirement educator, and guest speaker

‘This mess is eating our super’: Why retirees are starting to get nervous

Four weeks on since the war in Iran started, and the financial pressure on retirees is real, and it’s coming from multiple directions at once.

I put the question out to the Epic Retirement community this week: how are you really faring? The responses came flooding in, and what struck me wasn’t panic. It was a level of pragmatism, tinged with genuine worry.

The big pain points for retirees and pre-retirees are different to the rest of the population, particularly if they were planning to stop work soon. If you’re still accumulating super, a market downturn is painful but recoverable.

If you’ve stopped working and are drawing down to fund your living expenses, selling assets while prices are depressed permanently impairs your balance in a way you can’t easily undo. Your income doesn’t rise with inflation. You can’t work extra hours to compensate for the money you’re spending at the fuel pump.

This article was published in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday 7th February 2026. Read the whole article here. Note - it has a sign-up gate but no paywall.

How AI will become part of the everyday lives of Prime Timers

Today on the show, I’ve got a real treat for you.

I’m talking to one of the world’s leading thinkers on the future of technology, robotics and artificial intelligence - and what that future might actually look like for us.

Dr Catherine Ball is a global expert in AI, robotics and emerging technologies. She’s worked across fields like drones, digital twins and automation, and has spent years advising governments, universities and industry on how these technologies are reshaping our world.

If you’re in mid-life or heading for retirement right now, the reality is that we’re going to see extraordinary technological change over the next 10, 20 and 30 years: AI. Robotics. Smart homes. Personalised healthcare. Maybe even robotic carers.

So what will that actually mean for us?

This is a fascinating conversation. And what I love about Catherine’s perspective is that she’s not just talking about technology for technology’s sake. She’s thinking deeply about how it changes how we live, how we age, and how we stay independent in the second half of life.

You can find out more about Catherine’s research here, and learn more about her latest book, ‘The Future of Sleep’ here.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST HERE:

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Feature: What I’d actually do this weekend if I was 55 or 65 and the world felt a bit wobbly

From Bec’s Desk: Finishing early

The Age and Sydney Morning Herald: Why a large super balance can actually reduce your retirement income

Prime Time: Why FIBRE is your missing ingredient to longevity

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What I’d actually do this weekend if I was 55 or 65 and the world felt a bit wobbly

What a week. Oil hit $113 a barrel. The war in the Gulf is now in its fourth week and showing no signs of easing. Petrol prices are climbing and our grocery bills are going up again. The RBA raised rates which sounds scary until you realise it’s because nobody really knows what comes next and inflation matters here.

And if you’re in your 50s or 60s, things are feeling a little uncomfortable. You might not be panicking, necessarily, you just might have that low-level hum of worry sitting in your gut. The feeling that things you worked hard to build feel a little less certain than they did a month ago.

So let me talk to you like a friend this weekend. Because there are a few things worth doing and none of them are all that complicated.

First, take a breath and step back from the noise

Turn off the finance news for the weekend. Not because what’s happening doesn’t matter – it certainly does – but because none of the decisions you need to make right now will be improved by watching oil price tickers, hearing about the horrible fuel price or watching market updates scroll past.

The Gulf disruption, the inflation creep, the cost of living squeeze – these are all real. But they’re largely outside your control. What you can control is whether you respond thoughtfully or react out of fear. And that always starts with slowing down and really thinking things through.

Next, remind yourself what your actual timeline is

Here’s the question I’d ask you to sit with: “when do you actually need to draw on your investments for income?”

Not when you want to stop working. “When you’ll need the money to live on.

For a lot of people between 55 and 65, the honest answer is still five, eight, even ten or more years away. Markets have recovered from oil shocks before in 1973, 1990, 2008. They’ve come back from worse than this quite quickly. And, frankly, the Australian market isn’t really all that far from it’s highs right now. But acknowledging that, time is what gives your investments room to breathe.

If you’re already in drawdown, the question shifts a little bit, but the core of it is the same: do you have enough money in a more stable type of investment or is your superfund drawing from the lower risk part of your portfolio to avoid being forced into selling growth investments or shares while they’re low?

Check whether you have a buffer and be honest about it

This is the one I keep coming back to with people in this season of life.

Do you have two or three years of living expenses in something stable — a high-interest savings account, term deposits, cash or lower risk investments? Not in the sharemarket. Somewhere it just sits, keeping up with inflation ideally, but at the ready.

Because if you do, you can ride this out. You’re not forced to sell when the market is down. You have ‘choices’. That buffer isn’t dead money. It’s the thing that lets you stay calm while everyone else is pulling at their hair.

WHAT IF YOU DON’T HAVE A BUFFER RIGHT NOW

If you don’t have a buffer right now. I want to be straight with you here, because glossing over this doesn’t help anyone.

If you don’t have much set aside outside of super or your investments, this week probably felt harder than it needed to. And that’s worth acknowledging that, not as a reason to panic, but as useful information.

The question to sit with this weekend isn’t “how do I fix everything at once.” It’s simpler than that: what’s one thing I could do in the next 90 days to start building a little more breathing room?

Maybe it’s redirecting $200 a month into a savings account you don’t touch. Maybe it’s looking hard at where money is leaking out right now in your cash flow. Maybe it’s a conversation with a financial adviser or the advice team in your superfund, not to overhaul everything, just to get a clearer picture of where you actually stand. (And bear in mind when the market is down all of these people are booked ahead).

You can’t build a buffer overnight. But you can make a decision this weekend to start. That matters a lot more than people realise.

Have an honest look at your spending right now

With petrol up, groceries creeping higher and energy costs rising, your day-to-day spending has probably gone up without you even noticing. This isn’t about cutting back dramatically but it is about knowing where you stand.

Grab a coffee and spend half an hour with your last few months of bank statements. Just three questions:

• What am I actually spending each month right now?

• Has that crept up in the last three months?

• Is there anywhere I can claw back a bit of breathing room?

You’re not looking for perfection. You’re just looking for a clearer picture of your spending than you had on Friday.

Finally, think about what this stage of life is really asking of you

There’s a shift that happens for a lot of people somewhere in their 50s. It really does stop being about building alone, and starts being about protecting your assets as well – so at some point you can enjoy the life you want, make the choices you want to be able to, and feel the ense of ssecurity that lets you sleep at night.

In that context, another week of volatile markets and geopolitical noise shouldn’t be a crisis. It should be a prompt. A reminder to check in on whether your setup actually gives you flexibility and the ability to make good choices rather than being forced into bad ones.

That’s what this weekend is for. Calmly reassessing where you are, and taking control of where you want to be.

The war in the Gulf is certainly looking serious. The oil price is really high and the cost of living pressure that might come from this could be even more difficult. And none of us like looking at the price of petrol or the rise in interest rates coming through, especially if you’re already feeling stretched.

But the people who come through these periods best aren’t the ones who predicted it all or moved everything to cash in February (because they never know when to get back in). They’re the ones who had a plan they trusted, a buffer they could lean on, and the discipline not to let the noise and fear make their decisions for them.

If you’ve got the buffer then great, sit tight and trust the plan.

If you don’t, this is your weekend to decide to start building one. That decision, made over a coffee on a Saturday morning, is worth using your weekend’s spare time on.

You’ve got this. And I’ll be here with you through it all.

Bec x

Want to read more, I have two books - How to Have an Epic Retirement and if you’re not ready for retirement, Prime Time: 27 Lessons for the New Midlife.

This week I’m headed off for a local weekend away… and it’s a big one.

It’s my last ever school mums’ weekend. My youngest is in Year 12 this year, so this feels like a bit of a rite of passage for me too. I’m wrapping things up early on Friday (much earlier than I’d usually send this newsletter!) and heading to the Gold Coast for what looks like a rainy weekend of wining, dining, meditation, yoga… and celebrating with a group of women I’ve shared years of life with.

I have to admit, I’m feeling a little unsettled about what life looks like when these structures fall away. If you’re ahead of me on this path, I’d really love your advice.

On the work front, it’s been a big week.

The poddy this week was on Fibre, and for a gal that’s eating protein like it’s the only ingredient left on this earth, I found this important and timely. The role fibre plays in our health is important in so many ways - and Joanna really brought that to life. Hve a listen.

This week, we recorded the UK course in my studio. Still can’t quite believe I’m saying that. We’ll be running the Australian and UK programs side by side, just on opposite time zones. It feels like a real “pinch me” moment.

We’ve also locked in all the speakers and details for the next How to Have an Epic Retirement Flagship Course here in Australia. The Winter edition kicks off on 14 May, and we’ll be launching the earlybird offer next week. If you want first access, you can register your interest.

Inside the Autumn edition of Epic Retirement Course this week, we had a brilliant live Q&A with David Lane, Senior Financial Adviser and State Manager at Ord Minnett. He’s deep in platforms, SMSFs, equities and investing, so we threw some proper curveballs at him. The questions from this community are always next level.

Next week, we’re diving into purpose. One of my favourite topics.

And in the week ahead, I’m off to Canberra to speak at the North 26 Adviser Roadshow on the Future of Retirement – the first of nine events around the country. I’ll be talking about what everyday people actually want and need from advice today, and how retirement has fundamentally changed.

Until next week — make it epic.

Cheers,
Bec xx

Author, podcast host, columnist, retirement educator, and guest speaker

Why a large super balance can actually reduce your retirement income

People with low to medium super balances often feel like they’re on the outer when it comes to retirement. They look at people with $1 million or more in super and assume those are the people who get to enjoy the ‘epic’ version of retirement, while everyone else just scrapes by.

But that is not how the Australian retirement system actually works.

One of the quirks of the system is that there is a sweet spot where super and the age pension combine very efficiently. In some cases, someone with a moderate level of savings can end up with almost the same income, or even more income, than someone with much higher savings, simply because they still qualify for a far more meaningful slice of the pension.

That sweet spot has shifted again from March 20 because the age pension goes up. And we are not only seeing the standard indexation of the caps, we are also seeing our second rise to the deeming rate in a year.

This article was published in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday 21st March 2026. Read the whole article here. Note - it has a sign-up gate but no paywall.

Why FIBRE is your missing ingredient to longevity

Today I want to talk about something that doesn’t get a lot of airtime, but is becoming increasingly important for your health in the second half of life…

Fibre.

For years it’s been overshadowed by protein trends, low-carb diets and the obsession with calories. But new science is revealing that fibre may be one of the most powerful ingredients for long-term health, influencing everything from gut health and weight to brain function, heart health and even our mood.

So, this week on Prime Time, I’m joined by PhD-qualified nutrition scientist, dietitian, food futurist and one of Australia’s most trusted health experts, Dr. Joanna McMillan, author of The Fibre Factor. You can find Dr. Joanna’s book at all good retailers and online here.

We unpack why many of us are living in what she calls a “fibre famine”, what fibre actually does inside the body, and how simple changes to what you eat can have surprisingly powerful effects on your long-term health.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST HERE:

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Feature: The retirement plan nobody talks about: when your adult kids still need help

From Bec’s Desk: Changing plans on a hairpin

The Age and Sydney Morning Herald: Worried falling markets might ruin your retirement? Here’s what to do

Prime Time: Two shows - ‘How to Salvage your Travel Plans’ and ‘War and sharemarket volatility: what pre-retirees need to know with Diana Mousina’

Ad - Before we start — a big thanks to our newsletter sponsor this week, Viking

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The retirement plan nobody talks about: when your adult kids still need help

For a long time retirement planning assumed a neat sequence. You raised your kids. They became financially independent. Then you focused on your own retirement. But that’s not how life is playing out for many families anymore.

More parents in their 50s and 60s are still helping their adult children launch into the world. Sometimes it’s housing they’re providing for. Sometimes it’s education. Sometimes it’s simply helping them through a tough patch.

And now there’s another factor quietly changing the picture… AI.

Entire industries are evolving as technology changes how work gets done and none of us can predict which career paths will have longevity. Careers are becoming less linear, which can mean retraining, pivots, or periods of uncertainty.

And often, parents end up becoming part of the safety net, something I suspect will only increase in the years ahead.

This doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong - it’s just a reflection of how much the world has and is changing. But it does mean retirement planning needs to acknowledge a lot more reality.

If you’re in your Prime Time or approaching retirement, it’s worth asking yourself a few honest questions.

How much support might you realistically provide your children over the next decade?Would you help with a housing deposit?
Would you encourage them to move back home temporarily if things became difficult?
Would you help them retrain if their industry changed?

These are not purely emotional decisions. They are financial ones too. And the key is not to ignore it.

When parents quietly fund deposits, cover rent for a while, or help with big expenses without thinking about the long-term impact, it can gradually erode their own financial security. On the other hand, when families talk about these things openly, it’s much easier to set sensible boundaries and establish criteria for the support.

You might decide that helping with a deposit is something you want to do, but it comes from a specific pool of money and requires a certain committment from the child to pay it back.

Or you might decide that your home is always open if someone needs a temporary place to land - but it’s not a permanent arrangement.

Or that you’re happy to help with education or retraining - particularly in a world where AI may reshape our kids’ careers several times across a lifetime.

This is where the conversation about retirement planning becomes much bigger than numbers on a super statement.

Because retirement doesn’t happen in isolation from the hard bits. It happens within families. And increasingly, the financial lives of different generations are intertwined for much longer.

Three helpful takeaways I think are worth doing

1. Decide in advance what help you are willing to give.
Think about the types of support you are comfortable providing over the next decade – a temporary place to live, help with retraining, or assistance with a housing deposit. When you’ve thought about this ahead of time, decisions are much easier when situations arise. (Even if sometimes you’ll no doubt flex).

2. Set a financial boundary around that support.
If you plan to help, decide where the money will come from and what rules you intend to sit with it. It might be a specific savings pool or a limit on how much you’re prepared to contribute, or a requirement for significant committment to repayments, working or study. This protects your own retirement and family ethos while still allowing you to be generous.

3. Talk about it openly as a family.
Many of the problems I see come from assumptions on both sides. A simple conversation about expectations, independence and support can make a huge difference. Clear expectations create healthier financial relationships between generations and a respect for the money and support on offer.

Leave a comment

Want to read more, I have two books - How to Have an Epic Retirement and if you’re not ready for retirement, Prime Time: 27 Lessons for the New Midlife.

The markets bouncing around always creates a feeling of chaos. And this week has been as I expected - a little unnerving for those facing retirement and a good time to step up and provide useful education. So we did, bumping our existing schedule for the podcast and recording two really timely shows. First we got Diana Mousina, the Deputy Chief Economist from AMP on the show for a sensible conversation about how to handle the risks that lie ahead of us.

Then, in the same week we got travel expert, Fiona Dalton on the show to explain how to navigate travelling internationally right now. A great listen whether you have trips booked and are worried, or you wonder whether to book trips at the moment.

Our courses are in full swing, with Week 4 kicking off on the two programs currently running: the HESTA Exclusive Epic Retirement Program and the Epic Retirement Flagship Course for Autumn 2026. They really are so much fun, and the feedback from people doing the course is fabulous.

We kick off the UK edition’s course filming this week. That should keep me busy.

I also spoke at a terrific online event with Brighter Super’s members during the week, for International Womens Day. Hundreds and hundreds of their members came along for a session dedicated to the needs of women of all ages thinking about their retirements.

Don’t forget, if you want to make sure you’re getting my useful titbits throughout the week you can sign up for my Australian Facebook Channel: click here. It means only Aussie content will reach you.

See you in there.

Until next week - make it epic! Cheers Bec xx

Author, podcast host, columnist, retirement educator, and guest speaker

The retirement question most Australians never ask – but should

We’re back in the stockmarket washing machine. For many investors that’s just part of the ride. Markets go up, markets go down, and over time they tend to recover.

But for people approaching retirement who might never have thought of themselves as investors, a market shock just before they leap, or early in retirement, can also become a personal financial shock. Especially if they haven’t thought through how they will fund their short and medium-term spending before markets tumble.

And then they reach that moment, maybe 10 or 12 days into a war, an economic crisis or a market meltdown, when it suddenly looks like this might not be a short-lived wobble.

So they start asking the big questions: Should they sell and sit on the sidelines? Should they move everything to more conservative investments? If I don’t already have a financial adviser, who do I ask? Friends? The internet? The call centre at my super fund?

It’s a tough reality for many this week. So let’s step back and talk sensibly about what’s actually going on, and what your options are.

This article was published in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday 14th March 2026. Read the whole article here. Note - it has a sign-up gate but no paywall.

How to salvage your travel plans

The conflict in the Middle East has disrupted airspace across one of the world’s biggest travel hubs, leaving many Australians wondering whether they should cancel their upcoming trips.

In this urgent episode, I speak with travel expert Fiona Dalton to unpack what’s actually happening with global travel right now, who is affected, and what travellers should do before making any big decisions.

Fiona explains why the disruption is largely centred around Middle Eastern transit hubs such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha, what options travellers have if their flights are impacted, and why cancelling too early could actually leave you worse off financially.

The key message: stay calm, stay connected to your airline, and don’t rush into cancelling your trip but make sure you understand your options.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST HERE:

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War and sharemarket volatility: what pre-retirees need to know

Markets have been on a rollercoaster this week. Oil prices have surged and dropped, the S&P has swung sharply, and headlines out of the Middle East are making investors nervous.

If you’re approaching retirement or already there, seeing your super balance fall hard in a single day then bounce around all week can feel deeply unsettling .

So what’s really going on? And how worried should you be?

In this episode of Prime Time, I speak with Diana Mousina, Deputy Chief Economist at AMP, to unpack the current market volatility, the impact of rising oil prices, and what geopolitical shocks typically mean for long-term investors and people approaching retirement now.

Diana explains why markets often react sharply to global conflicts in the short term but tend to recover over time.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST HERE:

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Feature: The five financial decisions that matter most in the last 10 years before retirement

From Bec’s Desk: The new criteria for the Tick has launched

The Age and Sydney Morning Herald: The retirement question most Australians never ask – but should

Prime Time: Two shows - ‘Choosing the right superfund in 2026: the criteria are changing’ and ‘The cost of retirement just went up; Here’s what you need to know’

Ad - Before we start — a big thanks to our newsletter sponsor this week, Viking

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The five financial decisions that matter most in the last 10 years before retirement

For most people, the really powerful decisions about retirement chiefly happen in the final decade before retirement.

Your 50s and early 60s are a surprisingly influential window of time. Earnings are often at their peak, mortgages are starting to shrink or disappear, children are becoming financially independent, and for the first time many people finally have the ability to direct serious money toward their future.

It’s also the moment when the horizon becomes real. Retirement is no longer some abstract idea that sits decades away. It’s visible. You can start to feel it approaching and that changes the kinds of decisions people start making.

Over the years I’ve found that there are five financial decisions that tend to shape retirement more than anything else in this period. See if you can add any that are looming for you.

1. What to do about the family home and the mortgage.

Many people arrive in their 50s still carrying some level of housing debt. That’s not unusual anymore. What matters is how deliberately you deal with it. Some people aggressively pay it down before retirement. Others plan to downsize later using some of their super and clear it that way. Either approach can work, but it needs to be intentional.

2. How much to boost superannuation contributions in the final stretch.

The super system is incredibly powerful in this period because of the tax concessions available both when you contribute money at 15% tax and when you’re in the retirement phase and it is tax free. Salary sacrifice, concessional contributions and catch-up rules can make a really meaningful difference to retirement income if they’re used strategically during these years.

3. How much investment risk do you want to be taking?

This is where many people make mistakes. As retirement gets closer, the instinct is often to pull back on investment risk dramatically. But retirement itself can last 25 or 30 years. Your money still needs to grow. The challenge is finding the right balance between protecting capital and maintaining long-term growth.

4. Contemplating whether to gradually transition out of full-time work.

More and more people are discovering that retirement doesn’t have to be a sudden stop. Part-time work, consulting, seasonal work or portfolio careers can dramatically ease the financial and psychological transition into retirement. And you can take a gentler approach to your retirement journey. You might even decide to try it for a bit with a sabbatical before you commit.

5. Considering how your retirement income will actually work.

This is the point where many people realise that retirement income doesn’t come from just one source. It often involves a combination of super drawdowns, investment income, possible Age Pension eligibility, and sometimes part-time work along the way.

When people start thinking about these decisions early enough, something interesting happens. Retirement stops feeling like a scary cliff edge you plan to jump off. Instead it becomes something you gradually shape over time with a little more confidence.

And that’s really the goal. Not simply reaching retirement, but arriving there with options, choices and things you’re excited about.

Are these the five that are in front of you or can you see others?

Leave a comment

I cover a lot more on this in both my books - How to Have an Epic Retirement and if you’re not ready for retirement, Prime Time: 27 Lessons for the New Midlife.

From Bec’s Desk:

This week I’m going to be short and sweet.

I’ve had a quiet and very productive week. A quick trip to Sydney and back, and lots of course co-ordination and management with two programs currently in full flight.

Both of our current courses are now in week three: the HESTA Exclusive Epic Retirement Program and the Epic Retirement Flagship Course for Autumn 2026. Next week I head into filming for the UK edition of the course, so I’m deep in scripting and planning at the moment.

The other big focus of my week was launching the new criteria for the 2026 evaluation of the Epic Retirement Tick. We released a terrific podcast about it, and I wrote an article for the Sydney Morning Herald. There’s a new set of criteria you can download from the website if you’d like to look objectively at what your superfund is offering.

And, we released TWO podcasts because we had to - these two were both timely and important. Both are below.

I’ve also been playing around with one of the new features on Facebook. If you’re over there, you might have noticed I’ve launched two new Channels.

These are a bit like a behind-the-scenes feed where I can share quick ideas, short insights and the occasional thought that doesn’t quite warrant a full article or podcast.

One is focused on Australian epic retirement stuff that come up during the week. The other is for UK epic retirement stuff, as that audience has been growing quickly with the UK edition of the book and course.

The nice thing about these Channels is that they’re a direct way for me to share snippets, short videos and posts with geographically specific audiences, without relying on the Facebook algorithm to decide who sees them.

They’re informal, quick to read, and a way for me to share things in real time rather than waiting for the next newsletter. I’ll be sharing all my educational reels there too.

If you’d like to follow along, you can join them here:
Australian Channel: click here
UK Channel: click here

See you in there.

Until next week - make it epic!

Cheers
Bec xx

Author, podcast host, columnist, retirement educator, and guest speaker

The retirement question most Australians never ask – but should

For most of us, superannuation has been easy to ignore. Money goes in, investments tick along, the balance grows. You glance at it occasionally, think “looks okay,” and get on with life. But something shifts the moment retirement stops being something far in the distance.

Suddenly, you’re not asking “how much have I got?” You’re asking something much harder: “Will this actually be enough to live on, and for how long?”

That’s the moment many Australians discover an uncomfortable truth: the fund that helped them accumulate money over 30 years may not be well equipped to help them use that money.

Saving for retirement and living on that money are genuinely different problems. One is about growth and investing and keeping fees low. The other is about converting a lump sum into a reliable income that lasts for potentially for two or three decades while navigating market swings, the age pension, health costs, and the sheer unpredictability of a long life.

Most of us have never asked our super fund a simple but important question: are you actually ready to help me with retirement?

This article was published in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday 7th March 2026. Read the whole article here. Note - it has a sign-up gate but no paywall.

Choosing the right superfund in 2026: the criteria are changing

If you’ve ever looked at your super fund and thought, “Is this actually delivering for my retirement… or just delivering great ads?” – this episode is for you.

Today is a major update to the Epic Retirement Tick for 2026.

I’m joined by Ian Fryer, General Manager of Chant West, who works with me to develop the rigorous criteria and together with his team, assess the funds. And David Bell, Executive Director of the Conexus Institute – one of Australia’s leading independent retirement policy voices and think tanks.

We go deeper than just explaining what’s changed. We unpack why the criteria matter – and the impact the Tick is already having inside super funds.

If you want to see the criteria, we’ll make it available on the Epic Retirement Institute website at www.epicretirement.net/epictick.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST HERE:

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The cost of retirement just went up; Here’s what you need to know

For the first time in three years, ASFA has lifted the lump sum needed for a “comfortable” and a “modest” retirement. The headlines say Australians may now need $35k–$40k more in super than previously estimated for a comfortable retirement and $10-$20k more for a modest retirement.

So… what changed?

In this episode, I sit down with Mary Delahunty, CEO of ASFA, the creators of these benchmarks to unpack the new Retirement Standard, why the benchmark moved, and what it actually means for your future plans.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST HERE:

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Feature: Planning retirement when one partner is older than the other

From Bec’s Desk: Fun times

The Age and Sydney Morning Herald: The retirement rule book just changed. Here’s what you need to know

Prime Time: Before you switch your super, listen to this

Planning retirement when one partner is older than the other

Five years, seven years or maybe even ten years. When you’re 35 and falling in love, an age gap barely registers. When you’re 58 and your partner is 51, or 65, it registers everywhere.

Because now you’re running two life-clocks into retirement. Two timelines heading toward the same financial targets, but not necessarily at the same speed.

Target one: preservation age, when super becomes accessible. Target two: Age Pension age.

Those two clocks don’t always tick together. So let’s start with the practical reality.

The older partner can access super earlier. Start an account-based pension earlier. Reach Age Pension age earlier. But Centrelink doesn’t see you as two separate people. It assesses you as a couple, whether that suits you or not. When the older partner hits pension age, the younger partner’s work income still counts in the income test. Your assets are assessed together. Everything is linked.

This is exactly why sequencing matters so much.

There’s a window most couples don’t know exists. While the younger partner is still under Age Pension age, their super in accumulation is generally exempt from the assets test for the couple. It’s not a loophole. It’s just an opportunity created by timing. And it can be a meaningful one.

For that period, one partner may qualify for some pension while the younger partner’s super sits outside the assets test. Drawdowns can be structured deliberately. But once the younger partner reaches pension age, their super comes into the assets test too and the window closes. This isn’t about sheltering assets forever. It’s about understanding the staging on two things:

1. The ability to access a little more Age Pension, if it’s available, and using it cleverly.

2. The ability to access superannuation when one partner turns 60 and retires, which might allow debt to be cleared or lifestyle choices to be made earlier for both.

But remember: you are not one age. You are two. Which means your retirement plan rarely fits a single date circled on a calendar. It usually needs to be phased.

Phase one: the older partner reduces or stops work.

Phase two: the younger partner transitions.

Phase three: you arrive at a shared lifestyle. That’s the financial shape of it.

Then there’s the human side.

When one partner retires and the other keeps working, you’re suddenly living in two different life stages under the same roof. One has freedom. One has Monday morning meetings. One wants midweek lunches; the other has deliverables due. I’ve seen couples navigate this beautifully. I’ve also watched resentment arrive quietly, without any announcement.

It’s rarely just about money. It’s about expectations. The retired partner might assume their travelling lifestyle begins immediately. The working partner might feel pressure to keep earning, or guilt, or low-level irritation they can’t quite name. Age gaps tend to amplify whatever communication gaps already exist, so if you know this is likely territory for you, get ahead of it - talk about it, explore how you’ll navigate these risks together.

And then there’s longevity risk. It’s often overlooked, and nearly always significant.

If one partner is considerably older, they may need care earlier. Their partner may become their carer earlier too. That shapes housing decisions, drawdown rates, whether you downsize sooner, and how much you prioritise liquidity. You’re effectively managing four clocks simultaneously: super access, pension eligibility, the end of work identity, and your health trajectories.

Mapped consciously, an age gap can actually create flexibility. But it brings its own complexity too.

The question isn’t just when do we retire?

It’s what does each stage look like for each of us? And how do we keep both people’s goals, dreams and hopes in the picture. That’s where the real planning starts.

Relate to this? Tell me what you’ve learned.

Leave a comment

I cover a lot more on this in both my books - How to Have an Epic Retirement and if you’re not ready for retirement, Prime Time: 27 Lessons for the New Midlife.

From Bec’s Desk: Fun times

This week has been a big one for changes to retirement numbers. I’m almost whiplashed by how many.

Late last week we had changes to the deeming rates, which will flow through with the Age Pension indexation on 20 March. Then this week, ASFA fundamentally changed their retirement benchmarks. This isn’t just a tweak. It changes the way the industry talks about what retirement actually costs, for the first time in three years.

And on Thursday, wages data triggered an increase to super contribution caps from 1 July:

Concessional caps will rise to $32,500. Non-concessional caps will rise to $130,000.

If you’re thinking about using the bring-forward rule, pause before you act. If you trigger it this financial year, you lock in today’s lower caps. Once the new caps roll through on 1 July, you can’t retrospectively access the higher numbers. That doesn’t mean don’t do it. It just means make a conscious decision about timing.

My Sydney Morning Herald article this weekend breaks down all the changes, and I have a podcast coming out Tuesday with Mary Delahunty, ASFA’s CEO, to help navigate what the new benchmarks actually mean. Keep an eye out.

Inside the Epic Retirement world, we’re into week two of our two flagship programs: the HESTA Exclusive Epic Retirement Course and the How to Have an Epic Retirement course. The chatter has been terrific. I genuinely love sitting down each day to answer questions as they come in. People are working through the videos, doing the exercises, having lightbulb moments. Both programs combine self-paced lessons and workbooks with live events. Flexible, but with the shared momentum of doing it with a peer group.

I’m incredibly grateful to HESTA for backing this for their members, and to everyone who has signed up and shown up.

On a completely different note, I’ve been home in Brisbane this week, and somehow managed to squeeze in a Viking Ocean cruise ship tour and a pickleball lesson alongside the podcasts, courses and gym sessions.

The cruise ship visit coincided with a podcast I released with the wonderful Kathy Lette, comedic author of Puberty Blues and her latest bestseller The Sisterhood Rules. As a travel writer she’s taken many Viking cruises, so she came in to share what the experience is really like, and the difference between river and ocean cruising.

Between the show and the ship tour, I picked up a few things regular cruisers probably already know. Every ocean cabin has a balcony. All food and non-alcoholic drinks are included, no surprise bills at the end. Wine, beer and cocktails are available through a drinks package at around $41 per person per day, and it’s not bottom-shelf. You can also bring your own wine onboard with no corkage, which sounds pretty perfect on a French river cruise. Free internet across the fleet, a Nordic spa open to all guests, a big modern gym, and ocean ships carry 998 passengers compared to around 190 on a river cruise. It feels spacious. There are more highlights over on my Facebook post if you want a closer look.

Then came pickleball. I did my introductory lesson on Saturday and I have to say, I can see why people get hooked. Easy to pick up, courts half the size of tennis, and once you’ve done your intro session you can jump on an app and find a game near you for around ten or twelve dollars. Apparently it’s addictive. I’ll report back.

A big week of retirement numbers, a cruise education and pickleball. That’s Prime Time for you. You never quite know what’s ahead.

Until next week - make it epic!

Cheers
Bec xx

Author, podcast host, columnist, retirement educator, and guest speaker

The retirement rule book just changed. Here’s what you need to know

If you’re over 50 and paying even passing attention to your financial future, the last couple of weeks have been unusually busy. Within just a fortnight, almost every key number in Australia’s retirement system has either changed or is about to.

The benchmarks for how much you need to retire. The rules around how much you can contribute to superannuation. The rates used to calculate your age pension. The caps on how much super can sit in the tax-free retirement phase.

That’s not normal. Usually, these things shuffle along quietly, one at a time. Currently, they’re moving all at once, and if you don’t know what’s changing, you could easily be missing some opportunities.

So today I’m going to walk you through it all and explain what each change means.

Retirement now costs more

Let’s start with the number people ask me about most: how much do you actually need to retire?

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia, known as ASFA, has just updated its retirement benchmarks for the first time in three years. And the shift is significant.

For a comfortable retirement, one that covers a decent lifestyle, a reasonable car, private health insurance, and yes, a modest amount of travel, couples now need $730,000 in super at retirement, up from $690,000. For singles, that figure has risen to $630,000, up from $595,000.

This article was published in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday 28th February 2026. Read the whole article here. Note - it has a sign-up gate but no paywall.

River and ocean cruising in your Prime Time with KATHY LETTE

There are some guests who don’t just talk about living boldly in the second half of life - they embody it.

This week on Prime Time, I’m joined by the brilliant Kathy Lette, bestselling author, feminist, travel writer and unapologetic Prime Timer, to talk about something I think more of us need to give ourselves permission to do:

travel differently after 50.

Not the frantic, kid-focused, schlepping suitcases across train platforms kind of travel.

But travel on your own terms. With curiosity and comfort. With a little bit of decadence, a lot of history, culture and adventure. And ideally… no kids and no casinos.

Kathy shares how her approach to travel has evolved from backpacking in her twenties to river cruising and archaeological voyages in her sixties, and why she believes this stage of life is when adventure matters most.

Her latest book is called The Sisterhood Rules, and it’s also our pick for March for the Prime Time Book Club.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST HERE:

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Feature: ‘Get some financial advice’ - why getting advice is just not that simple anymore

From Bec’s Desk: Heading home

The Age and Sydney Morning Herald: The social media trap that could cost you your retirement savings

Prime Time: Before you switch your super, listen to this

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‘Get some financial advice’ - why getting advice is just not that simple anymore

“Get some financial advice.”

It is probably the most common line in Australian retirement commentary. Whenever markets move, super rules change, pension thresholds shift, or someone asks how they are meant to navigate the path from full-time work into retirement, the default response is to tell people in their 40s, 50s and 60s to go and get personal financial advice.

I have said it myself repeatedly over the past few years. It is not wrong. But I am beginning to think it is incomplete. A better version might be this: “learn how the system works first, and then look for the type of advice that suits your situation and goals”.

That distinction matters because advice is no longer a simple, uniform service.

When people walk into an advice firm seeking help to build or cross the bridge into retirement, they are often offered an ongoing arrangement where their super is moved onto a platform, invested in a model portfolio selected by the adviser or their firm, and reviewed each year for a percentage-based fee. That structure now sits at the centre of much of the professions ongoing service model. It provides continuity for clients and stable revenue for practices.

For some households, that is entirely appropriate.

But many Australians approaching retirement are not looking for someone to manage their money indefinitely. They are trying to answer very specific questions: Can I afford to retire? How much can I draw each year? How does the Age Pension fit in? What mistakes should I avoid in the early years?

Those are retirement design questions. They are not automatically investment management questions. And a lot of advisers don’t want to provide strategy without the ongoing relationship if they have such limited capacity to serve as they do today.

A significant number of ordinary superannuation holders are already in diversified, low-cost funds doing exactly what they were built to do. What they lack is clarity about the rules and confidence about the transition. In that context, handing over their super to a long-term investment management arrangement may not always be the most proportionate response.

The phrase “go and get advice” assumes that advice suited to these non investment centric questions is easy to access, simple to understand and consistent in what it delivers. It is none of those things. It is often expensive, shaped by regulation and influenced by how each firm earns its income. Yet we speak about it as though it were a single product sitting on a shelf, easy to find, navigate and buy.

When we tell people to just get advice, we skip an important step. Many approaching retirement do not yet know which problem they are trying to solve. Education gives them the ability to ask better questions and recognise whether what is being offered actually fits them and avoids them falling into the hands of unscrupulous operators (like we saw with Shield and First Guardian and with the lead generation issues flagged this week by the regulator).

Advice is important. What’s unhelpful is treating it as a one-size-fits-all solution every time something changes.

Think of advice as a choose-your-own-adventure exercise. The problem is that most Australians are handed the book without a guide to the chapters.

There are several very different types of advice, and they are rarely explained clearly. So let me give you the short-overview (there’s more in the new edition of epic).

There is general advice – information and education that helps you understand how super, tax and the Age Pension work, but does not take your personal circumstances into account.

There is intrafund or super fund advice – the limited advice many super funds provide to help members with contributions, investment options, insurance and basic retirement questions within that fund.

And then there is personal advice, which is where things become more complex.

Personal advice is often treated as a single category, but it isn’t. It can mean very different things. Some super funds now hold their own licences and provide personal advice directly to members. Others refer members to trusted external advice businesses that know their fund well.

Then there are other advice firms that don’t call themselves independent as much anymore, many of these are closely connected to investment management or do it inhouse. Their core service involves strategy first then setting up and managing portfolios for an ongoing percentage fee, so the advice process often results in assets being placed into that structure.

What is harder to find is advice that is purely strategic. The kind where an adviser reviews your whole household position, works through your retirement structure, and is entirely comfortable recommending that you stay in your existing super fund if that is the right outcome.

That can be more difficult to deliver when most of a firm’s ongoing income comes from managing assets. Not because advisers are acting improperly, but because businesses tend to organise themselves around how they are paid. (All businesses not just advisers).

There is also retirement strategy work — focused on timing, income planning, pension interaction and risk management — which does not automatically require your investments to be rebuilt. In fact, it might involve something far more practical: stepping back and asking whether you are in the right super fund for you, and if not, helping you navigate the superannuation market with clarity.

That means comparing funds properly. Understanding fee structures. Looking at long-term performance, insurance definitions, service models, product features, annuities and retirement functionality. It means evaluating whether a switch is justified and being equally comfortable concluding that it is not.

Strangely, that kind of fund-to-fund navigation – independent of moving assets into a proprietary investment structure and platform – is rare. I have yet to meet many advisers whose primary role is helping Australians assess and, where appropriate, switch within the superannuation system without simultaneously placing those assets into their own managed framework and chosen investments.

Yet for many people, that is exactly the help that might be required.

And then there are advisers whose core service is investment management. Even here, there are differences. Some build portfolios using direct shares, ETFs and bonds. Some implement pre-mapped model portfolios through managed accounts. Others design more customised portfolios. At the top end, some manage broader family wealth structures.

These are not interchangeable services.

Yet we use one phrase – “go and get advice” – as though they are.

If Australians are going to be encouraged to seek advice, they deserve a clearer map of what is actually on offer and how each type is paid for, so they can assess whether it is in fact what they need when they walk through the door. Firms, and advisers in turn, need a consistent and transparent language for explaining what they provide, properly disclosing their keeness for managed investing if that’s their model and any incentives they share because of that.

Without that shared understanding, it becomes difficult to tell whether the solution presented is genuinely solving your problem – or simply delivering the service model that firm is built around.

So if you’re thinking about advice, take the time to think about the kind of advice you are looking for. What problem is this advice designed to solve, and is that actually the problem you have right now? Then make sure you’re getting the right type of advice FOR YOU!

Maybe you agree? Maybe you disagree?

Leave me a comment here.

Leave a comment

I cover a lot more on this in both my books - How to Have an Epic Retirement and if you’re not ready for retirement, Prime Time: 27 Lessons for the New Midlife.

This week we kicked off two Epic Retirement programs.

HESTA launched their exclusive Epic Retirement Program for members, and we opened the doors to our flagship How to Have an Epic Retirement course. That means thousands of people are online this weekend working their way through week one. I find that deeply energising.

Both programs combine self-paced video lessons and workbooks with live events to follow. It’s a powerful mix – flexibility for people to learn in their own time, alongside the shared momentum of learning with others. I’m incredibly grateful to HESTA for offering this to their members. And to everyone on the Epic Course who come to learn.

I also spent half the week in Melbourne, and remarkably, didn’t see a drop of rain. I spoke at the Ensombl Retirement Exchange for financial advisers about how retirement is no longer one long, flat chapter of life, but a series of distinct phases, and how advice needs to evolve to support people through each of them - up to 3 phases of prime time and up to 4 or 5 phases of retirement. Imagine if we had support for saving, lifestyling, part-timing, retiring, spending years, purposeful years, ageing years, care and anything else that comes along. I can see some advisers who are really leaning into this - and I’m excited for their clients who’ll enjoy the result.

From there it was an online session with Aware Super couples, and then out to Lifestyle Communities in Deanside, a stunning village in greater Melbourne.

While on the road the super-switching issue I’ve covered in the papers this weekend reared its head - something I’m passionate about stopping. The ASIC Commissioner, Alan Kirkland is taking this very seriously and so we interrupted our podcasting schedule to get him in and on the air straight away. Have a listen.

I have to say, I love the movement of it all on these busy weeks. The conversations. The rooms full of people thinking seriously about the second half of life. And I love coming home just as much.

I’m writing this from the airport on Saturday afternoon, waiting to head back for a proper night’s sleep – tired, grateful, and very aware that this work is doing something important - or at least I hope it is.

Until next week - make it epic! (And listen to the poddy!)

Cheers
Bec xx

Author, podcast host, columnist, retirement educator, and guest speaker

The social media trap that could cost you your retirement savings

Late last year – as an experiment – I clicked on a Facebook ad about superannuation. It was bright, urgent and confident. It warned that every year I delayed reviewing my super could cost me seven figures in retirement, and that hundreds of dollars were slipping away daily without me knowing. All I had to do was enter my details to get the “four steps” to beat time. Within minutes, my phone rang.

A businessman explained he ran a referral service connecting people to what he called the best financial adviser for them. He’d previously been a director of one firm he particularly liked, and my first appointment would be free.

I was referred on. A young adviser called to pre-qualify me. His questions were simple: Was I over 45? Did I have an Australian regulated super fund? Yes and yes, so I “qualified” for a phone-based discovery meeting after which a Statement of Advice could follow. No fee information, no quote, nothing until later.

This article was published in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday 7th February 2026. Read the whole article here. Note - it has a sign-up gate but no paywall.

Before you switch your super, listen to this!

This week ASIC announced it has launched a review into financial advice firms and other companies connected to online super switching ads. If you’ve been on Facebook lately, you’ll know the ones I mean.

These are the ads telling you you’re losing money every day you don’t switch your super, ads suggesting your fund isn’t performing and ads nudging you to “check” or “review” your super which quickly becomes a conversation about switching.

I’ve been watching this build for months or even years. So I deliberately clicked one (as an experiment) to see how it worked and I saw it all in action.

To talk about this review of super switching financial advice and lead generation openly, I asked ASIC Commissioner Alan Kirkland to come on the show this week, just as this review has been launched.

We talk about what they’re seeing, how these online funnels work, what to watch out for, where harm has already occurred, and what consumers should do before handing over details or agreeing to a switch.

This episode isn’t anti-advice. It’s pro-careful decision making. So, if you’ve been wondering whether you should respond to one of those ads in your feed, listen first.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST HERE:

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Feature: Don’t wait to be pushed

From Bec’s Desk: Starting new (hard) things

The Age and Sydney Morning Herald: The six retirement fears keeping Australians up at night

Prime Time: How to STOP cognitive decline before it starts with Prof. Henry Brodaty 2026 Senior Australian of the Year

Ad - Before we start — a big thanks to our newsletter supporter this week, Lifestyle Communities

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Don’t wait to be pushed

Anyone watching the stockmarket’s ruptures around the role of AI and the role of people in the workforce might be doing a double think right now.

You’ve worked for 30 or 40 years. You’ve built your skills, your reputation, your income, your super and hopefully your investment returns. You’ve paid the mortgage, raised the kids, carried teams, carried families and carried the mental load required to make everything function. And you’ve familiarised yourself with retirement enough to know that you have ‘enough’.

And then when it’s finally time to step into your Prime Time on your own terms, when you begin the conversation about reducing your days, reshaping your role or stepping out of the front line, something rather odd happens.

You hedge it and you downplay it. You call it temporary and you reassure everyone you’re not disappearing.

Why do you do that?

For many, it’s because you’re not only adjusting your hours – you’re adjusting your identity.

For decades work has been the spine most people’s adult life. It structured your weeks, shaped your conversations and anchored your sense of competence. When someone asked what you did, you had a clear answer. And that identity located you in the world. So even moving from five days to three, from executive to adviser, from operator to mentor or manager to casual worker, can feel like stepping away from something much bigger than a pay cheque. And if you haven’t built an identity outside work in the run up, that shift can feel destabilising.

But here’s the part we need to stop and think through.

If you don’t choose your glide path, sometimes the market or your health chooses your cliff.

Layoffs in your late 50s or early 60s are not just financial events. They are psychological events. Research suggests it can take up to two years to fully recover from involuntary job loss at that stage of life. That’s two years of rebuilding your confidence. Two years of identity repair and healing. Two years of trying to re-enter a market that may quietly prefer someone younger, someone hungry to learn new technologies, or someone who isn’t going to tell the middle manager how we did it in the year 2000. Or two years of accepting retirement happened to you and healing.

That is a very different experience from choosing your timing.

In your Prime Time, I don’t recommend a cliff edge exit from your workplace unless you need one. I recommend taking a glide path. A slower shift out of full-time work is a smart strategy. It allows your super to keep compounding at the highest balances you’ve ever seen. It protects you from sequencing risk if markets wobble. It keeps cash flow steady while you test the shape of your next chapter. And it gives your identity time to evolve instead of having to crash and rebuild.

Culturally, we celebrate grinding on and we celebrate big, dramatic retirement style endings.

We don’t celebrate deliberate transitions enough. So when you decline the next promotion, reduce your days or decide you no longer want the intensity, you can feel the need to justify it or apologise for it.

But, you don’t need to.

You are not stepping back because you are less capable. You are stepping differently because you have built yourself the powerful ability to choose.

For most of us, our super didn’t accumulate by accident. Our investments didn’t magically appear in our accounts. They are the result of decades of work. Of showing up, contributing and making deliberate decisions, year after year. The same is true of your career. Your credibility didn’t just land there either. All of that effort, over time, creates flexibility. And flexibility is not something you hoard. It is something you use.

Used well, it gives you the option of a glide path.

In my view, it is far better to step sideways on your own terms and reshape your sense of self at a time of your choosing than to be pushed out unexpectedly and left questioning your value.

I cover a lot more on this in both my books - How to Have an Epic Retirement and if you’re not ready for retirement, Prime Time: 27 Lessons for the New Midlife.

Starting new (hard) things

I’m writing this on a wet Saturday morning, having done my first ‘parkrun’ ever today. I might be late to the party but I’m here, looking after my health, trying new things and getting out there. My run time was far from epic, and I earned a wicked blister, but I did it. #1 is done and that, to me is important. Because starting things that are just outside your comfort zone can be something we put off, but not me, not this year! Now, #2 and #3 will feel easier I’m sure.

This week just gone was one of those chatty weeks that somehow disappears in conversations and tasks. The highlights? Nina and I packing a record number of Welcome Packs for the upcoming Aussie How to Have an Epic Retirement Flagship Course, and flying to Sydney to interview the fabulous Aussie Expat who now lives 9 months of her year in the UK - Kathy Lette for the Prime Time podcast. Her episode will land in your ears next week - keep a listen out. And be sure to listen to this week’s shows (there’s two actually) but the one with Dr Henry Brodaty is epic. And, again, I did some fun radio shows!

And lastly, we’ve just completed a full revision (and expansion) of the criteria for the Epic Retirement Tick ahead of the 2026 evaluation. We’ll be announcing the updated criteria in the coming weeks, giving funds plenty of time to improve ahead of the new evaluation which will be released in early October 2026. The Tick is designed as a practical assessment of funds you can use to see what your super fund is actually doing for you as you approach retirement — and to help you decide whether it’s enough. (And there’s some funds where it’s clearly NOT enough!) You can download the 2025/26 Epic Retirement Tick review of super funds here.

Next week is going to be big - so let’s dive in and tell you how you can get involved.

First of all, I’m doing brekky TV - Sunrise on 7 on Monday (tune in at about 7.20 AEDT), then we have two courses kicking off on Thursday 19th February:

1. The How to Have an Epic Retirement Flagship Course. Our six-week signature program. We cover the money — how much is enough, income planning, sequencing risk, super strategy. We cover the transition — part-time glide paths, identity shift, confidence. And we cover the life design — health, purpose, happiness and travel and what your next stage actually looks like. If you haven’t got your seat on the program yet - you can use this link to apply a 15% off coupon at the checkout. It’s only for our newsletter readers!

2. The HESTA Exclusive Epic Retirement Flagship Course — also six weeks, but designed specifically for HESTA members and offered to them by HESTA at no extra cost. That’s the official wording. In plain English? If you’re a HESTA member, it’s included in what you already pay each year. So yes, it’s essentially a course you can access at no additional cost. And it’s EPIC! You can register your place here - it’s only for HESTA members though!

And, on top of this, I’m heading to Melbourne and have a couple of events I’ll be speaking at…

• I’ll be speaking in-person in Melbourne on Saturday 21st February, about ‘How to make your retirement EPIC’ at Lifestyle Communities Deanside. It’s a great way to see a community in real life too. It’s free but you need to RSVP to come along. More info here.

• And, also on the 19th February I’ll be speaking at the Aware Super online event ‘Planning for Retirement for Couples’! This is an information-packed event, and it’s online, for Aware Super members. More here.

I’m also speaking at a terrific Ensombl event to help advisers focussed on improving their retirement offerings - but it’s all sold out.

So, until next week - Make it Epic!

Cheers
Bec xx

Author, podcast host, columnist, retirement educator, and guest speaker

The six retirement fears keeping Australians up at night

I asked a simple question in my Epic Retirement Facebook club last week: What are you most afraid of as you head towards retirement? The responses came flooding in, and what struck me wasn’t the fear itself. It was how consistent the answers were.

“Running out of money.” “Dying at my desk”, “Changing a lifetime of saving to spending”, “Boredom, identity and loss of purpose”, “Centrelink and the government changing the rules on super”, “Being alone”.

These aren’t irrational anxieties. They’re sensible questions asked by people who don’t want to sleepwalk into a phase of life that deserves more care and attention than that.

Dismissing them as benign helps no one. What does help is turning these vague fears into something they can measure and manage. Fear thrives on ambiguity. Give it structure, numbers and a plan, and it tends to shrink to a far more workable size or even get out of the way.

This article was published in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday 14th February 2026. Read the whole article here. Note - it has a sign-up gate but no paywall.

How to STOP cognitive decline before it starts

Is cognitive decline inevitable as we age, or is there actually something we can do about it?

That’s the question I wanted to explore in this week’s episode of Prime Time. Dementia and memory loss sit right at the top of the fear list for people over 50, and yet so much of what we hear is either alarmist or hopeless.

So I invited one of the world’s leading experts to the show.

I’m joined by Professor Henry Brodaty - 2026 Senior Australian of the Year, Professor of Ageing and Mental Health at UNSW Sydney, and Co-Director of the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing. Henry has spent decades researching dementia, cognitive decline and, most importantly, what actually helps protect our brains as we age.

We discuss what’s within our control, what really matters for brain health, and why it’s never too early to start looking after your mind.

You can find out more about Henry’s work here.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST HERE:

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Feature: “Should you stay in growth with your super at 59 or is it time to get defensive?”

From Bec’s Desk: Every week is different

The Age and Sydney Morning Herald: There’s a $2.5b issue with our super, and it’s costing retirees

Prime Time: PART 1: The 6 things everyone fears about retirement and how to tackle those fears

Ad - Before we start — a big thanks to our newsletter sponsor this week, Viking

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“Should you stay in growth with your super at 59 or is it time to get defensive?”

The market fell pretty hard on Friday in Australia. Bitcoin’s in ribbons, silver is slipping. The volatility is up. Crazy stuff is happening and when it does, the same question always turns up.

It hit my inbox almost immediately friday morning, from Robert. And lately, it’s coming up far more often.

Markets feel jumpy right now. The news cycle in 2026 is relentlessly messy. There’s talk of changes to CGT, a government that can’t seem to make the budget add up without fuelling inflation, and interest rate rises that are playing havoc with confidence. There’s even talk of AI obliterating the jobs market, changing the economy.

So, let me give you my take on the big question ‘should you stay in growth with your super at 59? Or is it time to get defensive?’

Stop for a minute and think about it… this isn’t new.

I could walk you back through the last 30 or 40 years and the moments that genuinely unsettled people as they were happening, watching super balances fall during the GFC, the dot-com boom and bust, the Asian financial crisis, seeing the world shut down overnight during COVID, the September 11 attacks, oil shocks and petrol price spikes, Afghanistan, the European debt crisis, Brexit, trade wars, sudden interest rate hikes, banks wobbling, property markets freezing, borders closing, flights grounded, shelves emptying, jobs disappearing, crazy tarriffs, Trump... It’s happened all our lives.

What does change is how it feels when you’re in your late 50s. Suddenly it can feel like you’re standing right at the edge of retirement, looking down, thinking:
“I really can’t afford to get this wrong now.”

So let’s slow this down and put it into plain English.

First, this decision isn’t really about your age.
It’s about when and how you’ll actually use your super.

If you’re almost 59 or 60 but you’re not planning to draw heavily on your super for another 5, 10, or even 15 years, then your time horizon is still long. And long time horizons are exactly what growth assets are built for. They’re bumpy in the short term, yes, but over time they’ve historically done a much better job of growing your money faster than inflation.

And here’s the part that we don’t talk about very much. You don’t spend all your money in retirement in the first five years. And for most, modern retirement is not a short phase anymore. Many Australians will spend 25 or 30 years drawing on their super. That means a big chunk of your money still needs to keep working for a very long time.

The bigger issue for most people isn’t growth versus balanced portfolios.
It’s how you react when markets wobble.

If market downturns make you anxious, or if you know you’re the kind of person who might switch out after a big market fall just to stop the discomfort, that’s a problem you need a plan to address. Not because growth is “bad”, but because panic-selling is how real damage gets done to your retirement plans. In that case, a slightly more balanced mix can be less about returns and more about helping you stay the course of keeping yourself in the market when things shake.

Another important question to ask yourself is whether you’ll need a lump of money soon.If you’re planning to use super in the next couple of years to pay off a mortgage, fund a renovation, or cover a big expense, that portion probably shouldn’t be riding market ups and downs. Many people forget that they don’t have to treat their entire balance the same way. Some money can be invested for long-term growth, while other money is kept more stable for near-term needs.

What worries me most is when people feel paralysed and sideline themselves. Then they sit in cash for years “waiting for things to settle down”. Or they make big switches purely because the economic mood feels over-inflated, or the volatility intolerably bad. The irony is that this kind of fear-driven decision-making often creates more risk, not less.

A more sensible approach is one that assumes the world will always be a bit messy. Because it is and always has been.

Think about the things you can to do hold some assets in growth…

So if you’re in your late 50s and feeling nervous as the world is stirring right now, the question isn’t “growth or defensive?” It’s how do you stay invested in growth without blowing yourself up when markets wobble?

Two simple ideas help here: buckets and guardrails.

Buckets are about matching your money to when you’ll need it.

You might think of your money in three rough buckets.

One bucket holds money you expect to use in the next few years. This is your sleep-at-night money. It’s there to cover near-term spending, surprises, or the early years of retirement. This bucket is usually more defensive.

The second bucket is for the middle years. Money you won’t touch for a while, but not decades away either. This is often where balanced options sit.

The third bucket is your long-term bucket. This money may not be touched for 10, 15, even 20 years. This is where growth assets belong. This bucket gives you protection against inflation and longevity risk.

Guardrails are what stop you from making emotional decisions at the worst possible time. Instead of reacting to headlines, you set some simple rules in advance. For example:

• If markets fall sharply, you don’t want to sell from the growth bucket

• You draw spending from the defensive bucket instead

• You only rebalance back into growth when things recover, not when you’re scared

Guardrails turn investing from something you react to into something you manage. But beware, they don’t eliminate risk. Nothing does. Instead the job of buckets and guardrails is to help you contain the risk.

And that’s very different from gambling on the market or pretending volatility won’t happen. It will. And the goal isn’t to predict the economy.
It’s to build a plan you can live with, stick to, and sleep well with.

I cover a lot more on this in both my books - How to Have an Epic Retirement and if you’re not ready for retirement, Prime Time: 27 Lessons for the New Midlife.

Every week is different in my world. This week it was a crazy week of … radio shows, TV recordings, and course preparations. I’ve been keeping up my health-kick this week - have you? Weights to the point of failure and protein counting is becoming more familiar and very regular.

My first flight to Sydney for the year took me into the Nine TV studios to record a TV segment with Homemade, on homecare services.

Back in Brissy, I also recorded a podcast for Prime Time with our newly awarded Senior Australian of the Year, Dr Henry Brodati all about the cause that got him there, cognitive health and Alzheimers prevention. Keep an ear out for that one - it was terrific and it’ll come out next week. He’s darned impressive.

There were a few wonderful ABC radio conversations too – ABC Sydney, ABC Overnights, and ABC Western Plains. And next week I’ll be on ABC Perth as well.

I love talking about retirement in a way that doesn’t create ugly fear, but instead normalises the choices people actually have today, and helps them understand how to use those choices well.

And the courses - are moving fast.

Our How to Have an Epic Retirement Flagship Course Earlybird deal is now officially closed and I can say proudly this is again “OUR BIGGEST COHORT EVER!”. We’re packing the welcome packs on Monday. My downstairs is literally piled with boxes and boxes and boxes of workbooks and books. It’s going to be a big day of packing, but that makes it feel so much more personal doesn’t it to know me and my wonderful team still do it by hand!

If you haven’t got your seat on the program yet - you can use this link to apply a 15% off coupon at the checkout. It’s only for our newsletter readers!

The HESTA exclusive edition of the Epic Retirement program is booking right now (and the places are limited), for kickoff on the 19th Feb. It’s a fully-tailored program for HESTA members to learn how to have an epic retirement. And it’s EPIC! You can register your place here - it’s only for HESTA members though!

I’ve got some events coming up:

• In-person in Melbourne on Saturday 21st February, speaking about ‘How to make your retirement EPIC’ at Lifestyle Communities Deanside. It’s a great way to see a community in real life too. It’s free but you need to RSVP to come along. More info here.

• And, also on the 19th February I’ll be speaking at the Aware Super online event ‘Planning for Retirement for Couples’! This is an information-packed event, and it’s online, for Aware Super members. More here.

Last thing this week… I am on a drive to find more of the country’s future-retirees and help them. So if you know someone who might benefit from this newsletter, please send it on and suggest they subscribe for free. We’ll both be grateful I hope (me and them!)

Thanks for being here… making it epic. Have a lovely Sunday!

Cheers
Bec xx

Author, podcast host, columnist, retirement educator, and guest speaker

There’s a $2.5b issue with our super, and it’s costing retirees

There’s an enormous wave of people approaching retirement in Australia today. Many, particularly over the next decade as super matures, will have relatively small balances and limited financial confidence.

Instead of feeling prepared, they feel overwhelmed. They put off engaging with their super, delay important financial decisions, and quietly hope things will sort themselves out when work ends.

For many of these people, meaningful financial advice simply isn’t accessible. Advice is expensive, often geared towards larger balances and private asset management, and increasingly unreachable for those who need help the most.

Yet, these are precisely the people who need support to set themselves up for retirement, to understand how super, the age pension, tax-free retirement income and any ongoing work fit together to fund a liveable retirement, and to feel confident they’re not making costly mistakes along the way.

This is where Australia’s retirement system needs to change, and quickly.

If large numbers of people are overwhelmed, disengaged and unable to access advice, then simply waiting for them to make the “right” retirement decisions is no longer realistic.

Super funds need to be allowed, and expected, to play a more active role in helping members move from accumulation into retirement, so their superannuation generates tax-free returns, and is used to help them have a good life.

This article was published in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday 7th February 2026. Read the whole article here. Note - it has a sign-up gate but no paywall.

PART 1: The 6 things everyone fears about retirement and how to tackle those fears

When I asked our Epic Retirement Club community what they feared most about retirement, the responses came flooding in.

“Running out of money.”

“Dying at my desk.”

“Losing my identity.”

“Not knowing how to spend my time.”

“Being alone.”

Does any of this sound familiar?

It struck me how consistent these concerns were. These aren’t irrational fears - they’re smart, thoughtful people trying not to mess up the second half of their lives.

So, this week on Prime Time, I’m doing something a little different. I’ve sat down with our program producer, Gen, to name the six fears that came up again and again. We unpack the first three in today’s episode: running out of money, running out of time and health, and loss of identity.

We talk through why these fears are so common and how each one could be managed - not eliminated - because we can’t just chase them away.

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST HERE:

• LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS

• LISTEN ON SPOTIFY