In my understanding, you can either withdraw your Superannuation fund as a
lump sum payment or get it back as a
regular income stream when you reach retirement age (55 - 60), whether you're living in Australia or overseas.
Superannuation fund is a
complement/supplement to the
Government Old Age Pension. You can cash it in, pay off your mortgage, or use it to travel the world and live like a queen/king overseas with lower cost of living. You can pretty much do anything with your superannuation fund (I think).
The
government old age pension however is
means-tested. Even though you worked all your life and paid taxes, if you have too much assets and continuous income stream from other investments or business, you would not qualify for the old age pension. You also have to be living in Australia to receive the old age pension. But then again, the rules keep changing.
I’ve been paying 30-34%!i(MISSING)ncome tax ever since, which is the average tax here in Australia. This can be even higher if you are not an Australian citizen.
I also pay a percentage of my gross income towards my Superannuation Fund. My employer also contribute additional 12%!t(MISSING)owards my superannuation. There's no limit on how much one wants to contribute towards the fund. The fund is then
invested for future growth. However, since the global economic crises, our private retirement investments had been shrinking by thousands for 2 consecutive years now. 😞 . So I reduced my superannuation contribution to minimum while the economy is still bad and will increase it again as it picks up.
If a person pass away before retirement age, the superannuation benefit and “anti-detriment” payment (taxes that the person paid) get paid to the person’s beneficiaries.
So that's my 2 cents 😉....and yes, I'm looking forward for my retirement to travel the world (though I'm also quite happy and content in my comfort zone ). The only thing I would hate to be doing is still be in the workforce in my golden years. So it's better to be
productive now while I'm still young to have a cushy retirement. Retirees depending only on government old age pension really just get by, especially those who still have to pay rent.
Retirement...Ahhhhhh ! No more work, financial constraints and no more kids to take to school. Cheers to TOTAL FREEDOM !
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