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Retire in Aus


SAman4Aus

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Good day,

 

I lived in Aus for a few years but that was many years ago and now want to return to retire. Covid travel etc. aside.  

 

Here is my situation:

·         60 years old

·         Single (male)

·         No debt

·         Don’t own property in Australia (will rent)

·         Currently live in South Africa, but have Australian passport

·         Will live in Queensland (GC, Brissie, Sunshine Coast)

 

Question: how much do I need to retire? I know each person’s circumstance is different, but just a ballpark figure for a single bloke renting a comfortable apartment (1 or 2 bedr), moderate food expenses, moderate private health insurance, water & lights etc.

 

BTW I get retirement planning, expenses, inflation, assisted living expenses etc......

 

I’m thinking around AU$40K p.y. ? 

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Have a look at realestate.com.au for rental prices. Keep in mind rent is paid weekly when doing a budget. 

Utilities: Electricity $280-$450 every quarter, air conditioning in summer doubles your winter bill. Water is negligible, $60-$80 per quarter. 

 

Use something like www.comparethemarket.com.au to get a handle on insurance bills. Use a temporary email, or they'll flood your email with spam.

Owning a car is expensive. +-$700 annual registration, minor services are roughly $200 for a small hatch, major services (every 30k km) are around $600 for a hatch. Log book services are 6 monthly in Australia.

I would say a fair amount for groceries is $120 pw for a single person (shopping at Aldi, not Coles or Woolworths). Affords you some wine as well. Wine is a minimum of $10 per bottle, $20 gets you a relatively good wine. 
 

Eating out runs you around $25 for a basic meal (schnitzel + beer). The prices just go up from there. 

Depending on your rent, $40k doesn't sound unreasonable. It will curtail holidays, and visiting South Africa etc, but you can have a okay lifestyle. Shoot me a message if you have other questions.

 

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Janti - Thank you so much for your response. How do I send you a msg on this site?

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This is a my estimate for monthly budget in Queensland for a single 60 year old bloke (bit more than I expected :( ). Please do comment. Too much, too little, what did I leave out?

 

image.png.141a81b94fc074af108122b802d54712.png

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3 hours ago, SAman4Aus said:

Janti - Thank you so much for your response. How do I send you a msg on this site?


Click on the envelope in the top right hand corner and then hit compose message. But, I'll reply to your question here.
 

2 hours ago, SAman4Aus said:

 

This is a my estimate for monthly budget in Queensland for a single 60 year old bloke (bit more than I expected :( ). Please do comment. Too much, too little, what did I leave out?

 

image.png.141a81b94fc074af108122b802d54712.png


I'm not sure where you are planning to live, and I can't speak for the Sunshine Coast or Goldi, but if you don't have to be within 15km of the CBD, you could probably shave a bit off rent.
Petrol is relatively cheap here, currently fluctuates between +-110c and 140c. I drive a bit over a thousand kms in a month and I spend less than $100 on petrol. 
Grocery budget is more than enough for one person.
I have no idea what private health insurance costs, in QLD ambulances don't attract a cost (one of the reasons people get private insurance). With private health insurance you'll also pay a lifetime loading because you are joining after you turned 30. 
An uncapped 50mbps fibre connection is around $75 per month. Phone contracts are roughly $40pm for unlimited minutes and SMSs + 4gb of data. Prepaid is better value.

Household insurance is generally less than $40pm, obviously depends on watches, rings etc. and what you insure outside of your home. 

If you shop around for car insurance you could probably get that around $50. 
If you're planning on getting pets, that adds a lot. 

Setting yourself up is going to cost a bit. There are generally pretty good retail specials around Easter and Christmas. The end of financial year specials are ridiculous. 


 

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  • 2 weeks later...

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) has attempted to answer this in their brochure ASFA Retirement Standard

Comfortable lifestyle 43k but then you own your own house. See website for details & budget

https://www.superannuation.asn.au/resources/retirement-standard

 

However, that figure changes depending who you ask and if you are an Aus citizen!

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  • 2 weeks later...

As a side, we spent 2 years living on the road traveling and working along the east coast (living out of a caravan) 
 

Our plan is to puy a caravan and then travel and stay in spots for a month at a time and do laps around australia, check out this site

https://www.thegreynomads.com.au/

 

You can live comfortably on 2k a month on the road, you can keep your rent under 1k a month easily, when i didnt have work we lived in state forests and national parks, and all in expenses for the month including feeding 3 people enough and resonably healthy cost us 1k a month

 

We stayed here for a month a couple of times in QLD - inskip (The beach was just behind those trees) and it cost $100 per week

 

WP_20160314_06_03_35_Pro.jpg.af4e0cdbe92487b41c3ddfc67dec4a90.jpg

 

Skip the rental and get a caravan

 

 

 

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I like that. What a wonderful initiative. I've heard of people living out of a caravan but never considered it for myself. I can do that....I think. Thanks for that, I am going to explore that as an option and do a bit of googling.  

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I like that. What a wonderful initiative. I've heard of people living out a caravan but never considered it for myself.

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go to youtube and search for vanlife

 

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21 hours ago, Nev said:

buy a caravan and then travel and stay in spots for a month at a time and do laps around australia

 

We have seen most of WA now and want to explore the other states. Want to put the caravan & 4x4 in storage, in another state. When we want to continue our travelling, we want to fly there; clean, check, pack, tour for 4 weeks to the next few spot. Then find storage for caravan/4x4 - rinse and repeat. I couldn't find anyone to share similar experiences and tips. Will be great if you can help?

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21 hours ago, Nev said:

all in expenses for the month including feeding 3 people enough and resonably healthy cost us 1k a month

 

Spoken to a few greynomads. Most say this is something you can only do for 2-3 years, and then you itch to settle down. Many greynomads are in a precarious position - they cannot really afford to retire. In some cases the income they get from their PPOR is needed to subsidize their travelling retirement. Not sure how this works with their age pension & means testing. Also heard that some do some supplementary work along the way

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To you point @ottg, I would love to travel around Aus for a year or two but then I am concerned I may grow tired of doing that. Are there people out there who do the Greynomad travel thing permanently?  Do most people have a home base (house) to go back to? My other concern is, if one does the travelling permanently, what happens when you get too old to drive around so much?

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2 hours ago, SAman4Aus said:

Are there people out there who do the Greynomad travel thing permanently? 

 

The best is to explore https://thegreynomads.activeboard.com/

Depends on the definition of "permanently". Its worthwhile to check out their "rigs" - very well organised!!

 

2 hours ago, SAman4Aus said:

Do most people have a home base (house) to go back to?

 

Yes, and paid up! It just makes travelling easier, with goods in storage its an guaranteed income.

 

2 hours ago, SAman4Aus said:

what happens when you get too old to drive around so much?

 

The next person buys a bargain - that is when you sell your rig! 🙂

In fact, often people who planned to do the round trip has been planning that for years. Then their health catches up and they end up never doing that, as they need medical care. They end up selling their "brand new" rig. 

 

Its not just the more mature person, often its young families that is doing the Oz lap before the kids need to go to school or often will do home schooling. Often, people will keep a blog/diary of their travelling. Reading one or two gives a good insight!!

https://websitesfromavan.com/best-blogs-travelling-around-australia/

https://coastingaustralia.com/australian-family-travel-blogs/

Edited by ottg
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