Eight years ago, I asked our accountant to recommend offering my wife and I sound financial advice. We were keen on building our retirement nest egg before it was too late.
Our accountant recommended an independent financial adviser, Matt. For a financial adviser to be classified as independent, they must not receive any commissions and operate without conflict of interest. Over the past eight years, Matt has demonstrated this independence at all times.
Now when it comes to financial advice, Matt is more the tortoise than the hare. It is all about not trying to guess the market but taking a long and steady approach to accumulating wealth.
There are three fundamental rules that we are following:
- Spending less - managing our spending and trying to stick to a budget. It is not necessarily about going without, but keep it in check.
- Reduce debt - pay off debt as soon as you can.
- Save - save for your retirement using superannuation and the relevant tax rules to maximise contributions.
We have deliberately taken a low-risk approach. Our superannuation investment is a mix of bonds and markets, where the proportion of each is changed, as required with market fluctuations. So even with a significant drop in the market and our investment this year, we still see it bouncing back quickly.
We are well on track to hit our retirement nest egg target, thanks to Matt. All we need to do is stick to the rules, and ten years from now, we should be in for a comfortable retirement.
