Pre-Retirement Checklist: 10 Years Out

The decade before retirement is the most financially consequential of your life.

The decisions you make between 55 and 65 — or 50 and 60, depending on when you plan to stop working — have an outsized impact on what the next 30 years look like. Get them right and you arrive at retirement with clarity and options. Get them wrong and you spend your 60s grinding away at a job you’re done with, wondering why the numbers still don’t feel secure.

The problem is that most people spend those years doing roughly nothing deliberate. Earning. Spending. Not looking too closely at where they’ll actually be in a decade. The plan, if you can call it that, is to deal with retirement when it arrives.

That’s expensive. Here’s what actually matters.

Step 1: Know Your Income Number — Not Your Balance

Most retirement conversations start with ‘how much super do I need?’ and end up fixating on a lump sum figure. $1 million. $1.5 million. Some calculator’s terrifying output.

This is the wrong question. Your super balance is not your retirement income. It’s just a number. You can’t spend a number.

The right question is: how much income do I need each year to live the life I actually want? Not a generic benchmark. Your life. Sunday roasts, decent holidays, grandkids at Taronga Zoo, the occasional indulgence that doesn’t require a spreadsheet to justify.

Work out that annual income figure first. Everything else in retirement planning flows from it.

“Balmain Financial Adviser: Your Retirement Number Isn’t What You Think”

Step 2: Do a Proper Super Health Check

Log into your super fund and look at three specific things:

• Your current balance and the fund’s projected balance at your target retirement age. Most funds have a calculator. Use it.
• Your investment option. Many Australians approaching retirement are still in the default balanced or growth fund they joined at 25. Has yours been reviewed recently?
• Your insurance inside super — death cover, TPD, income protection. Were these set up when you were younger with a mortgage and dependents. Are they still appropriate?

A surprising number of people in their 50s are paying significant insurance premiums inside super for cover they no longer need, while their investment option hasn’t been reviewed in a decade.

Step 3: Make a Debt Plan

The goal heading into retirement is to arrive with no non-deductible debt. No mortgage. No car loans. No credit cards carrying interest.

If you still have a mortgage, make a deliberate plan to clear it. An extra $500–$1,000 per month in repayments in your 50s can shave years off the loan and save tens of thousands in interest.

Running a mortgage into retirement means your income target has to cover debt repayments — which is a drain you don’t need.

Step 4: Map Your Income Sources

Retirement income doesn’t come from one place. The typical layers for an Inner West pre-retiree might look like:

• Superannuation income stream — dividends, distributions, drawdowns
• Age Pension — full or partial, depending on your assets and structure
• Investment portfolio outside super — shares, managed funds, property income
• Part-time or consulting work in the transition years

Don’t make the mistake of assuming the Age Pension doesn’t apply to you. Many clients who’ve never thought of themselves as pension-eligible qualify for a meaningful part-pension — often $10,000–$20,000 a year combined — once we look at their actual asset position.

That’s a dairy cow you’ve forgotten you own. It’s still producing milk.

Step 5: Start the Shift from Beef Cattle to Dairy Cows

One of the highest-value things you can do in the decade before retirement is begin shifting your portfolio toward income-producing assets — what I call dairy cows in the 2 Cows framework.

Growth assets (beef cattle) have done their job building your wealth. But arriving at retirement with a predominantly growth-focused portfolio means your income depends on selling — which puts you at the mercy of whatever market exists when you need the money.

Ten years out, you have time to make this transition thoughtfully — managing capital gains tax, using peak contribution years in super, and gradually reweighting toward income. Five years out, the window is narrower. At retirement, your options are limited.

 “The 2 Cows Strategy: How to Build Retirement Income That Lasts”

Step 6: Review Your Insurances Outside Super

Life insurance needs change substantially as you approach retirement. If your mortgage is nearly paid off and your children are financially independent, you may need far less cover than you’re currently paying for.

Income protection is the one to watch carefully. It typically only pays to age 65, and the premiums are significant. Review whether the cost-benefit still makes sense for your situation.

Step 7: Get Your Estate Documents in Order

A current will. Enduring powers of attorney — both financial and medical. Binding beneficiary nominations on your super.

That last one is critical and frequently overlooked. Super does not automatically go to your estate — it goes to whoever your fund has on file as the nominated beneficiary. If that’s an ex-partner, a deceased parent, or nobody at all — that’s a problem.

Check it today.

Step 8: Have the Money Conversation With Your Partner

If you have a partner, do you genuinely agree on what retirement looks like? When you’ll stop working, where you’ll live, what you’ll spend, what actually matters to each of you?

These conversations get avoided precisely because they surface differences — in expectation, in risk tolerance, in what ‘enough’ looks like. But discovering a significant disagreement at 55 is far better than at 65, when the financial decisions have already been made.

The Honest Summary

Ten years is a long runway. Long enough to close most gaps, fix most mistakes, and build something genuinely solid.

But only if you start now.

If you looked at this list and felt behind — that’s normal. Most people in their 50s are. The question is whether you stay behind or do something about it.

Ready to Work Through This Properly?

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