Vin and Amanda's early retirement

Retiring at 60 is possible with a good plan

Vin and Amanda worked hard to save for retirement so they could travel around Australia. Find out what they did, and why they’re loving the life they’ve built for themselves.

Self-funded retirees Vin and Amanda have built the retirement they’ve dreamed of. Vin’s been with Cbus for about 20 years. He was a union delegate and health and safety representative, and Amanda worked in aged care.

Making a plan and making it happen

Vin and Amanda wanted to retire early, slow down and enjoy life. Knowing what they wanted meant they were in a better position to work towards achieving it.

“We were looking forward to retirement. We both had a goal to retire at 60 and travel around Australia,” Vin says.

“We did salary sacrifice and we even did after-tax contributions. We pretty much exhausted every avenue that we possibly could, to put money into super for retirement.”

Vin says the advice he’d give to anyone would be to put as much as you can afford into super.

“I’d show the guys at work some examples of how much they could potentially have in their super with extra contributions. They were just blown away by how much money they could have in 10 or 15 years.”

“If you can put in an extra $100 a week, after a while you don’t even notice it missing from your pay. And with compounding interest, it can grow faster than you’d think.”

Getting the right information

Vin and Amanda attended education seminars to learn as much as they could about retirement.

“They were very informative sessions. It’s a good way to learn about different ways to grow your super, and options in retirement.”

Getting help when they needed it

When it was time to set up their Cbus Super Income Stream, their Coordinator Rick went out of his way to help. Amanda was looking to open an income stream account with the fund she’d been with for 20 years, but it wasn’t easy.

“I moved to Cbus for my super income stream because it was incredibly difficult to talk to someone at my old super fund. There was nothing like the Coordinator service, and in 20 years I never saw anyone from the super fund visit us at work.”

Enjoying the retirement they’ve worked for

Vin and Amanda now have a regular income from their super income stream account, but their money is still invested and has the opportunity to grow even more.

Finally it’s time for them to slow down and enjoy life. That means spending time with family and grandkids, spending time with each other, travelling and also enjoying being at home.

While retirement looks different for everyone, the best of kind retirement is the one that allows you to do exactly what works for you.