Retirement doesn't give you purpose - you have to bring it with you
And in today's newspapers, 'Sweeping new super changes in June? Don’t fall for it'
In this week’s edition:
Feature: Retirement doesn’t deliver purpose. You have to bring it with you.
Newspapers: Sweeping new super changes in June? Don’t fall for it
Podcast: Stop working, keep earning
From Bec’s Desk: Happy Mothers Day!
The How to Have an Epic Retirement Flagship Course is back for August kickoff! And the Earlybird 25% off won’t last!
This 6-week program has helped thousands of Aussies get retirement-ready—with smart strategies for money, time, health, happiness and purpose, travel and your home as you age.
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Let’s make your retirement epic.
Retirement doesn’t deliver purpose. You have to bring it with you.
There’s a quiet panic that hits a lot of people in their late 50s or 60s. It goes a little like this: ‘I’m nearly done with work… but what am I actually retiring to? Who am I going to be when work ends? What’s my purpose?’
We spend decades working, raising families, juggling… everything. And when the noise settles, what’s left that’s still there when the kids leave and we leave work? Plenty if you get it right. Or a gaping hole if you don’t.
This is where looking for and identifying what fires your sense of purpose becomes important—and it needs to be built before you walk out the door for the last time.
One of the world’s most thoughtful voices on this is American expert Richard Leider, who has spent decades studying the concept of “life’s purpose.” He boils it down to this:
“Growing and giving.”
That’s it. That’s what purpose is. And it doesn’t stop at 60 or 65.
Think about it. If you stop growing and you stop giving you find yourself living a pretty small life.
And it’s worth chasing, because according to research from both Stanford’s Center on Longevity and the Modern Elder Academy, people with a strong sense of purpose:
Stay healthier and live longer
Transition more smoothly into retirement
Are less likely to experience depression or cognitive decline
And the big message I want you to hear is, the earlier you start building that purpose outside work, the better. Remember, growing and giving!
So if you're in your 50s or early 60s, ask yourself:
What makes you feel most alive?
What could you keep doing or learning even if no one paid you?
Where are you still growing?
Where could you start (or continue) giving?
It doesn’t need to be grand. Teaching your grandkids to cook counts. Volunteering at the community garden counts. Mentoring, painting, writing, hiking, joining a men’s shed—it all counts. Think about things that give you a sense of belonging, a feeling of wanting to get up and go, and the rush when time whooshes by.
This sense of purpose is yours to shape—and you’ve got more freedom than ever to do it your way. Make it epic!
Mothers Day! Warm hugs to all the mothers out there today! I’m going to soak in my kids making me breakfast, my husband doing the shopping and people brainstorming fun adventures for my day. And then, in just 7 days time, my biggest baby (now 21) returns from more than a year in Canada — could be the best Mothers’ Day gift of all.
And, if you’ve been following along, my 12-year old pup is nearly back to standing after his full paralysis this year. It’s been a lot of healing, rehab and encouragement — but he’s a joy and thankfully I work from home.
This week in retirement education was another doozy in the rear-view.
Our How to Have an Epic Retirement Flagship Course for Winter kicked into Week 5, and we all enjoyed our live Q&A event with Jen Harding, the General Manager of Education, Engagement and Advice at HESTA who explained to everyone how advice works inside funds, and answered a record number of questions.
This week I spoke at a large online live event for Care Super Members on the 6 pillars of an Epic Retirement — what a thrill that so many came and enjoyed it! Hundreds and hundreds of people came along for 1.5 hours of education and Q&A — and it was in the evening so great for pre-retirees!
And we released another really enjoyable podcast to record where we talked about how money works when you retire. And this one was mainly me explaining layering — and how income works, with some great help from Katrina McPhee at Aware Super who explained the superannuation parts too.
Our 25% off Earlybird Deal is live for our Spring Edition of the How to Have an Epic Retirement Flagship Course. The course kicks off on the 28th August. 👉🏻 More information here 👉🏻 And we’re already blown away with bookings! 😁
Got thoughts this week — hit reply to email me or leave a comment.
Cheers, Bec Wilson
Author, podcast host, columnist, retirement educator, and guest speaker
Sweeping new super changes in June? Don’t fall for it
Extract of article published in print in The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, Brisbane Times, WA Today on Sunday 11th May 2025.
I was on a superannuation fund livestream this week doing a Q&A when a woman asked me what I thought about the major new super rules coming in on June 1.
I did a double-take. She continued – what did I think of the new phased withdrawal limits that would be imposed on people in the pension phase? And the limits to lump sums that we could withdraw?
“There’s no new super rules coming in on June 1, unless Albo brings parliament back early and passes the $3 million rule,” I said, pretty confident I hadn’t missed something. The fund’s financial adviser also agreed with me. And I didn’t give it a second thought – until the next day.
That was when I received an email from a lady asking me what I thought about the new super withdrawal rules coming into effect on June 1. She’d forwarded on an article in the email – which I categorically refused to open.
I sent it back to her with the note: “You’ve been scammed. You should never click on a link in an email that you don’t know the source of.”
She persevered, sending me screenshots of an article that is clearly doing the rounds online among imminent retirees, driving fear into their souls. Eventually, I opened it on my iPad on incognito mode.
It was slick. It was confidently written. And it was utterly made up.
The article includes a table claiming to list so-called “changes” coming to Australian super rules on June 1, 2025. Among the fake claims is a shift in the preservation age, increasing it from 60 to 70 by 2030.
It also claims that lump-sum withdrawals will be capped at 50 per cent of a person’s balance, rather than being fully accessible as they are now. Another claim is that phased withdrawals in pension phase will become mandatory – something that is already the case under current rules, making the statement clearly incorrect.
The article goes on to mention a so-called “deferred access bonus” of 3 per cent per year up to age 75, which actually applies to age pension systems in the US and UK, not Australia. Finally, it states that early access to super will be subject to tighter eligibility criteria and capped withdrawal amounts.
Right now, the only thing changing on June 1 is the temperature.
Not a single one of these things has been proposed by the Australian government or Treasury. None are in legislation. None are real.
(READ ON… in The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald. )
Welcome back to Prime Time! In this episode, Emelia and I are diving into one of the most common questions we get: Can I stop working… but still keep the income flowing? The answer? Absolutely—but it's probably not in the way you think.
We’re unpacking the magic of layering your income in retirement—how money keeps flowing in after the paychecks stop, and why understanding your income layers is one of the most powerful financial shifts you can make as you transition into retirement.
We also bust some myths about passive income, talk about how super actually works once you hit retirement, and explain why your home is already one of your biggest investments. Whether you're planning to downshift, semi-retire, or hang up your boots entirely, this episode gives you a clear, calm way to start thinking about your future cash flow.
And we’re joined by Kat McPhee from our sponsor Aware Super to talk about how a retirement income account works and why it might be the easiest “passive income” play you didn’t know you had access to.
LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST HERE:
Or make it your purpose to discover some purpose in retirement?
Wise words and simply put about purpose from Richard Leider, thank you Bec Wilson. But saying “and it needs to be built before you walk out the door for the last time”, while well intentioned, may not always apply. Growth can come from learning more about yourself and other pursuits in retirement too; after all, retirement allows space for new growth, learning, and building new purpose. But for some of us our purpose when working is all consuming and we can’t get to a new area to grow. Awareness, I think, matters more than having all the answers before retiring. Let’s not make those of us who are late bloomers feel we can’t catch up if we don’t have all the answers in advance.