Jan is just a year away from her planned retirement date and is considering how best to structure her and her husband’s assets. She asks personal finance guru Noel Whittaker for his thoughts.
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Q. Jan
I am 65 and planning to retire at 66. My husband is already retired. We have $350,000 in super, own our own home in the country (which is only worth $250,000) and have an investment property with $100,000 equity in it. I would like to keep the investment property and use rent to pay it off slowly in case we need to move to a more expensive locale when we get older and more infirm. But I wonder whether it would make more financial sense to sell the investment property and put the $100,000 into a tax-free super environment while we can. The investment property is not in a self-managed super fund. Your thoughts?
A. The major issues here are the potential of the property, and what capital gains tax (CGT) would be incurred if you sold it. If the property has great potential, and selling would cost you a big amount in CGT, it would make sense to hold it. However, if any CGT would be tiny, and future potential is not good, it may be better to cut your losses sooner rather than later.
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Noel Whittaker is the author of Making Money Made Simple and numerous other books on personal finance. His advice is general in nature, and readers should seek their own professional advice before making any financial decisions.
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