Newly retired couple Andrew and Michele Ryan are in their “go-go years”, and are travelling the world instead of stashing away savings toward their children’s inheritance.
“There are the ‘go-go’ years, the ‘go-slow’ years, and the ‘no-go’ years,” Ms Ryan said.
“That is the focus of what we’re doing, to get out and experience things while we can.”
The couple credit their freedom to the financial independence of their daughters — both aged in their 20s — and the rigorous money education they worked hard to give their children when they were younger.
“It just gives us the comfort to know that we’re not worried about leaving money for them because we know that they have the skills to make it,” Mr Ryan said.
“We actually do have friends that are making sure that they have money for their kids and they’re still paying for them in their 40s.”
Research published by financial services company AMP in June found that although three in four older Australians believed it was important to pass their wealth onto their children, 70 per cent were unwilling to compromise their retirement lifestyle to do so.
The Ryans can relate.
They’re currently enjoying a month-long holiday in Indonesia, followed by a cruise from Brisbane to Victoria, booked for the Melbourne Cup.
“We know that there will be something left, but we’re not saying that we have to leave everything to them and therefore sacrifice our travel or our retirement,” Ms Ryan said.
How important is financial literacy?
An international survey by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2023 found that on average across its 39 member countries, only 34 per cent of adults reached the minimum target score on financial literacy.
Financial adviser Ben Greany said teaching financial literacy to your children was integral to setting up your own retirement.
“The ones [retirees] that do it well, do have children who have been successful in their own right and do have their own financial stability,” the central Queensland-based adviser said.
Mr Greany said the intergenerational consequences of financial literacy issues were obvious.
“If someone has had parents who have always struggled and not done their own budgets well, you’d expect that to flow through to the children,” he said.
“The discipline of saving is very hard, it’s not something you would just pick up naturally … you would have to be taught and influenced in some way.”
Teaching the ‘value of money’
Mr Ryan, 58 – a carpenter by trade who went on to work in local government – retired earlier this month.
Ms Ryan, 65, retired in February from her career as a vocational teacher at TAFE Queensland, and still operates a small side-hustle as a travel agent.
But the couple said their preparation for retirement started decades ago when they began teaching their daughters fiscal lessons from an early age.
Mr Ryan said one of those strategies had their daughters funding items they wanted, while big ticket-purchases — such as a car — were split half-and-half.
“It taught them the value of money,” he said.
“If you give your kids something, then it has no value to them, and they’ll damage that car or they’ll damage that phone and there’s no financial consequence.”
He said there was also an emphasis on work ethic.
“They had jobs since they were 14 years and nine months,” Mr Ryan said.
“[When they graduated] they were just keen to get into the world, earn their own money and set themselves up.”
Hailey Ryan, the couple’s youngest daughter, applauds her parents’ approach.
She said being taught a good work and financial ethic from a young age had allowed her parents to have more financial freedom.
“They don’t have two daughters relying on them,” the 25-year-old said.
She welcomed her parents’ adventurous spirit and ability to enjoy their retirement years.
“They have worked really hard, so I think it is really exciting opportunity to spend money the way they want to,” she said.
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