We lived in two of the three properties- rather than sell when we moved we leveraged the equity as a deposit for the next place & rented them out. The first is an apartment in bayside Melb (purchased 13 years ago, we lived there for 6), and we've just sold our town house in the inner west (lived there for 4). Both are were newish when we bought, we've done next to nothing. The gains are OK to good- great for the townhouse in the last 12 months, hence the sale. While we lived there we also paid the mortgage down hard. Now we live in an C19 miners cottage in regional Victoria, definitely a renovators delight! The other property is a unit in Ballarat which seemed like a good idea at the time... But rent is good & costs are low.
My job is currently easy and very flexible- I work from home more than not, and I get to choose the cool projects to work on. It has been 'I can't breathe I'm so stressed' busy- not that long ago - so if it goes back to that 6 years won't / can't happen. The $1.4m is our ideal figure with my extra safety nets, bare bones is probably $1.15m. Index shares were my initial thought, I admit!
Since my husband has stopped working, our savings are growing at just under $100k a year. Our expenses in retirement will be $45k after we've sold the units (so no mortgages) and invested that $$ also. I'm ok we can save that & I don't want to carry the IPs into retirement, but can't sell till my income reduces because CGT. Does that help?
Question (another!)
If the money were all in my super, rather than my husband's, my husband might qualify for some aged pension when he is at that age & I am not. Not so fussed about the pension, but the benefits it may provide? He has medication which it would be nice to be paying $5 for rather than the current full price. Am I way off track here?
Thanks again