Zara Lim is only 30 but already owns multiple investment properties, has taken an 18-month career break to travel, and does not believe in the traditional idea of working until retirement.
“There are so many life experiences that I want to experience while I’m still young – not wait until I’m 60-plus,” says the digital marketing specialist from Melbourne.
“Hiking and camping for weeks in New Zealand’s beautiful mountains will be a different experience from when I’m 30 compared to 65,” says Lim, who earns a six-figure income through her full-time managerial role plus part-time consulting work helping businesses improve their visibility on search platforms such as Google.
“I have a lot of hobbies and want to enjoy life – I’m focused on accumulating experiences,” she says.
Lim is one of a fast-growing group of Australians who are redefining the roles of money, work and leisure – a trend that was turbocharged by the pandemic.
Putting work-life balance before money, choosing part-time work, taking long career breaks, semiretiring sooner and looking beyond superannuation are among the new trends.
Wealth specialists say this flexibility around work and retirement will increase as four-day working weeks become more commonplace and people focus more on leisure and less on a single career in their lifetime.
Meanwhile, some young adults shy away from super, believing the preservation age of 60 is too far away, and becoming disheartened by federal governments continuing to change superannuation rules, such as Labor’s new tax for high balances, which may hit them later in life.
Beyond superannuation
Your Future Strategy director, Gareth Croy, says while super remains important because of its concessional tax structure, more people are asking “why aren’t I doing something else?”. “The conversation around the whole situation with this Division 296 (new tax) has really got people thinking about it, and I haven’t seen people actively engaging in this conversation as they have in the last 12 months,” Croy says.
“They’re seeing these super discussions and they’re thinking, ‘I don’t want to wait 40 years before stopping work’.”
Croy says more people are taking long career breaks, particularly when switching industries.
He says this can prompt tax strategies, such as selling a large asset to reduce capital gains tax while not working full-time.
“If they’re wanting to take some extended time off from work in their 40s or 50s, that would present a potential opportunity for realising a property investment.” This can be a source of cash before people reach their super preservation age of 60.
Financial adviser Helen Baker says today’s young adults are “more fluid” and, fearing they cannot afford property, want to enjoy their time.
“A lot of young people do earn very good salaries though and some have been brought up with high expectations on life … with low unemployment, they don’t feel they have to stay in a job, they will just get another,” Baker says.
“Others are a combination of ‘I want to retire early’ or ‘I am happy to work for longer but not fulltime’. For those a bit older, their rise in super balances and home values and investments is making them comfortable living for the now.”
Baker says superannuation remains a powerful scheme through its ability to force people to save for their retirement.
“There is no way people would save this up themselves, particularly with the new spending habits of travel and the lure of a nice home that comes with a big mortgage,” she says. Baker says super’s tax-effective structure works best for people who embrace strategies such as spouse splitting, spouse contributions, co-contributions and catch-up contributions.
The pandemic ‘turning point’
Booming super balances and investment property values are helping more people retire earlier, Baker says.
She says the pandemic changed people’s attitudes around work, super and retirement, and people now want to squeeze more out of life.
“A lot of flexibility arose from the pandemic – the ability to work from home, to dial in for meetings from anywhere, many people now don’t have an office or as big of an office,” she says. Lightbulb Wealth managing director Heinrich Jacobs says the pandemic was a “turning point” that forced people to rethink their priorities.
“More people now place health, family and lifestyle on equal footing with career and income,” Jacobs says.
“We’ve seen a shift away from the work-until-65-then-retire model towards a more flexible, staggered approach where people might take breaks or transition into part-time work earlier. “It also highlighted the importance of financial resilience, and many Australians began paying closer attention to superannuation, emergency savings and investing as a buffer against uncertainty.”
Jacobs says part-time work is no longer seen as a career sacrifice, but as a deliberate choice. “Among high-income earners in particular, I’m seeing a growing willingness to forgo maximum earnings in exchange for lifestyle flexibility,” he says.
Jacobs says he expects to see more four-day working weeks, but not everywhere. “I expect it to become more common in professional, knowledge-based sectors where outcomes matter more than time at the desk,” he says.
Career breaks will rise too, Jacobs says, but he warns that planning is vital. “Without clear budgeting and a long-term wealth strategy, extended breaks can derail financial goals, especially around home ownership or retirement savings,” he says.
“Rising awareness of concepts like FIRE (financial independence, retire early) has made younger Australians more conscious about saving and investing early to give themselves flexibility.
“That said, the rising cost of living and housing pressures do mean not everyone can realistically afford these breaks without careful planning.”
Thinking differently
Lim says many young adults are drawn to the FIRE movement because they do not want to work until 65.
“We also don’t see work and career as so linear any more – a lot of our generation turn their hobbies into businesses and freelancing into their main source of income,” she says.
“With YouTube, social media and ChatGPT, millennials and Gen Z have much more access to information, and are learning how to make money in so many different ways and invest earlier with way more platforms and methods to invest.”
Zara Lim wants to be ‘work-optional’ by the time she’s 40.
Lim sees herself as taking a soft-FIRE approach, unlike some of the movement’s followers who are “hardcore penny pinchers eating baked beans”.
“I would love to be work-optional by 40 – that’s a pretty daring goal, and realistically I would probably still be working on some project, or consulting on the side, because I do enjoy my line of work,” she says.
Lim’s own wealth-building path involved a modern concept – rentvesting, where a person’s first property is a rental property rather than their own home.
“The first property I purchased was a two-bedroom unit for $130,000 in a rural town, which I think was a much more achievable and realistic goal for me to action in my early 20s,” she says.
“Once I knew that it was possible to enter the property market and understood the process, I just kept working, saving and investing, and built momentum from there.
“I decided to purchase investment properties first and push back purchasing my own place to live in until I was older and had a higher salary in my late 20s.”
Lim does not use negative gearing, and her properties are either positively-geared or neutral. “When I bought my first one my salary was way too low to be able to negatively-gear anything – I was earning $50,000,” she says.
Within the next decade Lim is considering another career break or taking time off to have children, and would potentially sell a property investment to fund it. “That would be a good time because my annual income would be lower and tax on the investment would be lower in years when I don’t have a full-time income,” she says.
She keeps an eye on her superannuation but is not too focused on super “because it’s so far away”. Lim says she enjoys her career but adds that maintaining a work-life balance “matters a lot to me”. “Work is still important, but it’s no longer the sole marker of identity or success,” she says.
About Your Future Strategy
Your Future Strategy is a multi-disciplinary financial services firm with experts across the financial landscape, including qualified professionals in financial planning, strategic accounting, lending, investments, estate planning and superannuation.
As financial strategists, they help create a well-designed pathway for people to tick off financial goals to give them choice in their future, whether that’s saving for children’s schooling and university, building a significant property portfolio, creating and protecting their legacy, or retiring early.
In a recent interview with 10 News, Gareth shared how “being asleep at the wheel” can stop you from making the most of the wealth you’ve already built.
The following article was taken from the Australian Financial Review, over the weekend. Read the article in full below: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/wealth/retirement/retirement-redefined-changing-roles-of-money-work-and-play/news-story/6cde0e8bb53bceb8950c0b01c6832f63
Zara Lim is only 30 but already owns multiple investment properties, has taken an 18-month career
break to travel, and does not believe in the traditional idea of working until retirement.
“There are so many life experiences that I want to experience while I’m still young – not wait until
I’m 60-plus,” says the digital marketing specialist from Melbourne.
“Hiking and camping for weeks in New Zealand’s beautiful mountains will be a different
experience from when I’m 30 compared to 65,” says Lim, who earns a six-figure income through
her full-time managerial role plus part-time consulting work helping businesses improve their
visibility on search platforms such as Google.
“I have a lot of hobbies and want to enjoy life – I’m focused on accumulating experiences,” she
says.
Lim is one of a fast-growing group of Australians who are redefining the roles of money, work and
leisure – a trend that was turbocharged by the pandemic.
Putting work-life balance before money, choosing part-time work, taking long career breaks, semiretiring
sooner and looking beyond superannuation are among the new trends.
Wealth specialists say this flexibility around work and retirement will increase as four-day working
weeks become more commonplace and people focus more on leisure and less on a single career in
their lifetime.
Meanwhile, some young adults shy away from super, believing the preservation age of 60 is too far
away, and becoming disheartened by federal governments continuing to change superannuation
rules, such as Labor’s new tax for high balances, which may hit them later in life.
Beyond superannuation
Your Future Strategy director, Gareth Croy, says while super remains important because of its
concessional tax structure, more people are asking “why aren’t I doing something else?”.
“The conversation around the whole situation with this Division 296 (new tax) has really got people
thinking about it, and I haven’t seen people actively engaging in this conversation as they have in
the last 12 months,” Croy says.
“They’re seeing these super discussions and they’re thinking, ‘I don’t want to wait 40 years before
stopping work’.”
Croy says more people are taking long career breaks, particularly when switching industries.
He says this can prompt tax strategies, such as selling a large asset to reduce capital gains tax while
not working full-time.
“If they’re wanting to take some extended time off from work in their 40s or 50s, that would
present a potential opportunity for realising a property investment.” This can be a source of cash
before people reach their super preservation age of 60.
Financial adviser Helen Baker says today’s young adults are “more fluid” and, fearing they cannot
afford property, want to enjoy their time.
“A lot of young people do earn very good salaries though and some have been brought up with high
expectations on life … with low unemployment, they don’t feel they have to stay in a job, they will
just get another,” Baker says.
“Others are a combination of ‘I want to retire early’ or ‘I am happy to work for longer but not fulltime’.
For those a bit older, their rise in super balances and home values and investments is making
them comfortable living for the now.”
Baker says superannuation remains a powerful scheme through its ability to force people to save for
their retirement.
“There is no way people would save this up themselves, particularly with the new spending habits
of travel and the lure of a nice home that comes with a big mortgage,” she says.
Baker says super’s tax-effective structure works best for people who embrace strategies such as
spouse splitting, spouse contributions, co-contributions and catch-up contributions.
The pandemic ‘turning point’
Booming super balances and investment property values are helping more people retire earlier,
Baker says.
She says the pandemic changed people’s attitudes around work, super and retirement, and people
now want to squeeze more out of life.
“A lot of flexibility arose from the pandemic – the ability to work from home, to dial in for
meetings from anywhere, many people now don’t have an office or as big of an office,” she says.
Lightbulb Wealth managing director Heinrich Jacobs says the pandemic was a “turning point” that
forced people to rethink their priorities.
“More people now place health, family and lifestyle on equal footing with career and income,”
Jacobs says.
“We’ve seen a shift away from the work-until-65-then-retire model towards a more flexible,
staggered approach where people might take breaks or transition into part-time work earlier.
“It also highlighted the importance of financial resilience, and many Australians began paying
closer attention to superannuation, emergency savings and investing as a buffer against
uncertainty.”
Jacobs says part-time work is no longer seen as a career sacrifice, but as a deliberate choice.
“Among high-income earners in particular, I’m seeing a growing willingness to forgo maximum
earnings in exchange for lifestyle flexibility,” he says.
Jacobs says he expects to see more four-day working weeks, but not everywhere. “I expect it to
become more common in professional, knowledge-based sectors where outcomes matter more than
time at the desk,” he says.
Career breaks will rise too, Jacobs says, but he warns that planning is vital.
“Without clear budgeting and a long-term wealth strategy, extended breaks can derail financial
goals, especially around home ownership or retirement savings,” he says.
“Rising awareness of concepts like FIRE (financial independence, retire early) has made younger
Australians more conscious about saving and investing early to give themselves flexibility.
“That said, the rising cost of living and housing pressures do mean not everyone can realistically
afford these breaks without careful planning.”
Thinking differently
Lim says many young adults are drawn to the FIRE movement because they do not want to work
until 65.
“We also don’t see work and career as so linear any more – a lot of our generation turn their
hobbies into businesses and freelancing into their main source of income,” she says.
“With YouTube, social media and ChatGPT, millennials and Gen Z have much more access to
information, and are learning how to make money in so many different ways and invest earlier with
way more platforms and methods to invest.”
Zara Lim wants to be ‘work-optional’ by the time she’s 40.
Lim sees herself as taking a soft-FIRE approach, unlike some of the movement’s followers who are
“hardcore penny pinchers eating baked beans”.
“I would love to be work-optional by 40 – that’s a pretty daring goal, and realistically I would
probably still be working on some project, or consulting on the side, because I do enjoy my line of
work,” she says.
Lim’s own wealth-building path involved a modern concept – rentvesting, where a person’s first
property is a rental property rather than their own home.
“The first property I purchased was a two-bedroom unit for $130,000 in a rural town, which I think
was a much more achievable and realistic goal for me to action in my early 20s,” she says.
“Once I knew that it was possible to enter the property market and understood the process, I just
kept working, saving and investing, and built momentum from there.
“I decided to purchase investment properties first and push back purchasing my own place to live in
until I was older and had a higher salary in my late 20s.”
Lim does not use negative gearing, and her properties are either positively-geared or neutral.
“When I bought my first one my salary was way too low to be able to negatively-gear anything – I
was earning $50,000,” she says.
Within the next decade Lim is considering another career break or taking time off to have children,
and would potentially sell a property investment to fund it. “That would be a good time because my
annual income would be lower and tax on the investment would be lower in years when I don’t
have a full-time income,” she says.
She keeps an eye on her superannuation but is not too focused on super “because it’s so far away”.
Lim says she enjoys her career but adds that maintaining a work-life balance “matters a lot to me”.
“Work is still important, but it’s no longer the sole marker of identity or success,” she says.
About Your Future Strategy
Your Future Strategy is a multi-disciplinary financial services firm with experts across the financial landscape, including qualified professionals in financial planning, strategic accounting, lending, investments, estate planning and superannuation.
As financial strategists, they help create a well-designed pathway for people to tick off financial goals to give them choice in their future, whether that’s saving for children’s schooling and university, building a significant property portfolio, creating and protecting their legacy, or retiring early.