Retiring Debt Free Takes a Team: A Real Client Story

We are working with a couple at the moment whose story is worth sharing, because it shows what happens when the people looking after your money actually talk to each other.

They came to us after sitting down with their accountant to plan their transition to retirement. They own a business, they have roughly seven years of work left in them, and they have a smallish home loan plus some leftover business debt. Their accountant looked at the whole picture and said it plainly: this needs cleaning up before you retire, not after.

The problem was cash flow, not income

On paper, things looked fine. The business was trading, the home loan wasn’t huge, and nobody was in crisis. But week to week, cash flow was tight.

They had a home loan, a business loan for their premises, three credit cards and an overdraft. Every payment going out was the minimum. Every week money left the account, and every week the balances barely moved.

That is the trap a lot of business owners fall into. The loans that made sense ten years ago, when the business was growing and they needed flexibility, were still sitting there doing the same job long after the job had changed. Nobody had stepped back and asked whether the structure still suited where they were heading.

Starting with the end in mind

Before we talked about a single loan, we talked about retirement. When do they actually want to stop working? What does the business look like at that point? Are they planning to sell the premises, downsize the family home, or both? How much debt is realistic to carry between now and then, and what number do they want to see on the final day?

Those answers shaped everything that came after. A loan structure is only good if it gets you where you want to go, so we needed to know the destination first.

Building the plan with their accountant

This is the part we’re proudest of. We didn’t build the plan in isolation and hand it over. We worked alongside their accountant the whole way.

The approach came together like this. We consolidated the debt so the credit cards and overdraft were cleared and folded into a structure that made sense for their stage of life. With the high cost, messy debt gone, the money that had been disappearing into minimum payments could go toward actually reducing the loan. We increased their repayments to a level that worked for their cash flow, then projected what the loan balance would look like at their planned retirement age.

Meanwhile their accountant looked after the tax side, including a strategy to contribute extra to super over the coming years. That way, when retirement arrives, they’ll have a healthy super balance and real options. They can sell the business premises, downsize, or do both, and walk away without debt hanging over them.

Our client went from feeling like they were treading water to having a clear, numbered path to retiring debt free.

Why a broker alone isn’t enough (and neither is an accountant)

Here’s the honest truth. As brokers, we know lending inside out. We know how lenders assess business owners, how to structure loans so they work hard for you, and how to get the right outcome from the panel. What we are not across is your tax position, your super strategy, or how a business sale will be treated when you exit.

Your accountant is the opposite. They understand the tax, the business structure and the retirement planning, but they aren’t living and breathing lending policy every day.

When the two of us sit at the same table, the gaps close. The accountant can tell us what the numbers need to look like for tax and super, and we can find the lending structure that gets you there. Nobody is guessing about the other person’s side of the plan.

Your team, working in your interest

If you’re a business owner within reach of retirement and your debt feels like it’s stuck in place, you don’t need to figure it out alone. Bring your accountant into the conversation, bring us in, and let’s map it out together. It’s your goal, and everyone on your team should be pulling in the same direction to make it happen.

If this sounds familiar, make an appointment with one of our brokers. We’re happy to meet face to face or online, and we’ll gladly work alongside your existing accountant.

This article is general information only and doesn’t take into account your personal circumstances. Speak with your accountant or financial adviser about tax and superannuation strategies before acting.