How to decide which assets to sell when your income falls short

By George Cochrane
Updated October 20 2017 - 9:43am, first published October 3 2017 - 12:55am

We are a home-owner couple aged 79 and 72 years respectively. Our assets consist of about $280,000 in super income streams, $10,000 in shares, $13,000 cash-out value of my life insurance policy, and $413,000 equity (at Centrelink's assessment) in an investment property, on which we currently owe about $305,000 with an interest-only loan at 4.54 per cent. Currently we draw around $700 weekly from our income stream. Our part pension has dropped to the extent where we are short around $300 a week to meet our current living expenses. In your opinion would we be wiser to sell the investment property and realise the equity, or redraw weekly from the prepaid portion of the loan, which is about $130,000? Another option is to increase the drawings from our super balances. A third option is to sell the shares and cash out my life insurance. K.L.

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