Retirement planning is the planning one person does in order to be prepared for life after work. Early in a person’s working life, retirement planning is about setting aside enough money to live comfortably while retired. During your working career, it might also include setting specific income or asset targets and taking the steps to achieve them.
Living for another 30 years after work isn’t just a possibility, it’s a probability. Whether retirement is many years away or just around the corner, unless you start planning for retirement now, there is a great danger that you could outlive your savings. The earlier you start planning, the easier it will be to create the retirement lifestyle you want.
How to get started?
The process involves defining retirement income goals and the actions necessary to achieve those goals. This includes identifying all sources of income, estimating life expenses (accounting for inflation and likely changes to health and attitudes), implementing a savings programme and managing assets and risk – all of which will determine if the retirement income goal can be achieved.
During a review with Bespoke IFA, we will consider not only your financial situation but we will discuss with you your end of life plans, such as your Wills, Lasting Powers of Attorney, Trusts, Inheritance Tax Planning and any other legal needs that you might have around Estate Planning. As a holistic boutique of independent financial advisers, all of our advice takes into consideration the full financial spectrum, including Financial Planning, Pensions, Estate Planning, Protection and Investments and Savings.
The final retirement countdown
If you’re aiming to retire within the next five years, it’s time to get into the mindset of considering the practicalities of fulfilling your desired lifestyle and making plans. While you should think about retirement planning as early as possible, the five years leading up to retirement are critical. Retirement may be looming with terrifying urgency, and the reality is that you have just 60 pay packets left until you retire. This is a time when you will need to obtain up-to-date pension forecasts and obtain professional financial advice to make sure your retirement plans are on track. Do you know how your current pension plans are invested? Do you understand the legislation around these complicated instruments and the best way to reach your goals? Our advice is designed to help with these questions, providing clear answers, and peace of mind.
Today, there are around 68 million people in the UK with around one-third being over 50 and one-fifth over 65 and arguably in need of financial advice as they approach and move into retirement.
What are the key things to concentrate on?
Your ability to afford retirement depends on your lifestyle, your family situation and home ownership. If you have dependent children or have 15 years left on your mortgage, the time might not be quite right, or you may require some help developing a strategy.
You have to ensure retirement is the right move for you, as it means a major change in lifestyle. You need a clear mind as to what you want your life to look like and how to spend your time. Then you can work on arranging your finances to suit. Decide on your priorities for retired life. Do you want to travel or split time between home and somewhere hot and exotic? Is there a particular hobby you want to immerse yourself in? What kind of leisure and social activities matter to you?
Retiring is a huge life event and can sometimes leave us feeling as though we’ve lost our identity. After decades of working and saving, you can finally see retirement on the horizon. But now isn’t the time to coast, we can ensure you take the right steps today to help ensure that you have what you need to enjoy a comfortable retirement lifestyle.
Key Benefits of the Service
At Bespoke, we provide advice through all of these complex stages. Our expert team has years of experience within retirement planning and is able to provide specialist advice in many areas:
- We create plans to decumulate pension holding in line with retirement goals
- We help you understand what you need to save in order to achieve those goals
- We use Cash Flow Planning analysis tools to create “what-if” scenarios that will help you prepare for a varied array of economic outcomes and life-changing events