Retirement Planning

When people get in touch about their retirement planning, the triggers tend to be reaching the stage where they’ve had enough of work, or they’re getting a bit stressed out doing the work day-to-day, and they are wondering for how much longer they need to continue.

They’ve often got no indication as to when they can afford to retire.

They haven’t really thought about what life in retirement looks like or, more importantly, what it will cost.

There’s loads of information out there about planning for retirement and the costs involved, but often people need to sit down with someone like me and have a professional make sense of it all.

We chat through all of the options together and work out what’s actually best for them.

Preparing for the journey

Because retirement nowadays is actually quite a long time.

We’re easily thinking retirement of 35 plus years. So the money has to last quite a long time.

And a lot can happen in those years too.

I see it a lot with the later life clients were circumstances can change overnight.

You have to be prepared that that’s life and as we live longer, it’s great that we’re living longer, but we will have more complex needs if we suddenly have issues with our health.

So it’s just trying to make sure that whatever plan you put in place for your retirement, that financially that’s sustainable and it can meet those demands or meet those changes in the journey.

A financial plan is really supportive for people making those retirement choices because it looks at the whole big picture of what somebody would like to achieve.

Supporting wellbeing

An individual’s wellbeing is so important.

Often people find if they’ve worked incredibly hard, by the time they lead up to retirement, sometimes they can feel quite tired from work and they just need that headspace and to get a break.

They can then become invigorated doing all the lovely things that they would like to do in retirement.

And I’m not just talking about going on big holidays and cruises around the world.

That’s important obviously. But it’s also about thinking about what their wellbeing is like, what their day-to-day looks like, what are they going to do that makes them happy?

What hobbies are they going to do together in a couple or, or individually and, and places that they’d like to visit and things they’d like to do.

They might like to spend some time with grandchildren.

Not running out

A financial plan is really good for that because it takes all of that into consideration.

It’s so important because that’s what you’re going to be spending your money on.

But actually knowing what your limits are in terms of how you’re going to spend your money is very important because you’ve got to make the money last throughout retired life.

And if you spend too much too soon, you’re missing the opportunity to boost your pot of money again if you like.

It’s very important that that’s done and not in a really stringent way to be to a fun sponge and take the good out of it for people.

But be realistic and consider, this is what I’m going to think about and these are my plans for this year. ‘I’ve got a big year next year because one of the family, one of the daughters are getting married or we want to do a particularly special holiday next year because there’s special wedding anniversary.’

Finding energy in retirement

It’s taking those particularly big expenditure items and putting them into the plan and making sure that everything can happen within reason if it’s planned for.

I have lots of clients in retirement, and there’s lots of variations in how people live in retirement.

Some people do like to live and spend quite a lot of money on quite a lot of holidays, and that’s what they do quite a lot of their time.

But I’ve got clients who really enjoy hobbies and have lovely day-to-day routines that they’re happy with.

They spend lots of time with grandchildren and families and they go on holiday.

Everybody is quite different. Everybody has different needs that gives them energy and gives them a sense of love and life.

Would you like a plan?

Retirement isn’t about packing up work and having a lie in every day, not doing anything else.

It’s quite energetic actually. So it’s important that people are prepared for that.

If you’re thinking of retiring and you haven’t got an idea as to how, if you think you can afford to do it now, or you want to construct a plan for it, please do give me a call. We can have a chat.

I can tell you the key things to be thinking about as you’re planning towards it and help you to make some sense of where you’re going with that.