Life's Stages: Approaching Retirement
Once you reach the stage where you're considering your retirement income, expert financial advice becomes even more important. Many of the choices you make at this time will affect your lifestyle so you need to make sure they're right.
It pays to be prepared as your retirement approaches, everybody's financial situation is different but the main considerations for most people when they think about retiring, will come down to:
- If they're renting, paying a mortgage or mortgage free
- If they have any debt
- If they plan to keep working, have they considered phased retirement?
- How much money they have saved into their pension pot and other investments
- How much state pension they'll be entitled to
Retirement is going to be one of the most important decisions you are likely to make, when you stop work, whether you are going to phase your retirement and work part time and will you have enough to do what you want?
There are many decisions that can be made and options available that will make a huge difference to your finances in retirement. This might mean delaying retirement a year or two or changing your investments.
A pension is a long term investment. The fund value may fluctuate and can go down. Your eventual income may depend upon the size of the fund at retirement, future interest rates and tax legislation.