You’re in retirement

Does this sound like you?

Perhaps you are coming close to taking your retirement benefits but you want a sense check before you make any financial decision to retire.  You might move to part-retirement for a while but then again you might retire in full from the off.  What are the pros and cons of doing this?  You may be able to retire early, but if you do, you know that your pension payments would be penalised.  Is it worth paying the penalty or should you wait to prevent it?  Or you may have different sources from which you can live on in retirement.  Which should you turn to first and in what order?

Or it could be the case that you retired a little while ago and have settled into your retirement lifestyle and spending pattern.  Some of your pension income is provided by your state pension, plus a work pension, but you also receive rental income and have some sizeable investments, other pensions, and a large cash sum from your work pensions which you have yet to draw on but probably don’t need.  Should you convert some of you remaining pension pots into an annuity, or instead leave it invested to grow, but then again risk it losing value if markets drop if you do leave it invested?  If you leave it invested you know that you could probably do with some professional, ethical investment management as you don’t know much about investing yourself.

Do you, in fact, need to keep hold of all of your accumulated wealth?  You might like to give some of it away to your children or to charity tax efficiently, either now or on your death.  You see the benefits of passing it on sooner rather than later, but then again you are worried that if you do you may have to pay for care in later life so perhaps you should hold on to it for now instead.  Or maybe you bring in more each month than you spend.  Should you be giving away the monthly excess, or passing on large lump sums instead?  Or both perhaps?  And what about moving money into a trust?  Would that be of benefit to you?  You might be due to inherit money at some point too. How do you account for that within your planning? Should you even?

If you relate to any of these comments feel free to get in touch to see if we can help.