Many people that come to see us are either approaching retirement within the next few years (how did that happen!), or have suddenly realised that they are half way through their working lives and start thinking about how nice it would be if they didn’t have to work for another 10-20 years or more.

They have spent years working, building up a business, paying off a mortgage and helping the children but haven’t really stopped to think about what they really want their money to do for them when they retire or how much they need to build up. Do you know what your magic number is or have you already got enough?

We’re often asked ‘how should I invest for the future?’ and ‘what should I do with my pensions?’

The answer is ‘It depends’.

Before you can make good financial decisions you need to know your ‘why’.

Does retirement mean stopping work completely or a change of direction?

Do you want a similar lifestyle or would you like to be spending more?

Do you want your family to benefit from your wealth now or in the future?

More than ever before, we are enjoying good health to an older age and many of us are capable of working well beyond retirement age, we also have the desire to keep working or volunteering.

For others retirement is about stopping work completely and being able to spend more time in the garden, on the golf course, travelling or helping families and charitable organisations. 

Once you have established your ‘why’ you can then start to make decisions about making your money work harder for you,  working out how much more you might need to save or how and when to take benefits from your pensions.  With the changes to pension rules people now have much greater flexibility with their pension pots and for most people, including business owners and the self- employed, there are tax advantages on saving into a pension in the UK.

At Fort Financial Planning, we have The Visual ForecastTM  . This enables you to see visually what your financial future might look like and helps you make the important decisions. It can help us answer the real questions about money like ‘how much longer do I need to work full time for?’ and ‘How much more can we spend in retirement without running out?’ In relation to inheritance tax planning it helps you see how much you can help your family now and in the future.

The Visual ForecastTM is provided as part of Fort Financial Planning’s Comprehensive Financial Planning service and if you are interested in finding out more, please get in touch.

January 2020