Tag: Retirement
Change to The State Pension Triple Lock
The earnings benchmark of the State Pension triple lock will be temporarily set aside for next year. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) confirmed on 7 September that the State Pension triple lock rule will not be applied for the 2022/23 financial year over concerns of the potential costs involved.
Time for pensions to contribute towards building a better world
As we have been witnessing in recent years and months, climate changes are occurring in every region and globally. A new landmark report from the United Nations on the state of climate science has highlighted modern society’s continued dependence on fossil fuels, which is warming the world at a pace that is unprecedented in the past 2,000 years...
How to Trace Multiple Old Pension Pots
Changed job? Moved house? It’s not always easy to keep track of a pension, especially if you’ve been in more than one scheme or have changed employers throughout your career. Over time, pension schemes close, merge or become renamed. So even if you remember the name of your scheme, it could now be called something else.
The Retirement Clinic
If you are approaching retirement age, it’s important to know your pension is going to finance your plans. Pension legislation is extremely complex and it’s not realistic to expect everyone to understand it completely. But, since we all hope to retire one day, it is important to get to grips with some of the basics.
Live The Life You Want
The current life expectancy in the United Kingdom[1] in 2017 to 2019 was 79.4 years for males and 83.1 years for females, while you can access your pension savings from the age of 55, and the State Pension age is currently 66.
Investing for Life’s Journey
Whatever age you are, wherever you are on life’s journey, it’s human nature to live in the moment and cope with whatever challenges life throws at you. Selecting the most appropriate investments to align with your values and life goals requires undertaking the right planning to accumulate wealth over the long term.
Pension Consolidation
One thing retirement is not, is an age. Not any more anyway. Gone are the days of being told to stop working one day and pick up your pension the next. Today you have new pension freedoms to decide when and how you retire.
Take It To The Max
Saving into a pension is one of the most tax-efficient ways to save for your retirement. Not only do pensions enable you to grow your retirement savings largely free of tax, but they also provide tax relief on the contributions you make.
Pension Consolidation & New Freedoms
By the time we have been working for a decade or two, it is not uncommon to have accumulated multiple pension plans. There’s no wrong time to start thinking about pension consolidation, but you might find yourself thinking about it if you’re starting a new job or nearing retirement.
Pensions on Divorce
If you’re going through a divorce, dividing up any pensions you have will usually be one of the largest financial decisions you need to make. Agreeing financial arrangements in your divorce can seem daunting; there are so many misconceptions and myths as to what each party is entitled to that it gets confusing.
Retirement Matters
Perhaps the most common investment advice is to stay invested. But with markets being so volatile, the ease of sticking to that advice has been sorely tested in 2020. Even though we’ve seen global markets bounce sharply from their March lows, understandably there will still be those investing for retirement who remain worried and wonder what the best approach is for the remainder of the year and beyond.
COVID19 Effects on Retirement Planning
The coronavirus (COVID-19) is having a widespread impact across all aspects of financial life, including retirement plans. The current global stock market turbulence, as a consequence of COVID-19, will no doubt be concerning for individuals whose pension savings are invested partly or fully during these volatile market conditions...
New Pensions Freedoms
The pension freedoms, introduced on 6 April 2015, have given retirees a whole host of new options. There is no longer a compulsory requirement to purchase an annuity (a guaranteed income for life) when you retire. The introduction of pension freedoms brought about fundamental changes to the way we can access our pension savings...
A Long Life Needs a Smart Retirement Plan
Your 50s are a crunch time when saving for your retirement. If you’ve already set a retirement savings target but have been neglecting it, you probably can’t afford to delay your planning any longer – and it could well be time for a careful review...
Pension Scammers
Don’t let scammers enjoy your hard-earned pension proceeds. Anyone can be the victim of a pension scam, no matter how savvy they think they are. It’s important that everyone can spot the warning signs...
What’s Your Magic Number?
Retiring is a huge life event. And the very concept of retirement is changing with phased retirement becoming more common. The way we access our pension is now a lot more flexible, and it’s no secret that in the UK we’re living longer than ever before which means we need to make the right choices...
State Pension Deferral
A significant number of people working past the State Pension age could be paying unnecessary tax on their State Pension, according to new research [1]. This is because they failed to take up the option of deferring their State Pension until they stopped work. As a result, their entire State Pensionis being taxed, in some cases at 40%.
Retirement Income
‘Will I be able to afford the retirement lifestyle I want?’is a question that many people ask but struggle to figure out. There are many ways to assess your likely income in retirement and work out how much you need to put away now to enjoy the kind of lifestyle you want in later life...
Pension Freedoms
Although each generation will likely face different challenges and opportunities, achieving retirement readiness will require actions common to us all. We all know that our ageing population and increased life expectancy are putting a strain on government finances...
Funding your Golden Years
Pensions have the reputation of being confusing, but they needn’t be. Private pensions are usually used by people who don’t have access to a workplace pension scheme, but you can also have one if you are employed or not working. They work in much the same way as workplace pension schemes, but...