How The Pandemic Rebooted Retirement Planning

Despite all the negative sides to the pandemic, it has at least prompted people for whom retirement is within sight to think about the money they’ll need.

I think it’s brought forward in the minds of those clients over 50 I’ve spoken to over the last year, how they want to live their lives from now on.

Even those previously addicted to the long hours of the office routine have had time to reflect on what they may have been missing out on.

For many, lockdown gave a taster of what retirement may be like.

Others though, me included, have realised there needs to be a separation between home and work which is nigh on impossible when you’re holed up at home working from the back room or kitchen table.

This was really brought home during the two main periods of lockdown when home-schooling was the order of the day. Don’t get me started on that – I never signed up to be a teacher of anything, let alone Key Stage 2 Maths and English!

Whether you prefer the office life or homeworking or you now have retirement closer in your sight, we all have one thing in common. I think we’ve all had a jolt to look again at our finances to see what sort of life we’d want in retirement.

We may not have been able to go far for most of last year, but surely that makes us want to go places and do things even more as life returns to more normality? That all costs money.

For most now retirement means a much more active and fulfilling set of activities than our parents’ generation were content with in. Nothing is off limits – touring the corners of the Earth and mastering all sorts of pastimes without the distraction of work. Maybe even climbing Kilimanjaro in your 80s (Anne Lorimor, a great grandmother of 89 achieved this in 2019, and she wasn’t a professional climber).

Why financial advice is even more important in-retirement

Retirement Planning is no longer just for that period building up your pensions pre-retirement. It is so important to keep your investments under constant review once you are drawing from them.

Old style retirement planning usually culminated in the purchase of an annuity upon retirement which gave a fixed level of income from the pension pot. The advisor’s job was largely done.

Not so now the majority of retirees draw down from a personal pension with their funds needing to be managed with the volatility of stock markets.

This means the need for active fund management is stronger than ever to replace at least some of the capital which is drawn down as pension income.

A diversified portfolio of funds for your pension, with a proportion in equity shares is a sensible way of giving the opportunity for growth while having a proportion in safer, though lower growth potential investments such as fixed interest and government bonds.

How has the pandemic made you reassess your priorities? Are your investments positioned so you could retire earlier if you wanted to or if redundancy calls?

Have you figured out yet the number you’d need to live on after the work is done?

A free consultation with a pension specialist can clear your mind.

Call us on 0121-355-4455 or email us on appointments@oaklandswealth.com