Retirement planning in the time of COVID-19
The COVID-19 outbreak has heralded the beginning of a concerning time for everyone. As well as anxiety about our own health and the wellbeing of our loved ones, many of us are understandably worried about the financial future. Recent stock market volatility is worrying for all investors, but especially for…
What’s happening to the tapered annual allowance?
There has been much talk in the financial press recently of proposed changes to the tapered annual allowance. The taper was introduced in 2016 and gradually reduces the annual allowance for high earners. For every £2 of adjusted income above £150,000 a year, £1 of annual allowance is lost. It…
5 steps to bring your dream of early retirement closer
Do you find yourself counting down to Friday each week, even when it’s only Monday morning? Do you wish you could ditch the daily commute and long hours at the office? Have you got a secret desire to drive across America or buy a second home in the south of…
Can I afford to retire?
Retirement has repeatedly been labeled as “the longest holiday of your life.” But appealing as that sounds, do you have enough money to pay for the holiday? Research by one leading insurance company shows that 69% of people aged 50 plus are worried about their income in retirement. Many people…
Making sure you’re on track to retain your lifestyle in retirement
Do you feel like you just go to work day in, day out, with the weeks quickly turning to months and the months to years? If that’s the case, you may be going through life with a vague notion that your pension contributions will be sufficient to give you a…
Why business owners and Directors fail to plan their retirement
Company directors and owners of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) make plans and do forecasts all the time. Cash flow forecasts, SWOT analyses (a technique used to determine and define strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), plans for renewals and refurbishment; there’s hardly a day when they’re not eyeball to eyeball…
The retirement mistruth
If you pay much attention to advertisers and the media, you might think that retirement is all about riding jet skis, sipping sherry on the French Riviera or cuddling grandchildren. No doubt you’ve seen one, if not all, of the images on many of the retirement articles out there. While…
Flexible retirement income and drawdown tax. What does it all mean?
Once you reach 55, a whole host of opportunities will open themselves up to you. One such opportunity is the fact that you can at last access that hard-saved pension fund. Up to 25% of your savings can be taken tax-free, with the remaining 75% being subject to income tax.
What does it take to retire early?
The idea of retiring in your 50s or even your 40s sounds like a pipe-dream to most, what with increases in living costs and low or non-existent wage growth slowly eating away at your income. This hasn’t stopped the rise of the FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) movement, though, a…
Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution pensions—what are the differences and trends?
As Defined Contribution (DC) pensions overtake Defined Benefit (DB) pensions (in terms of money paid into schemes) for the first time ever, increasingly people are taking an interest in how the two differ and the relationship between them. The Office of National Statistics has reported that in 2018, employee contributions…