Give your retirement plans a workout

With the end of the tax year fast approaching, now is the ideal time to review how your savings and investments are progressing. This allows you to make any adjustments for the forthcoming year to meet your ongoing current needs as well as your future requirements. To avoid any future disappointment, failure to plan now will almost certainly lead to disappointment at a later stage in life.

With this in mind, Carpenter Box Wealth Management recently produced a podcast called ‘The Retirement Gym’, which provides useful tips on all aspects of retirement. The series will run on a monthly basis throughout 2020.

In the first episode of the podcast, Partner and Head of Carpenter Box Financial Advisers, Roy Thompson chats with his colleague Gill Lynes, a financial adviser with a specialism in later life planning, to discuss the importance of budgeting when approaching retirement and the factors to take into consideration when it comes to making plans now and for the future.  

As Roy says:

“No-one has any idea as to how long they will be retired for – it could be 30 years or more. So how much does an individual need to retire comfortably, to still be able to pay for their household expenses, weekly shop, car expenses and holidays, etc? Care fees may also be needed, so it’s best not to leave things to chance and to consider your future plans now with a professional adviser to avoid any disappointment at a later stage in life.”  

One of the tools that Roy recommends to help you plan is Carpenter Box’s Budget Planner, which will give individuals a clearer idea of their expenditure now as well as of their likely future requirements. Decisions can then be made as to what savings/investments are needed now, for tomorrow, such as pension contributions.

You can listen to the full podcast here.

The value of an investment and the income from it could go down as well as up. The return at the end of the investment period is not guaranteed and you may get back less than you originally invested.