Budgeting for retirement can be more difficult than budgeting whilst you’re still working. Some costs may increase, such as heating your home, and you’ll have to work out exactly how much income you will be receiving from your pension.

The average British wage is about £26,000 – to replicate that in retirement you’d need a pension pot of more than £300,000. However, according to ‘Which?’ it’s unlikely that you’ll need as much money in retirement as you did while you were working, although the amount clearly depends upon your own hopes and expectations of how you will enjoy your retirement!

When sitting down to plan your retirement budget, it’s a good idea to first get some idea of your current spending. A report by ‘Which’ suggests keeping three months’ worth of bank and credit card statements, payslips going back three months and three months of shopping receipts – remembering to factor in one-off spends like birthdays, Christmas, holidays and car repairs. Then work out where you think you’ll spend more once you’ve retired – because your situation is changing so will your spending habits. You’ll need to compare this with how much income you’ll be getting in retirement (from pensions, benefits or savings), to find out if there are any shortfalls.

The above simple plan is a long way off proper financial planning, but it should provide a handy starting point as an indication of the income you might need in your retirement. Once you know that, we can set about working out exactly what you do need to make sure you can do everything you want in your later life.

Planning for Retirement needs careful attention to Lifestyle Planning, to make sure you will have enough income to do the things you want to in your retirement.

If you would like to discuss your concerns for retirement call us on 01454 416653.

Sources: www.which.co.uk (Published advice on the website: January 2015)

A recent survey from Aegon found that whilst people continued to have positive aspirations for retirement, there was nevertheless a widespread lack of confidence that retirement would actually deliver.

With careful planning though, you can address all of your potential concerns and ensure you are ready for a happy and productive retirement. Below, we look at some of the the most common retirement worries and how they can be mitigated by having one eye on the detail.

1 – Will I have enough funds to last throughout my retirement?

The best financial advice and careful planning is key, especially in light of the far-reaching Pensions Reforms that come into force from 6th April 2015. Having greater control over your pension means yet more serious decisions to make. New retirees are faced with a complex range of choices as it is, often having several pension pots to juggle and likely scenarios to plan for. Not all pension providers are intending to adopt the new flexibilities and transferring to new plans can take weeks, so carefully working out what you have and what you want to do with it is essential.

2 – What if my health fails?

Your health is paramount to enjoying a good quality of life. Private health insurance schemes can often give peace of mind, but choosing the wrong one can be costly. A recent study found that one in four of us will require care in later years and the cost can be astronomical (1 in 10 of us will incur costs over £100k). The Government’s new care capping rules for 2016 will also have an impact. Preparing for and thoroughly planning for the worst whilst enjoying the best of your retirement is both prudent and very possible.

3 – Will I get bored and lonely?

Retirement should be the time we get to do those things we have always dreamed of, but if you haven’t settled on a bucket list and are worrying about stagnating in your leisure days, why not retire in a staged manner, cutting down hours to part-time as you gradually accustom yourself to the change? Many retirees favour this approach as it keeps them mentally and physically active, they continue to feel useful and the income is always handy for those future plans!

4 – I might be fleeced by a scam artist!

The most radical change to the pensions industry in a generation has unfortunately spawned a number of opportunists out to fleece savers. An increased number of unregulated investment firms are actively pursuing over 55’s and their newly free pension savings. High-earning professionals, you may be surprised to learn, are the most likely to fall victim.

5 – The Unexpected

Everyone fears the unknown and no matter how sensible we are and how much preparation we do, we cannot plan for every eventuality. The recent financial crisis, for example, dented the confidence of many. The only sensible approach is to make sure that your investment portfolio has a balance of risk appropriate to you. Having your finances in order and having someone to turn to for financial advice at difficult times is priceless.

If you would like to discuss your concerns for retirement call us on 01454 416653.

The great thing about writing this bulletin is that you make a note of something which looks hugely significant around the middle of the month and then something else comes along which makes it pale into insignificance. In this case the ‘hugely significant’ event was the fall in UK inflation – what came along was the Greek election result and victory for Syriza, the far-left coalition under Alexis Tsipras.

In truth the result of the Greek election was never in doubt from the moment it was called, with Syriza promising to ‘restore the dignity’ of the Greek people and reverse the last five years of austerity. They won 36.3% of the popular vote and 149 seats in the Greek parliament – two short of an outright majority. However it took less than an hour for them to agree a coalition with the far-right ‘Independent Greeks’ party, ANEL, who won 13 seats with 4.75% of the vote. Like Syriza, ANEL campaigned on ending the austerity imposed on Greece by the ‘Troika’ (the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund).

Syriza’s victory – and their immediate demand for a reduction and/or re-negotiation of Greek debts – was not met with universal joy throughout Europe, with German newspaper Bild suggesting that any debt write off was out of the question and ‘an agreement was an agreement.’ The new Greek finance minister Yannis Varoufakis is equally adamant that Greece cannot be expected to repay all its debt, citing the partial write-off of West German reparations after the Second World War as a precedent.

The only certainty at the moment is that the negotiations will be long, hard and complex. Angela Merkel has ruled out cancelling any of Greece’s debt: meanwhile Syriza is refusing to soften its demands and has already stated that the minimum wage will be raised from €500 per month to €751. Symbolically, Varoufakis announced that the 600 cleaners sacked at the finance ministry will regain their jobs. You can’t imagine that Frau Merkel and her economically prudent colleagues will be able to understand why one ministry needs 600 cleaners.

In the rest of the world it was a great month for Apple – as we report in the section on the US – but the International Monetary Fund cut its forecast for global economic growth. Wary of full-blown deflation in Europe, the Central Bank announced a massive programme of quantitative easing. The pace of growth in the UK slowed down, but to the great joy of the British public the General Election campaign moved into full swing the minute the Christmas decorations came down – still with three months to go to the vote itself.

As for world stock markets, January was a decidedly mixed month. Some markets – Russia and Germany – made significant gains, whilst others – Brazil and the US – marched firmly in the opposite direction.

In the UK specifically…

Figures released in the middle of the month showed that UK inflation has fallen to 0.5%. This means that Bank of England Governor Mark Carney will have to write a letter to the Chancellor explaining why it has fallen so low: the letter and the inflation report will be published on February 11th. As the Chancellor has said on several occasions the UK is not immune to the slowdown – and possible deflation – affecting the rest of Europe. There will be nothing in the Governor’s letter that he doesn’t already know.

There was more bad news for the Chancellor as it was confirmed that UK growth for last year was 2.6% – significantly below the 3% figure he had so proudly trumpeted in the Autumn Statement. Growth for the last quarter was down to 0.5% (as opposed to expectations of 0.6%), giving rise to fears that the UK recovery was running out of steam.

There was, however, good news in the motor industry, with UK car production at a 7 year high, and Jaguar Land Rover announcing plans to hire 1,300 new staff at its Solihull plant in order to build the new ‘Jaguar crossover sports utility vehicle.’

Waitrose announced plans to open 26 new stores and hire 2,000 extra staff, but this was countered by more depressing news from Tesco, who confirmed the impending closure of 43 stores.

Fortunately the FTSE 100 index of leading shares was much more Waitrose than Tesco in January and started the year with a healthy rise of 3%: having opened the year at 6,566 it finished January at 6,749.