Whether you are planning your pension for retirement, or are already retired and drawing from it, there is potentially more you can do to improve your situation. You may be confident everything is in hand, but it’s at least worth evaluating your circumstances to see if you are on track.
Track and manage your pension assets effectively
If you have worked in several jobs over your lifetime, it’s not uncommon to lose track of a pension. The Pensions Policy Institute estimated in October 2022 that the value of missing UK pension pots stood at £26.6 billion. You can get help in locating a pension by visiting this government service to find contact details to search for a lost pension.
Once you find your pension pots, to help make managing your money easier, we set up the free MyNetwealth service so you can track all your investments (from multiple providers) in one place. Then you can plan ahead with much greater confidence: use our powerful online tools to create valuable projections and visualise how your money might grow over time.
You can change several permutations to envisage different potential outcomes – such as timeframes, inflation, the amount you save and the level of risk you want to take. The result is a clearer picture of how much you might have to spend in retirement. This allows you to take appropriate action or make different decisions if you feel you should do more (like invest more, or take more risk) to achieve your goals.
Take the 2-minute test to see if you are retirement ready
Even if retirement is some time off for you, you can find out if you are on track with our useful Retirement Readiness Scorecard. This lets you evaluate in clear percentages how far you have come in preparing for retirement.
Will you have enough money saved? Are you appropriately diversified? Do you need professional advice to better prepare you? You can get these answers – and recommended steps to improve your potential – with your tailored report in just two minutes.
Find out in 2 minutes how to improve
The 15 short questions (just choose answers appropriate to you) allow you to build up a unique picture of your circumstances – providing personalised insights to help you make informed decisions that may have a significant impact on your pension and your future.
Learn lessons from others – and avoid regret
One of the main reasons we encourage investors to see if their pensions are fit for purpose is to help them avoid common mistakes – and reservations – experienced by retirees. In a survey we conducted in 2022, we found that, consistently, retirees expressed many regrets over preparing for retirement. They underestimated for how long they would be retired (and how much money they would need, therefore) and often realised they were unprepared for later life only when it was too late.
The good news is that being forewarned can prompt you to do something about many of these situations – and by being more proactive with your pension and retirement arrangements you can amend your course if need be.
Stay in control
We suggest that pension holders ensure their investments are working as hard as they could be by controlling the factors they can control, and consider the impact of living longer and paying for those extra years.
Yet your situation may be complex, have nuances that demand expert attention, or you may need an objective appraisal to ensure you are on the right track. Getting financial advice that is relevant to your circumstances could be very useful and if you wish to have a no-obligation conversation in the first instance, please get in touch.
Please note, the value of your investments can go down as well as up.
Netwealth offers advice restricted to our services and does not provide independent advice across the market. We do not offer advice in relation to tax compliance, personal recommendations with regards to insurance and protection, or advise upon the transfer of defined benefit pensions. When investing, your capital is at risk.
