James, planning for retirement
Retirement planning client
Background
When we met James, his big question was “when can I retire?”
James was 60, his wife had retired from the NHS and he was getting ready to slow down and enjoy life. Seeing his wife enjoy time with their grandchildren, while he still had the early rises and long days, was becoming very draining. Many of his friends had started to retire and it was a club he was longing to join.
He was conscious his state pension would not start for several years but wanted to know if retirement was an option for him.
Our approach
In our first meeting we covered a lot, starting from a blank sheet of paper and gathering all details of the various pensions and assets James had accumulated over his lifetime. Following our meeting, fees were agreed to review what James had and prepare a cashflow forecast to show how retirement was looking.
James did have some homework of his own to do. He had a detailed look at his expenditure to understand how much income he needed to retire but also how much income he would like to have in retirement to do all the nice things such as holidays.
We identified that James and his wife needed a minimum of £2,000 per month to allow them to live comfortably. In addition, an extra £1,000 per month would mean they could have the holidays they would like. This gave us an annual target of £36,000 net that we were looking to ensure they had for retirement.
We collated detailed information on James’s pension and investment, identifying some key areas where advice was needed. Pension legislation has changed and evolved over the years and there were some unique guarantees within some old pensions which we had to analyse.
The outcome
The outcome for James became a perfect balance. He was able to reduce his working week at the end of that year and still meet his income target. The plan was to phase his retirement over a two-year period.
| Target Income | ||
|---|---|---|
| 62 | £3,000pm | £1,000 wife’s pension £1,000 from cash balances £1,000 from pension (3.5% of expected fund value) |
| 66 | £3,000pm | £1,000 wife’s pension £1,454 Combined state pensions £546 from pension (2% of expected fund value) |
We were able to help James with his move into retirement and ensure financially this worked for him and that we did not over stretch the pension in any way.
James remains a client and we are enjoying seeing his life move into the retirement phase. He did not think cutting back at work was possible and worried he would have to keep on working at the same pace for a few more years. He now knows that’s not the case.
James now knows that retirement is no longer just a dream, but an achievable reality
