Building capital for retirement can be done using a variety of investments including personal pensions, employer defined benefit schemes, workplace pension schemes, as well as ISAs and Unit Trusts.
It is never too soon to start planning for retirement. It is important to have a retirement age in mind as well as a level of income needed in retirement, as this will help you to see how close you are to meeting your objectives.
When you are approaching retirement, you will need to decide how best to draw your pension to support your lifestyle during your retirement. You will likely need to consider many different ways of taking an income, as each method of income generation can be quite different – and each carries its own risks.
As an example: an annuity will provide a guaranteed income for life with no investment risk. However, if a person dies in the early years of retirement, an annuity can be poor value for money. By comparision, a pension income drawdown can provide much better death benefits if the holder dies in the early years, however investment risk becomes a factor, along with the potential for the retiree to run out of money during retirement.
Pension income drawdown can sometimes utilise a guaranteed income fund to ensure the holder never runs out of money – but these often are associated with much higher charges – which inevitably reduces potential investment returns.
As you can see, there are a great many choices to make about your retirement, and it is our job at BlackBear to help you to understand all of the options available and forecast how long your money will last.
Accessing pension benefits early may impact on levels of retirements income and is not suitable for everyone. You should seek advice to understand your options at retirement.