After a long career, you deserve the chance to enjoy a relaxing and peaceful retirement. A retirement where you get to pursue the passions you never had time for during your career. However, funding your dream retirement can be difficult. Especially if not well planned ahead of time. But there are ways of doing this aside from using your pension. Below, we will explore the various ways in which you can fund your retirement.
Plan Your Pension
For a start, you should try and calculate how much money you’d need a year to live comfortably during your retirement. This differs from person to person depending on their financial status, home ownership and family responsibilities. Either way, you should plan your pension around it. You might increase your pension contributions or consolidate your pensions with the goal of setting yourself up with the money you need for retirement.
Investments
Investments are one way you can try and grow your savings quickly for retirement. They’re volatile – and you could easily lose money – but with some careful investments, you’ll be able to better fund your retirement. If you’re unsure about what investments to make, you could seek wealth management advice from a professional. If you are young then you have the advantage of compound interest on your side, which could drastically change the course of your financial future.
Budget
Funding your retirement is a long-term process and setting up a budget can help you begin to save for it. By working out your incomings and outgoings each month, before setting aside some surplus for a savings account, you can begin to grow your retirement fund and gain peace of mind from having organised yourself so that you don’t lose track of your spending.
Equity release
Another option for your retirement fund is an equity release mortgage to increase your cash pot. This is where you sell a portion of your property’s value in return for instant capital while retaining the right to live in your home. This can be an excellent way of funding your retirement without jeopardising your future.
Work longer
For many people, funding retirement will mean working longer. The thought of having to continue your career for another few years can seem daunting, but it can provide you with the money you need to live a comfortable retirement. Deciding to work longer should be part of a wider financial plan though if it’s to be used correctly.
The importance of financial planning
Ultimately, funding your retirement is underpinned by careful financial planning, regardless of the strategy you select. Any of the strategies above should be part of a wider plan to save for the retirement you want, rather than making a sudden decision to receive a cash injection.
Saving for retirement should be something you work on over many years. And by starting your financial planning now – with some of the strategies above – you’ll be all set to work towards securing yourself a comfortable retirement.
