We all look forward to the day when the nine-to-five grind ends and we can enjoy one long Saga holiday after another. But how many of us will be able to fund the lifestyle we long for by the time our working days are done?
It had never occurred to me before, but something dawned on me when reading about Bernard Madoff’s colossal fraud: the way UK pensions and illegal ‘Ponzi’ investment schemes work is eerily similar. Are you happy about that? And, since all such investment schemes eventually collapse, will we ‘late entrants’ be ripped off?
With Britain’s recession, tax increases, government budget cuts and an anticipated rise in interest rates, times are getting financially harder for a lot of us. If you’re struggling to pay your mortgage then don’t suffer in silence or risk losing your home – there is help available. One option you may want to think about [...]
There aren’t many of us who haven’t had a bad day at work and thought “roll on retirement”. For a long time we’ve been able to count the years until that day comes.
But all that may be about to change if the government follows through with its plan to raise the retirement age for men to 66 from 2016.
If you’re aged 59 or under, is this pure bad news – or is there a positive side? I’ve been weighing up the pros and cons.
I can’t confess to being the best at saving – I never have been.
I’ve always had a laissez-faire attitude about my savings and it seems I’m not alone.
New research from Nationwide shows that in Q2 2010 some 21% of consumers believed they would save less in six months’ time than they currently do. Let me explain why this really doesn’t bode well for the future…
How much will you have to live on in retirement? If you have a personal pension, the answer will depend on the amount you have in your pension fund and annuity rates at the time you come to convert your fund into an income.
That’s because although you can take the first 25% of your pension fund as cash, by the time you turn 75 you must usually buy an annuity with the balance. It’s always advisable to shop around for an annuity – since the offer you get from your pension company may not be the best. Indeed, research has shown that there can be a difference of as much as 40% between annuity offers.
However much you’ve saved in your pension fund, the final amount you can expect to receive will depend on which annuity provider you choose…
