How’s your retirement plan coming along? In order to secure financial stability and peace of mind when you stop working, whether you’re nearing retirement, or you still have many years of your working life ahead, careful planning is crucial.
Be Proactive
Recent data* has shown that on average people actively start planning for retirement around the age of 36. With well over a decade of work experience accrued by this age, it seems the ‘age of responsibility’ arrives for many people in their mid-30s, with increasing mindfulness of the importance of financial planning, including actively thinking about their retirement. Interestingly, at this age 63% of respondents felt confident in their financial decision-making abilities.
Timing Is Everything
While it’s never too late to develop a well-thought-out retirement strategy, being an early adopter is preferable, giving yourself longer to work towards your retirement objectives and amass a sizeable pot to draw upon.
Investment Approach
Younger people can afford to adopt a more aggressive investment approach with their pension investment allocation, embracing riskier assets for potentially higher returns over time. The longer investment horizon allows time for recovery from any downturns. Whereas for those in or on the cusp of retirement, a prudent approach involves creating an investment profile which reduces exposure to riskier assets, although not eliminating risk entirely.
For everyone, investments should be aligned to your risk tolerance and personal financial goals, which may alter over time as your life progresses and your circumstances change.
Regular Rebalancing
Normal market fluctuations and varying asset performances can cause your portfolio to deviate from its original allocation over time. Without intervention, this drift could lead to unintended asset concentration and increased risk exposure, making regular portfolio rebalancing a vital component of any retirement strategy.
*Standard Life, 2023
The value of pensions and investments and the income they produce can fall as well as rise. You may get back less than you invested.
Approver Quilter Financial Services Limited & Quilter Mortgage Planning Limited. 26/04/2024
