It used to be that 65 was the age for retirement after working a lifetime for one company. For most of us that is no longer the case.
Retirement is no longer an event celebrated on one's 65th birthday
- it is a period of life when one is perhaps no longer earning a regular income from the main employment one undertook until then.
January 1 2011 marked the day that many people consider the first so-called 'baby boomer' turned 65.
As medical science helps us live longer, demographics tells us that life expectancy continues to increase.
With this, the harsh reality of working for longer has set in for many.
Whilst some simply can't afford to retire at 65, others simply don't want to retire.
One of my aims for my clients is to help them have the choice of when to retire through gaining financial independence.
Without this, the choice may be made for us.
Last October, the French parliament raised the retirement age from 60 to 62 - despite rioting in the streets by French citizens in protest.
At about the same time the reforms in Spain mean their retirement age will soon move from 65 to 67 and that is what has happened here in the UK with even older ages being discussed.
Though turning 65 doesn't have to mean mandatory retirement I still suggest that in advance of 'retirement'- whenever that is for you and whatever it may mean, it is worth reviewing your financial situation, principally to ensure you don't outlive your means.
You may like to look at my website on the 'How much is enough?' page
http://www.iangreen.com/timeline.php
Alternatively, as a start, you may wish to consider the LIFESTYLE you wish to maintain during retirement and the LIFE INCOME you'll need.
You may also want to think about financial LIFEBOATS to have at the ready, should the unforseen occur, such as long term care and private medical arrangements
With these numbers in mind you can start to work out if and when you can retire, or what retirement will mean to you.
If you don’t want to do the maths, or the number crunching or any of the ‘financial stuff’ yourself, we'll help you to do that.
Perhaps just as importantly as the figures, we’ll also help you to explore the personal issues that matter to you, such as what you want to do in retirement and who you want to do it with.
You may not know when you want to 'retire' yet.
As a small, bespoke, personal, family business we prefer to take the time to get to know you as retirement approaches.
We promise you won't have to hang on the telephone, or choose push button options.
You'll always be able to speak to a person.
And they will know who you are and what you are doing. You won't have to explain it all, again, to someone else! (sound familiar when calling your bank or utility providers?)
We are not the cheapest, but you can be assured you'll find us of value.
We offer an initial meeting, at our expense, so you can ‘try us out’ to see if we do what we say we will do, and determine if you think we can provide a valuable service for you and most importantly of all to see if you wish to work with us on this important matter.
After all, retirement may well be the longest financial time period in your life after working – a 30 year retirement is longer than childhood, time in education and most mortgages are only 25 years.
Whether with our assistance or not, we wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous retirement, whenever that is and whatever it means to you.
important footnote: This blog post was inspired by an article entitled 'Age is just a number' by Kelly Biasco in the MDRT (www.MDRT.org) magazine 'Round The Table' (www.roundthetable.org) - I urge any financial planners to join MDRT if they meet the qualification criteria as it is an excellent global organisation with tremendous educational resources. MDRT - The Premier Association of Financial Professionals
Showing posts with label how much is enough. Show all posts
Showing posts with label how much is enough. Show all posts
Monday, 7 February 2011
Monday, 18 October 2010
Dear Diary, Monday
I was so busy last week I didn’t have time to blog.
So this week I thought I’d write up a diary of last week to give a little insight as to what I get up to, where I do it and who I do it with!
Monday 11th October
Having made my son what I thought was a breakfast fit for a hard day at school, a delicious bowl of porridge with chopped bananas, I was greeted with the response that ‘he’d rather have coco pops’. Now I know how Jamie Oliver feels!
A busy retirement
The working week then began with a meeting in the Putney office with a client who recently retired from a career in banking. As with many retired clients he seems to be busier now than when he was working!
The meeting was around the ongoing management of an investment portfolio and the portfolio construction for the pension retirement income. As is usual in situations such as this we also strayed into estate planning matters. I now have a number of questions to answer and finer details to clarify before we proceed further.
Family Matters
Then a dash out of the office to the train station (anyone who is also on www.foursquare.com could track me at this point!) and to ‘Sunny Brighton’.
The pleasure of meeting a prospective new client was tinged with sadness at the circumstances. Too often tragedy strikes when we least expect it and this gentleman was dealing with a recent bereavement of a too young wife and mother to a too young family.
Despite the circumstances the time together was positive and I feel well able to help (in purely financial matters only) the family move on from what has happened and position themselves for their future.
Life is a jigsaw
Then straight back to Putney for a meeting in the office with a client that I have only fairly recently started working with. It has taken the best part of six months to unravel their previous financial position thanks to the existing providers giving almost no information on small matters like performance or costs! We have started to work out a plan to determine if they have enough money to last a lifetime. A huge part of my work is helping people to discover “How much is enough?”. With this client the pieces of the jigsaw are almost all in place but to continue the analogy there seems to be a corner piece missing. I have left them with a few questions and if the answers are positive then we’ll complete the jigsaw and admire the view – but if the answers are not as hoped we may well be scrabbling around on the floor or simply hoping to find the missing piece down the back of the sofa…
Injury Time
Monday finishes with a particularly pleasing event for me. My first game of squash for over six months, thanks to a knee injury in the spring and then tearing an ankle ligament in the summer after falling – and in case you wonder the fall was non-sports related - and also non alcohol related before you ask!
To hammer home the time that had passed my regular squash partner had no idea I had set up Green Financial as a stand alone entity and last time we played my wife and I had just had the 12 week scan for the new baby, now due any week!
The score on the night: Well, that’s not important. It’s the taking part that counts…
So this week I thought I’d write up a diary of last week to give a little insight as to what I get up to, where I do it and who I do it with!
Monday 11th October
Having made my son what I thought was a breakfast fit for a hard day at school, a delicious bowl of porridge with chopped bananas, I was greeted with the response that ‘he’d rather have coco pops’. Now I know how Jamie Oliver feels!
A busy retirement
The working week then began with a meeting in the Putney office with a client who recently retired from a career in banking. As with many retired clients he seems to be busier now than when he was working!
The meeting was around the ongoing management of an investment portfolio and the portfolio construction for the pension retirement income. As is usual in situations such as this we also strayed into estate planning matters. I now have a number of questions to answer and finer details to clarify before we proceed further.
Family Matters
Then a dash out of the office to the train station (anyone who is also on www.foursquare.com could track me at this point!) and to ‘Sunny Brighton’.
The pleasure of meeting a prospective new client was tinged with sadness at the circumstances. Too often tragedy strikes when we least expect it and this gentleman was dealing with a recent bereavement of a too young wife and mother to a too young family.
Despite the circumstances the time together was positive and I feel well able to help (in purely financial matters only) the family move on from what has happened and position themselves for their future.
Life is a jigsaw
Then straight back to Putney for a meeting in the office with a client that I have only fairly recently started working with. It has taken the best part of six months to unravel their previous financial position thanks to the existing providers giving almost no information on small matters like performance or costs! We have started to work out a plan to determine if they have enough money to last a lifetime. A huge part of my work is helping people to discover “How much is enough?”. With this client the pieces of the jigsaw are almost all in place but to continue the analogy there seems to be a corner piece missing. I have left them with a few questions and if the answers are positive then we’ll complete the jigsaw and admire the view – but if the answers are not as hoped we may well be scrabbling around on the floor or simply hoping to find the missing piece down the back of the sofa…
Injury Time
Monday finishes with a particularly pleasing event for me. My first game of squash for over six months, thanks to a knee injury in the spring and then tearing an ankle ligament in the summer after falling – and in case you wonder the fall was non-sports related - and also non alcohol related before you ask!
To hammer home the time that had passed my regular squash partner had no idea I had set up Green Financial as a stand alone entity and last time we played my wife and I had just had the 12 week scan for the new baby, now due any week!
The score on the night: Well, that’s not important. It’s the taking part that counts…
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