Older people’s charity Anchor had researchers question 2,000 people about their perception of a happy retirement – the outcomes can be summarised:

Most of us long to retire by age 63, with a three bedroom home just 11 miles away from the rest of the family.

Most people wanted to pay the mortgage off leaving enough spare cash for two holidays a year.

41% would like their grandchildren to visit weekly and 29% wanted to reside by the sea.

To enjoy this lifestyle for 25 years, people must save £1,126 a month during their working life amounting to £13,512 a year, the research found. This is in addition to the full basic State Pension, currently just £113.10 a week.

HOWEVER

44% of the nation’s workforce are not currently paying into a private pension.

20% of those aged 45 to 60 admitted that they will rely on a State Pension as their main retirement income, meaning they may have difficulty funding their lifestyle.

AXA Wealth polled just over 2,500 people in research conducted by YouGov looking at attitudes toward and preparations for retirement. They found:

63% of people had fears about a lack of cash in retirement.

32% of women were really worried about having money to fund essentials, compared to 26% of men.

In comparison about 13% of men had no financial concerns at all compared to just 8% of women.

Top concerns of those polled were:

38% nervous they will not save enough to realise retirement dreams.

29% ‘really worried’ about not having enough money to cover essentials such as food and heating.

25% worried about becoming financially reliant on others

So what does all this research mean?

I think two key points come out. First of all, having a good standard of living in retirement costs a reasonable amount of money and, secondly, you need to start planning as soon as possible.

The last generation of babyboomers may have to work longer than they had hoped. With all the pension noise around, the younger generations may start funding pensions earlier – we just need them to start putting enough away for retirement.

If you have specific concerns about your retirement plans or it is some time since you had your financial affairs professionally assessed, contact us today.

 

Steve Speed 15/06/14