If you want to achieve the best financial outcome when you retire, then retirement planning should be at the core of your approach.
As with any strategy, there are various things you can do to ensure you execute your planning as effectively and efficiently as possible.
In this article, you’ll learn three top tips for retirement planning – recommended by experts – so you can get off on the right foot for building your wealth for retirement.
1. Plan your retirement with a financial adviser
One of the most crucial tips for your retirement planning is to consider seeking the expert advice of a modern wealth manager. This can significantly increase your chances of success when striving for your retirement goals.
The financial advice you receive will be carefully tailored to your circumstances, so you have unique guidance that’s best suited for helping you grow your wealth.
Your adviser will discuss everything there is to know surrounding your approach to retirement with you, including any concerns and challenges you might be facing. This will not only benefit your retirement planning, but also help ensure you are more financially confident.
When it comes to forming your plan, your adviser will ensure all of your financial goals are taken into account when outlining the next steps towards a successful retirement.
They’ll help you refine your goals so they’re both beneficial to your wealth, but also achievable, based on your current circumstances.
2. Optimise your pension contributions
Another important tip for retirement planning is to optimise your pension contributions. How efficiently you contribute towards your pension savings is fundamental towards building your wealth for retirement.
Once again, an expert adviser could be very useful for this process. When contributing to your pension, your adviser will make you aware of all the potential tax charges and allowances which could affect how you grow your savings.
For example, as of the current tax year (2022/2023), there are two key allowances you should be managing:
- The annual pension allowance – The annual allowance determines how much you can contribute to your pension each year while still being sheltered from tax. Currently, the annual allowance is £40,000.
- The lifetime pension allowance – The lifetime allowance is the maximum amount you can contribute to your pension while remaining tax free throughout your lifetime, i.e., the total amount that can be in your pension at any given time. The lifetime allowance is currently £1,073,100.
Your adviser will help you structure your contributions so that you make the most of your allowances, and shelter as much of your money from tax as possible when saving for retirement. They can also ensure your contributions are aligned with your current financial circumstances, as well as your future goals.
3. Consider ongoing financial advice
When planning for retirement, it’s not only pivotal that you seek financial advice, but you should also consider ongoing professional advice as you approach retirement.
Once you have your retirement plan in place and you begin to execute it, your financial circumstances may evolve over time – therefore, your approach may need to as well.
A variety of things could impact how you plan for retirement, or affect things like your future goals or the efficiency of your pension contributions, for example.
This can be anything from a change in your career or family structure, to fluctuations in interest rates or investment markets, for instance.
With ongoing advice, your wealth manager can help you continuously review and re-evaluate your retirement plan, to maintain an optimal trajectory towards your future goals.
The better you navigate the changes in your circumstances, the higher the chances of reaching a successful outcome for your retirement.
—
With these top three tips, you could meaningfully improve your retirement plan, and get on the right track towards building your wealth for your dream retirement lifestyle.
—
Please note, the value of your investments can go down as well as up.
