Retirement planning questions

Retirement planning is complex; uninformed decisions can lead to regrettable mistakes. This page highlights the main questions you may have and, where possible, answers them.

Preparing for retirement questions

This article looks at five of the most important questions to ask yourself as you consider retirement.

If your children have flown the nest you and you are thinking about the next phase of your life, you may be thinking “now what?”

This article shares research on what people planning for retirement can learn from retirees about transitioning into life beyond work.

Pension income questions

One of the main topics we discuss with our clients is pension income options. Since the Pension Freedom rules were introduced, pension funds have become more flexible and, as a result, more attractive. This video outlines the main pension income options.

Another outcome of the Pension Freedom rules is a rise in popularity of transferring Final Salary pensions to private pensions such as SIPPs. This video considers the question: “Should I transfer my Final Salary pension?”

Investing questions

A common questions clients ask, particularly when stock markets are high, is when should they invest and when should they get out of the stock markets to avoid a crash. These articles consider market timing questions:

Should I wait to invest?

A cautionary tale of two investment strategies (should I stay invested or sell before a crash?)

What do advisers mean when they talk about investment risk?

You may be thinking about whether you should pay off your mortgage.

We often have discussions with people about whether they should invest in property instead of the stock markets. This article explains why property isn’t the panacea many see it as being. You might also be interested in this article about the fallacy of control in relation to property investment.

If you are ready to invest your pension, ISA portfolio or have some capital to work harder it can be hard to know where to start. This video provides the basics to investing wisely. This article explains how investing is a simple concept but made complicated by experts.

There are two distinct approaches to investing in stock markets: active investing (paying a fund manager to choose which shares (stocks) to buy, hold or sell, in the belief that they will generate higher returns by picking winners and avoiding losers) and passive investing (index tracking) which buys a whole index, such as the FTSE100, at a lower cost. Our investment philosophy sets out our view, which is established on evidence-based investing principles.

Non-financial retirement questions

Other retirement planning questions are more existential.

For some, the thought of retirement fills them with dread. They can’t imagine what they will do or how they can replace the financial and non-financial benefits work provided. This article explains how you can enjoy a contended life. This video discusses the secret to a successful retirement and this one provides a six-step process to enjoy a successful retirement.

For those wondering how they will fill their retirement days, this article provides 101 things to do in retirement to avoid boredom and this one provides specific ideas to do in Exeter (or any town or city) in retirement.