When it comes to retirement, there are many numbers to consider. What is your magic number?
This does not constitute advice and advice should be sought in all instances before acting on it.
The magic numbers of retirement
There’s:
- 66 – the age you’ll need to reach before you can retire with a state pension.
- £7,895 or £7,480 – the amount a man and a woman, respectively, can expect to collect from their state pension annually.
- £11,000 – the gap a couple needs to fill each year with private and workplace pensions in order to live comfortably in retirement.
- What about 8,000? That’s the number of days in 20 years of retirement – the average length individuals can look forward to.
It can be shocking to think about it in those terms, but perhaps not so shocking to discover many people don’t expect their retirement to actually be that long. But with the retirement age in the UK averaging 65 years old, and an average life expectancy of 80 years old for men and 83 for women, two decades of retirement is actually quite feasible.
If you compare this with other times of your life – it’s about as long as the wait for the coveted 21st birthday or the timespan from then to your midlife and again about the same gap from then to retirement.
“When looking at your life this way, hopefully, you understand that retirement isn’t just a nice bookend to your life, but in reality a whole entire period of time where you get to go out and live!”
Darren Scott-Guinness
Get retirement ready
We’ve previously covered how much you need to focus on saving to be ready for retirement.
Of course, you need to consider the different areas of essential living expenses (groceries, bills, insurance, travel, transportation, etc.).
Often overlooked in many people’s retirement planning process is just how they plan on spending all their newfound free time and having the cash required to do so. It may be that you and your partner will spend weeks at a time trotting the globe, but you’ll also have loads of opportunity for recreation and leisure activities, a plethora of time to explore new hobbies, and even a chance to learn a new skill.
And then there is the question of where you might end up living in the later stages of your life. Maybe you want to move closer to your family or get a second property in your favourite holiday spot.
Perhaps you won’t be content living a life of leisure and want to return to work part-time. And then there’s the unfortunate possibility that you’ll have health issues to contend with or any number of unexpected events that may pop up and added costs associated with that.
All these decisions and more will have a financial impact when you’re planning for retirement.
We’ve been helping doctors and dentists like you prepare for retirement for years.
Taking all that into consideration when drafting a retirement plan can seem daunting, but that’s what we’re here to help with.
We can use our expertise to advise on what you will need financially in order to fulfil your desired lifestyle and recommend ways to help reach your savings goals.
Want to prepare your retirement plan?
Investments | Financial Planning | Retirement | Save Tax | Protection |
Dental & Medical Financial Services have been helping doctors and dentists to build and protect their wealth, whilst saving tax for over 25 years.