The fifth in my retirement series of eight blogs is arguably one of the most important – at retirement.

You have been through the stages of “Will it ever happen?”, “Still some way off but doing nothing is not an option” and “Nearly There” as per my previous 3 posts and now you are now in the process of retiring. You are less likely than in the past to stop working at a set date. You may go part-time and take some income from your pension; stop working completely and draw your income from your pension or you might leave your pension intact and continue to work longer through choice or need. Your choices may be influenced by your health and how you want to spend your time.

The choices you make now will impact your future income so in many cases it is worth taking advice from a suitably qualified adviser.

You may need help to think through:

•  whether to take some tax-free cash or not
• the implications of part-time work or to keep working
• starting to take income from pension tax efficiently based on your circumstances and current tax regulations
• building in flexibility around future income levels
• maximising death benefits and provision for ill-health
• ensuring your money will not run out
• Ensuring your investments are in line with your risk appetite
• maximising tax efficiency around passing wealth to the next generation
• making provisions for later life

You are seeing your plan come to life in terms of being able to have more choice around what you spend your time doing. I will continue to work with you to ensure your plan adapts to suit your needs.

If you feel you would like this type of control over your finances please contact me.

Next, I will talk about the greater freedoms you might have when you receive your full state pension.