Are you hiding from the truth? Are you a member of ‘the savings gap’ club – are you one of the 7.5 million people in the UK who have no savings whatsoever? Are you one of the 12.7 million people, not paying into any form of pension, hiding from ‘the pension time bomb’ ? Effectively, pretending that you are never going to retire?
All recent financial research confirms the horrible truth that a large proportion of people are failing to plan adequately for their futures and an increasing number of people are heading for financial meltdown as a consequence of not planning at all.
Not having any spare money is the excuse most put forward for people failing to save, but this is just another way of saying that they are currently living beyond their means and are spending too much!
Failing to plan for your future is becoming an ever more dangerous strategy, as state retirement ages increase and the real value of state benefits falls.
For people over 65, £137.35 per week for a single person and £209.70 for a couple is the current minimum (and effectively the maximum state support) pension income guarantee, with average household utility bills amounting to around £350 per month – people on this level of income are going to have severely limited financial options and corresponding lifestyles. Is that what you want for your retirement?
But, it isn’t just about your retirement, it’s also about the decades ‘in between’. It’s an increasingly special person who has an uninterrupted career from school to the receipt of their pension, and there are an increasing number of people who are effectively forced to ‘retire’ early as they come out of work in middle age.
Without something ‘behind’ them in the form of savings, adapting to life with very little income comes as a very sharp lesson indeed and is very difficult to escape from once you become ensnared.
If you’re starting to feel uneasy reading the above, it’s not too late to change your course and achieve a better balance in your current and future planning.
An independent financial adviser can help you to re-appraise your financial life, help you avoid haemorrhaging money, set up simple savings habits and protection programmes that put you back in charge of your destiny.
For further details of how to link up with an independent financial adviser, locally, please contact any one of our offices.
