You might not like to think about it, but one day you’ll go gray, be a bit harder of hearing and find that you’re a tad less mobile. It’s a fact of life. How we prepare for our twilight years will have a huge impact on the quality of life we can secure in retirement. You may have a personal pension plan in place and a company pension pot that’s slowly accruing as well as enjoying a dabble in the property market to top up your nest egg. It’s great that you’re taking the initiative early on and trying to grow a large retirement fund. However, if you think that this savings pot is purely for nice vacations and dining out once you’ve completed your last day in the office, it’s time to think again. Take a look at what your nest egg for the future needs to be able to cover.
Care
Although you may feel as fit as a fiddle now, jog 5k three times a week and head to the gym once in a while, this doesn’t make you immune to health problems further down the line. As we age, we may require more care. There may come a time when you need full-time provision in place to cater for your needs which may mean going into a care home or securing at home carers. You should consider using some of your pension pot or retirement nest egg to take out some form of care insurance. This means you will be covered should you require more specialist provision to meet your needs.
Bricks And Mortar
In retirement, you don’t want to be forking out for a mortgage every month. By this point in your life, you should be mortgage free and able to enjoy the rewards of more disposable income. It pays to make overpayments on your home loan while you are still in employment. The earlier you are able to pay off your mortgage, the quicker you’ll have more money to invest in other opportunities to enhance your retirement fund. You may want to dip your toe in the water of stocks and shares, invest in some vintage wine or top up your pension pot with voluntary contributions. Check out this great post to read to help you work out exactly when you can metaphorically hang up the 9 to 5. You never know you may be able to retire earlier after the biggest loan you’ve ever taken out in your life has been repaid. Owning your own home come retirement day means you can splash out on that cruise more easily.
Your Will
It’s absolutely vital that you ensure that your financial affairs are in order. This is true at any stage of your life but perhaps even more so in your twilight years. Make a list of all your assets, accounts and annuities, and take them to a specialist lawyer who can help you construct a legal document to state where your assets will go. Although a tad morbid, it’s important to have everything organized to ease the burden on those you leave behind.
Retiring may seem like a long way off, but it’s never too early to start preparing for your twilight years.