Keep going - things to think about
It's brilliant you're on track for the retirement living standard you want. Keep going to make sure you stay on track.
Keep going to keep yourself on track
Things like inflation and your health can push you off track so it's important to keep saving
It's great that you are currently on target to achieve the retirement living standard you want in later life. But, it's really important you keep saving and topping up your pensions and savings to keep you on track.
Inflation plays an important role in many parts of our finances. As this goes up and down, so does the price of things like everyday essentials, bills and mortgages. You may be on course for your own retirement living standard today, but this could change in the future - so keep going!
Sometimes your plans can be pushed off course by things like your own health, or the health of a loved one, and you need to retire earlier than you planned. If this happens, your pensions might be less as you are taking them earlier than expected and they're paid over a longer period of time. This could bring your income in retirement down.
It's important to know that our retirement living standard tool shows you figures today, but your pensions and the cost of retirement can change in the future, so keep coming back to the tool to check you're still on track.
Do you have a good balance between pensions and savings?
Make sure you still have money saved up for emergencies
Having eggs in different baskets can be very sensible. It's no different when it comes to retirement.
If you feel comfortable with how much your pensions will pay you when you retire, make sure you still have savings for emergencies or one-off expenses like home repairs, or even holidays.
Pensions will usually pay you a steady income each month, so if something unexpected happens and you need to access more money than you anticipated, having savings on the side can really help you.
Make sure you find a good balance between putting money into your pensions, but also keeping some aside for easy access if you need it.
Could you take pensions early or go part time?
Flexible retirement is becoming more popular to ease into retirement
If you're over 55 (the Government is increasing this to age 57 from April 2028), you can start to access your pensions. Be careful about doing this as the earlier you take a pension the longer time frame it is spread over, so it starts lower.
It's becoming more common for people to flexibly retire.
You can take pensions at different times. If you have more than one pension, you could take these at different times. For example, you could take one of your pensions and keep working, giving you more income. Although, this could push you into a higher tax band for a while.
If you start taking taxable income from a 'defined contribution' pension while you are saving into another pension, the Money Purchase Annual Allowance kicks in. If you're worried about this, you can find out more here.
Taking pensions at different times could give you more freedom to reduce your hours as you get closer to retirement. This is becoming a popular way for people to ease into retirement.
You might even want to consider taking cash from one pension and using this to put towards paying off any large expenses, such as a mortgage. This could bring down your outgoings in retirement.
We're here to help you with your pension, whether you'd like to know more about saving more, or retiring at a different time.
Email us at pensions@churchofengland.org
Phone us on 020 7898 1802