Our mission has always been to help everyone look forward to a happy retirement. In February, we launched a new ‘Retirement‘ hub on our website to help our customers do just that. It’s a handy collection of resources that help you prepare and adjust for later life.
Our new Retirement section
Retirement is personal and unique to everyone, it may involve spending more time with your family, travelling or volunteering. You may even hope to keep working on a part-time basis or try something completely new. Retirement is about how you choose to spend your time. However you picture it, it’s important to know how you can best reach your financial goals.
As you think about retirement planning our new hub will help you consider multiple aspects such as how much you may need to retire, where to turn for support or advice and much more. Here’s what you’ll find and how each section could help you better plan for the future.
Retirement overview
If you’re not sure where to start, use the Retirement overview to get to grips with the basics. This section will help you:
- understand how much income you may need per year in retirement, whether you’re single or in a couple;
- get your finances in order by tracking down and combining any existing pensions;
- learn how tax affects your pension, what the tax benefit of contributing to your pension is and how much you can expect to pay in tax once you start withdrawing; and
- think about managing life in retirement. From leaving your pensions to loved ones to looking after your mental health.
Retirement planning tools
Under Retirement planning tools, you’ll find our range of calculators to help you plan financially. Our Pension Calculator can help you work out how much you’ll need to save to reach your desired retirement income. It also includes tools that help you see how long that income will last. These include our Inflation Calculator and Pension Tax Relief Calculator. Underneath each tool, you’ll find a ‘What will I need?’ link. Click on these to see a simple list of the information you’ll need to have on hand to get the most from the tools.
Withdrawal and retirement income
After diligently saving into your pension over your working life, it’s important to know what your options are for taking your pension when eligible. You can see these in the Withdrawal and retirement income section. Learn about the flexibility of pension drawdown and the predictability of an annuity, as well as how to combine them. We hope you’ll gain a better understanding of which withdrawal option may be right for you and even how you can combine them.
Retirement checklists
Use our retirement checklists to see if you’re on track to meet your goals. Our checklists will help you consider things like budgeting, combining your pensions, naming your beneficiaries and diversifying your savings. These quick-start guides enable you to identify and consider parts of your planning you may not have already thought about so you know what steps to take next.
Your retirement and PensionBee
When you’re eligible (currently 55, rising to 57 from 2028) and ready to withdraw from your private or workplace pension, PensionBee offers several options. These include using pension drawdown to take a tax-free lump sum or making regular withdrawals. Both of these can be done conveniently through our app or website. You’ll also find information about annuities, the types that are available and how you can purchase one from Legal & General, as well as how you can combine the options. Learn about these in ‘Your retirement and PensionBee’.
Retirement article insights
Over the years we’ve created lots of retirement-focussed articles and now we’ve collated these into one place. Our Retirement article insights include articles from money bloggers, personal finance journalists and investment professionals. You’ll find a range of topics from financial planning tips such as how to increase your guaranteed income in retirement to more personal, but equally important, insights like how to prepare for retirement emotionally. Check back as we update and add new articles to help you prepare for the future.
Talk to an expert
Sometimes you just need to get in touch with a human. If you still have questions or need extra support we’ve outlined some options under ‘Talk to an expert’. Here you’ll learn how to get a free Pension Wise appointment if you’re over 50 or discover how to get specialist pension advice from an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). You can also contact PensionBee. We can’t give you advice but we can help you understand more about how pensions work and our products.
Where can I find the Retirement section?
You’ll find our new section by going to the ‘Retirement planning’ tab on our website and clicking ‘Approaching retirement age’. Check it out now and make sure you’re on track for a happy retirement.
Future product news
Keep your eye out for our next product update or catch up on January’s post. We’ve got more great new features in the works which we’re looking forward to bringing you throughout the rest of the year. We’ll let you know what they are, how they can help you save for a happy retirement and how to get started.
Risk warning
As always with investments, your capital is at risk. The value of your investment can go down as well as up, and you may get back less than you invest. This information should not be regarded as financial advice.
