Securing your future in the New Year, tips from Sussex Financial Planner

Retirement planning is a crucial aspect of securing your financial future, and it’s best to start early to try and ensure a comfortable and stress-free retirement.

Start by setting your retirement goals

The first step in retirement planning is to assess your retirement goals and how much money you will need. Unfortunately, more people are experiencing pension poverty with insufficient resources to see them through their later years. Crucially, this doesn’t just mean understanding how much money you need to meet your basic expenses, such as bills and groceries, it also means knowing how much it’ll cost you to maintain your current standard of living, such as leisure and holidays, to give you the opportunities in retirement that you deserve.

Take the time to envision your ideal retirement lifestyle and work out how much money you would need to fund it. Once you have this retirement goal in mind, you can start working towards achieving it.

What is your current situation?

Once you have an idea of your goals, it’s important to understand your current financial situation. This can include an analysis of your current income and expenditure, to make sure you are living a lifestyle that you can afford; identifying any debt that you have accumulated – and what you’ll need to do to clear it and where there are opportunities to start saving and investing for the medium to long-term.

Create a budget

Creating a budget is an essential aspect of retirement planning. It allows you to manage your expenses and invest adequately for your future. Review your current income, expenses, and financial obligations to determine how much you can save each month.

Investing

Unfortunately, saving your money will only get you so far these days! With inflation rising year on year and currently sitting at a 30-year high, if your money remains in the bank, with interest rates far lower than inflation, it will buy you less with each year that passes. This makes having an investment strategy the key component to any long-term financial planning.

Working with a financial planner will help evaluate which investment options are the most suitable to help you grow your savings for retirement.

To fund your investment strategy make an effort to manage your expenditure prudently. Identify areas where you can cut back and redirect those funds towards your retirement goals. Consider making adjustments to your lifestyle choices now to support your future retirement goals.

Planning for retirement in 2024 requires proactive steps and informed decision-making. By setting your retirement goals, creating a budget, exploring investments options, minimising debt and continuously reviewing your plan, you will give yourself the best chance of securing your financial future and enjoying a comfortable retirement.