Permission to spend
The situation
Do you know how much you’ll be able to spend when you stop working? And as importantly, how comfortable will you feel spending at that level? It’s not uncommon for people in the early stages of retirement to feel anxiety about drawing on the money they have set aside, and this was the position our clients Quentin and Margaret from North London found themselves in.
Having worked hard to build a financial future that enabled them to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle in retirement, allowing Quentin to explore his hobbies and Margaret to volunteer for worthwhile charities, they found themselves restraining their expenditure unnecessarily when their employment income stopped coming in.
The review
Spending and assets are discussed at all of our client review meetings. When Financial Planner Peter Gladstone asked Quentin and Margaret how free they felt to spend as planned he noticed a reticence. Margaret felt a bit uneasy and Quentin mentioned that he had decided not to attend a four week shoe making course that he was very interested in because he didn’t have the money in his bank account.
Peter dug a little deeper and discovered that they just didn’t feel comfortable chipping away at savings, despite the cost being well within the parameters of their spending plan.
The resolution
To help Quentin and Margaret feel more comfortable spending as planned, Peter devised a strategy to start a monthly drawdown income plan at the level they would like and could easily afford. This was achieved through a mix of taking final salary scheme pensions early and income drawdown from their SIPPs.
Quentin and Margaret loved the idea straight away, describing it as a huge relief, and are now back to concentrating on the things they enjoy doing.
Menu Next