But having enough time is only part of the story – without enough money, not only might you lose out on happy retirement, you might be left struggling to pay your bills.
After 40 years of work, there’s a lot of living to do. It’s never too early, or too late, to start putting something by for your future.
Your retirement plan is one of the biggest decisions you will make, and your choices are very important. Your pension savings are there to provide an income for the rest of your life and spending them too quickly could mean you struggle later on.
Creative Pension Trust enables you to make your own decisions but, given the choices you make for your retirement can be irreversible, we recommend you consider taking financial guidance or professional financial advice.
We created the below video to offer some insight into retirement and the choices you will need to make:
Deciding whether you need financial guidance or financial advice to help you on your retirement journey doesn’t have to be complicated. Here we break down the difference between the two so you can make a well-informed decision about how to get the help you need.
The government provides free and impartial financial guidance on a wide range of financial matters. This makes them a great resource for anyone seeking to get to grips with any area of their personal finance, not just pensions.
It is important to understand that financial guidance is not the same as financial advice. Guidance can be helpful if you want to make your own decisions and are comfortable in doing so. Guidance services offer you the chance to ask questions and get answers from knowledgeable experts, so you are better informed and have a clearer understanding of your choices, but they do not provide a recommendation of what is best for you personally.
Professional financial advice is different from financial guidance because it is specific to you. A professional financial adviser will not only be able to talk you through your options and help you understand them better, but also make a personalised recommendation based on your circumstances.
A financial adviser will create a personalised financial plan to accommodate your specific needs, support your future plans and ensure all of your financial arrangements work together to your best advantage. If you choose to take professional financial advice you should expect to pay a fee to your adviser but, in return, you have the certainty of knowing you have made the best choice
Should you require greater flexibility than that available in Creative Pension Trust, you are able to transfer your pension pot to a different pension scheme without penalty at any time.
The earliest you can access your pension savings is when you reach your 55th birthday, an age set by the government. Unless you have previously selected a preferred retirement date, we will assume your retirement age is 65.
If this isn’t right for you, you can tell us your preferred retirement date using the Creative Pension Trust Member Portal and you won’t have to take your pension benefits until you are ready.
