Financial Planning For Retirement

A vital part of our financial planning practice at Resolve is to find solutions for clients to achieve their dreams and ambitions, across all time horizons.

A young couple found themselves between a rock and a hard place of balancing mortgage and property wishes, with a desire to save as much money as possible with regards to retiring as early as they can.

The clients had grown wary of recent interest hikes in the mortgage market and wished to bring their liability down as much as possible in line with their retirement aims – without, of course, leaving themselves short on an annual basis.

While the clients earned a healthy income between them, it was still largely unclear to them if they were ‘doing the right thing, in the right way’ with regards to how they were using their income: were they being tax efficient? Were they sacrificing the longer-term gains for the shorter-term vision?

A financial plan is built on sand without any immediate coverage of the family via protection of life, income and illnesses. Port of call number one for these clients was to address these shortfalls and have their protection in line with their future plans.

With this now secured, the focus moved over to addressing the surplus income – where should it go?

Tax efficiency is key to planning, especially as a higher- and additional-rate tax payer. While building cash savings to aid capital build-up in their property upon remortgage was important, it transpired that full use of pension annual allowances – and carry forward from previous years – was not being efficiently utilised.

Taking the clients through a detailed cashflow model showed just how much of an impact it would have on their retirement by making sure they didn’t allow these allowances to fall away unused. While assessing their annual income and expenditure, we were able to show that the mortgage planning would be undamaged by funding pensions and using these allowances.

The impact of talking through the various tools and knowledge at our disposal allowed the clients to see that with a few minor changes, a massive difference was to be made to their retirement. It also allowed them to see the bigger picture:

“We can protect ourselves and our dreams, we can remortgage as we desire – but perhaps most importantly, we can retire sooner, with a bigger pot of money to enjoy.”

Resolve Financial Solutions explore all of the options available to you in order to find the perfect solution to suit your needs. Get in touch today to discuss your requirements.

Please note: A pension is a long-term investment not normally accessible until 55 (57 from April 2028). Your capital is at risk. The value of your investment (and any income from them) can go down as well as up and you may not get back the full amount you invested. The value of tax reliefs depends on your individual circumstances. Tax laws can change.