February 2010 - A Retirement Plan that Works
The February meeting of the ‘Andover Women in Business Club’ was held at the Hampshire Golf Club, where Annette Hender, Independent Financial Advisor from TaylorMade Financial Solutions gave an informative talk entitled ‘A Retirement Plan that Works’.
Annette reminded us of some key statistics, for instance, the relative value of the state pension today equates to half what it was 30 years ago, retirement age is increasing and 72% of employers have closed their final salary schemes. Also our expectations are that we will need 50% of our earned income to live on in our retirement. Following this Annette talked through what the various options are, for example, pension, ISA, property etc and she then went on to discuss what impacts on our choices, such as, taxation, risk, investment potential, access etc. Annette stressed how vital it is to establish our personal definition of risk. This is so important in making decisions about how and where you will make your investments and what your expectations are in terms of returns. She urged us to consider how much income we would need when we retire, to encourage us to consider taking up several investments options, to avoid making choices solely based on taxation and to review our investments regularly especially when the markets are going down. The next meeting will be held at The Keystone Hall on Tuesday 2nd March.