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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 there was a distinct buzz in the air. Throughout the room people were talking about a television programme.............not what was happening in the latest soaps on TV but about something much closer to home. Finally, after a much protracted wait of over 10 months the television appearance of ‘Busy Ladies’ namely a team from the Andover Women in Business Club had been broadcast on nationwide television. AWIBC vs THE EGGHEADS! For those people who watched the episode, all were in agreement that the team put up a considerable challenge to the formidable Eggheads. And they were Hannah Walker, Caroline Gilham, Claire Muir, Lynn Brown, Vera Hughes and reserve Annette Hender. And that leads me on to the talk given at the February meeting.

Vice President of the AWIBC and Independent Financial Advisor from TaylorMade Financial Solutions, Annette Hender gave an interesting talk about providing for retirement. Before the talk began Annette advised us that things might have been very different had she followed her initial calling into the world of work and become a stunt woman. After that followed her desire to be a mad scientist! However, following a radical change of direction Annette progressed successfully into the world of finance.

The subject of Annette’s talk for the evening was ‘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 different investment options, to avoid making choices solely based on taxation and to review our investments regularly especially when the markets are going down. An informative talk giving plenty of food for thought for the members and guests.

The rewards of Denize Goodall’s hard work making Christmas Puddings and selling them for charity raised the sum of £1000 which has been donated to All Saints Church in Barton Stacey – well done Denize!

The 2009/2010 Member’s Handbook was distributed at the end of the evening.

Next meeting is on 2 March 2010 at Keystone Hall.

Maureen Phelps

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