Not many of us like to think about getting older. But like it or not, it’s one of the few things in life we know will happen, so at some point you will need to prepare. But saving for your retirement can be a difficult thing, with so many options to choose from, all telling you they are the best option. That’s why we recommend you get some impartial advice on how to save for later life, which is exactly what we’ve got for you today.

Save Regularly

The key to successful saving is to do it regularly. Many people are good at saving in bursts, or putting chunks of money away when they have some spare, but many find it more difficult to do on a regular basis. Setting up a monthly payment into a savings account is a great way to ensure you are saving on a regular basis, without having to actively think about it on a day to day basis. When you get a pay rise, consider increasing the amount you’re putting in each month. Even if the amount you save each month is small, it can add up quickly.

Make The Most Of Your Pension

With auto-enrolment now in full swing, it’s a challenge to find someone working in the UK who doesn’t have a pension of some kind. But as we get older and we move around the working world, many of us will end up with quite a few different pension pots. We might even have forgotten about some of them! Pensions are a great resource for later life, and act as your main source of income once you retire – so you’ll want to make the most of it. This means doing some research and making sure you’re on the best pension plan for you. You may even consider consolidating all of those separate pensions into one pension pot to potentially maximise your returns. If you’re not sure how to do this, just ask your financial planner.

Even if you haven’t opted into your workplace pension, you will still have a state pension building up in the background, providing you have been paying National Insurance contributions. But unfortunately, the state pension is unlikely to be able to provide you with the income you need to maintain that comfortable living standard once you’ve stopped working – which is why it pays to save, and build up an independent pension.

Be Tax Smart

Along with growing old, taxes are another of those things in life we can’t avoid. But that doesn’t mean you have to pay more than you need to. Being smart about the amount of tax you pay, and how you pay it, can go a long way. For example, the Personal Savings Allowance means that the first £1,000 of interest earned on your savings is tax-free for basic-rate taxpayers, while the first £500 is tax-free for higher-rate taxpayers. So if you’re a taxpayer, you can use things like ISAs to put your money beyond reach and save on tax. You can put up to £20,000 into a cash ISA every tax year, and your partner can do the same. This is a great way to create a nice little rainy day fund.

Ask For Advice

Working out the most efficient way to save for your retirement can be challenging, especially since there are now so many options available for you to choose from. If you’re not sure what’s best for you and your family, don’t just choose one at random, or worse ignore it altogether. Instead, talk to a professional and get some advice. A financial adviser will be able to listen to your situation and give you advice and guidance that’s tailored to you, your needs and your plans for the future. Even if you don’t work with an adviser long-term, getting some advice at the beginning can set the right foundations for your retirement.

At Chilvester financial, we love helping people like you plan for retirement, the earlier the better. We help our customers unpick even the most complex pensions arrangements, understand what their position is, and choose the right option for their future. Then, we help them achieve it with ongoing advice, support and financial management. If you would like to know more, just get in touch with the team today.

There are a lot of financial advisers out there. Much as we wouldn’t like that to be true – the fact is the consumer has never had so much choice about who they turn to for financial advice. Some financial advisers will specialise in certain areas (for example, mortgages, pensions or loans), while others will work with specific types of people, or only work in specific areas. And some, like us, are larger practices with experts in all fields, and able to help with any element of planning you might need. But how do you narrow all of those options down, and choose the right financial adviser for you?

Work Out What You Need

First things first, think very carefully about what type of help you need, can afford and would value. Not everybody needs full-blown professional advice – but most people will benefit from it in some way. It might be that you only need general guidance on budgeting and managing debt, in which case there are a lot of free resources that can help you, available from people like the Money Advice Service or the Citizens Advice Bureau. But if you have a larger amount of savings, want to move into investments or need to create a more significant plan for your future, then a financial adviser might be exactly what you need. So before you go any further, sit down and work out if you need professional advice, or just some pointers. Some of the services a financial adviser can provide advice on include:

• Pensions
• Investments
• Life and health insurance
• Tax and inheritance planning
• Mortgages and equity release
• Long-term care planning

Independent Financial Advice

As a general rule, independent financial advice is the best route to go down where you can. The reason for this is simple – a financial adviser that isn’t independent is more likely to push you towards certain products, services or routes, even if they might not be the best choice for you in the long term. An independent financial adviser has no ties to any one provider, and so can give you the best advice for your individual situation, without any bias. For an adviser to be fully independent, their advice must be:

• Based on a comprehensive analysis of the market
• Unbiased, with no influence from product providers

Ask A Lot Of Questions

Once you’ve done some research into what type of financial adviser you need, and found a few candidates, how do you narrow it down to just one? One method that can help you choose is by essentially asking the same set of questions and gathering the same information from multiple advisers. The main benefits of this include:

• Pre-planning questions means you know exactly what you need to ask
• Advisers all answer the same questions
• It’s easy to compare their responses and choose your favourite

You don’t have to use a formal process either – you can just create a documented list of questions for each candidate.

Don’t Forget The Fees

Once you’ve got all that information, it’s time to talk fees. Every financial adviser will charge in a different way, so it’s important to ask about their fees structure and make sure it’s something that works for you.

Get Comfortable

At the end of the day, it’s important for you to feel comfortable with your financial adviser. Choosing a specialist and a location should all be secondary – the trust and relationship should be key factors in your decision. Make sure you meet all of your potential candidates and make notes of how you felt about them afterwards. Put all that information together, and you should have a good idea of which financial adviser is right for you.

At Chilvester Financial, we want you to be confident and comfortable working with us, secure in the knowledge that we can help you achieve your goals. We are a team of specialised financial advisers, and we are always happy to answer any questions, talk through your options or give you a helpful hint here and there. If you would like to know more, or have any questions, just get in touch with the team today and book your free, no-obligation consultation.