The idea of retirement is changing. For many, rather than a date fixed by a particular birthday, or dictated by your pension scheme, it is now controlled by you. Your own Financial Independence Day.
When you reach financial independence, you might decide to carry on working. The key to financial independence is choice and having that choice can be liberating, but also potentially scary. Whilst we might expect to look forward to new beginnings, we also need to deal with a big part of our life ending and this transition may be more difficult than we expect.
When considering what choices you will make, it can be useful to think about what you would like to stop doing; what you would like to start doing and what you already do but would like to do more of in the future.
The decision to stop working or not, is central to this time of transition. Many people define themselves by what they have done for a living, possibly for 40 years of their life. As a result, the transition to the next phase of their life can be more difficult than they expect.
We can work with you to uncover what you want from financial independence and retirement. What will your ideal day, week and year look like? Where will you be? Who will you be with?
It can be unsettling to realise that you have a finite pot of money to support you through the rest of your life, at least until we work through your financial plan and cashflow model. We model your financial future by looking at your income and expenses, together with your assets and liabilities. At this stage you have any number of paths down which you might travel and we can help to bring these to life by creating ‘what if’ scenarios with you. What if we bought a holiday home? What if we wanted to travel the world over the next 10 years? What if we want to help fund our grandchildren’s education? What if we want to give our children a leg up on the housing ladder?
Cashflow modelling can help us plan for any financial future you choose and can bring peace of mind through knowing that whatever course you take, you will be okay. In other words you will have enough and not have the fear of running out of money, or leaving too much.
