Make your pension pay

HEALTHIER lifestyles and modern medicine mean we can hope for a long and active retirement. We dream of glorious holidays, pursuing hobbies and having fun with the grandchildren.

And why not? A healthy person in their mid-50s can expect to live for another 30 years or more and life expectancy for younger people is even greater.

But while many of us have taken steps towards improving our physical health we have taken less care of our long-term financial wellbeing.

There may be many reasons for this. Pensions can feel extraordinarily complex.

And many feel they have more immediate demands on their money, such as the mortgage, bringing up children or paying university fees.

Aegon’s Retirement Readiness Survey revealed that just 29 per cent* of British workers believe that when they come to retire they will stop working altogether, while many expect to work part time or on temporary contracts.

Our parents were often able to leave pension planning to the Government and their employer.

But now the onus has been moved squarely on to each of us.

From next week we will all have far greater freedom over our pensions, but if we make mistakes then we will have to live with the consequences throughout our retirement.

It’s vital to take that first step to find out where your pension stands – and technology can help.

Aegon has developed an easy-touse online retirement planning tool called Retiready. It’s so simple you can use it on your mobile or tablet.

Just enter some basic information, such as how much you’re saving now, when you’d like to retire and how big a pension you think you’ll need. You’ll then get a score out of 100 showing whether you’re on track.

Surprisingly, only 11 per cent** of people currently manage their pension online. That’s an astonishingly low figure, when you consider how many of us use the internet for banking and shopping.

David Macmillan, Managing Director, Aegon: ‘One of the major barriers to ensuring people have enough money i n retirement is encouraging people to engage in their savings at an early age. We believe the answer to this problem is making retirement planning simple and easily accessible.’

That’s where Retiready comes in. Retiready provides an easy way to get a clear picture of where you stand now and plan for where you’d like to be financially when you retire.

The key thing is that a pension should now be a companion through your life.

It is essential to keep track of your pensions and to monitor whether they are performing as you would expect.

More than seven in ten people** with pension savings say that they have more than one pot.

This money can be consolidated under one roof, making your money easier to manage, planning simpler, and potentially producing better value. Though you should think about whether this would be best for you.

If you’ve lost track of old pensions, the Government’s Pension Tracing Service can help: www.gov.uk

It’s a lot to consider but there really is no time like the present. If you’re ready for help in achieving your goals, then

retiready.co.uk is the place to start.

It’s vital to take that first step to find out where your pension stands – and technology can help