What does the retirement date on your plan actually mean?
In simple terms, it’s the date you expect to retire and start taking money from your pension.
You’re able to change it easily at any time, and you can change it more than once if your retirement plans change in the future.
You may be thinking “why do I need to tell you when I plan to retire now, when it may be a long way off?”
Well, it’s important you keep it as up to date as possible because it could impact your investments.
For example, like many others, you might be invested in something called a Lifestyle Profile.
This is a type of investment which works to move your money from higher-risk investments when you’re younger, gradually into lower-risk ones as you get older and closer to retirement.
This helps to minimise fluctuations in the value of your investments at that crucial stage before retirement, and it does this by using your retirement date as a guide.
As you can imagine, if the retirement date on your plan doesn’t match your plans in life, then your investments won’t either, and this could have an impact on the amount you have when you come to retire.
But do keep in mind that the value of your investments can always go down as well as up.
So, the best thing to do is to try and keep it as up to date as possible.
You can usually update your planned retirement date online, or by getting in touch with your pension provider.
