The final year before retirement is when a lifetime of saving turns into a set of real decisions — some of which, once made, cannot be unmade. Sorted early, they set up a comfortable and confident retirement. Left to the last minute, they get rushed. If you plan to finish work within the next twelve months, here are the five …
Today is National Financial Awareness Day — an annual prompt, held each 14 August, to stop and take an honest look at your money. Most of the advice you will see today is about the everyday: check your balance, cancel the subscription you forgot about, shop around on your energy bill. All sensible, and all worth doing. But there is …
If you looked at annuities a few years ago and decided they weren’t worth it, it may be time to look again. Across the industry, annuity rates today are widely reported to remain up to 60% higher than they were in 2021 — a gap that has held for some time now, not a brief spike. For anyone with a …
Most of us change jobs several times over a working life — and nearly every job leaves a pension pot behind. Add in the odd personal pension started years ago, and it is common to arrive at retirement with four, five or more separate pots, some long forgotten. So should you bring them all together? Sometimes yes, sometimes emphatically no …
When most people retire, they accept the annuity rate their pension provider offers them. What many never discover is that their health and lifestyle — the very things they might assume would count against them — could entitle them to a significantly higher guaranteed income. That is what an enhanced annuity is for. How an enhanced annuity works A standard …
Market Insight | 22 July 2026 Inflation Eases to 2.6% — What It Really Means for Your Retirement Good news on paper — but the road to a comfortable retirement still needs careful navigation. This morning brought a welcome dose of good news. The Office for National Statistics confirmed that UK Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation fell to 2.6% in …
