How to Ensure You Have Enough Money for Retirement

Most people look forward to an enjoyable and relaxing retirement after many years of working. However, many make assumptions about how far their retirement income will stretch or perceive that a robust asset and investment portfolio will more than ensure they have the retirement lifestyle they aspire to.

Although retirement incomes have always been a concern for those approaching their retirement years, life expectancies are now longer than they have ever been, and progressive changes to the UK and global pension systems mean that it is never too early to start saving, planning and preparing.

Let’s look at some of the basics of retirement planning, from evaluating the value of your investments and assets, projecting the income you can anticipate receiving from state and private pension products, and ensuring you have the right contingencies and insurances in place to protect your financial security in the years ahead.

The Importance of Accurate Budgeting and Financial Management to Assess the Wealth and Money for Retirement You Require

Factors that range from interest rates and inflation to tax reforms can have a significant impact on your wealth. The more time you have to plan for retirement, the more capacity you have to take advantage of products with compound interest earnings or to diversify to protect your portfolio from losses.

One of the biggest challenges with retirement planning is the need for certainty, without having any way to forecast how markets will move, how asset values will rise or fall, or how your health may affect the budget you need to live well.

However, the core benefit of proactive retirement planning is in avoiding the financial stress and anxiety that comes with discovering an investment has eroded in value, a property is no longer worth as much, or that the tax burdens linked with your portfolio will create a significant gap between what you receive and what you had expected.

Practical Ways to Assess Your Retirement Preparedness

Leaving anything to chance is inadvisable. The first steps are to take stock of all assets, insurance products, investments, income streams and savings, developing an accurate portfolio which sets out everything you have acquired or invested thus far. Auditing your retirement assets enables our seasoned wealth managers to:

• Create detailed overviews, showing you everything you own and owe
• Build forecasts and projections, based on all the available data, to show what the assets within your portfolio are expected to be worth on your planned retirement date
• Identify gaps, where your current wealth doesn’t meet your full requirements
• Recommend strategies to eliminate that gap, depending on your risk appetite, time until retirement, and the nature of the living costs you need to cover

We’ve looked at the costs of living in retirement in terms of essentials, discretionary and contingent costs below to give you an idea about how a professional investment manager might allocate and invest funds to provide for each.

Investing for Your Essential Income Needs in Retirement

Essentials are those costs that relate to basic needs, from paying bills and utilities, purchasing groceries, or even paying off a mortgage balance to ensure you can relax in a home you own in its entirety.

Selecting very low-risk assets is an ideal approach, with products such as bonds and other defensive securities, rather than equities, which offer the assurance that returns are stable and known, and will comfortably cover all of your key living expenses.

Investors can also consider alternative strategies, like using part of their pension savings to purchase an annuity to guarantee they will have the earnings to cover their forecast essential income needs. Annuities aren’t necessarily ideal for all, but they provide a series of payments at regular intervals spanning the rest of the holder’s life.

Saving and Investing for Variable Living Costs in Retirement

Retirement comes with both known and unknown costs, from holidays and events you have every intention of financing or attending, to unanticipated expenditures such as emergency medical bills or the need to replace a vehicle – all of which should be factored into your budgets.

Many families also intend to contribute to the welfare and needs of their children and grandchildren, such as covering education costs, contributing towards property purchases, or helping children enjoy their dream wedding.

Our general advice is to consider what you want most from retirement, whether that means:

• Budgeting for the cost of purchasing a retirement property overseas
• Investing to ensure you have ample funds to enjoy a hobby or pastime
• Creating funds for specific outgoings or future events you expect to fund

Where outgoings are discretionary, investors can possibly accept a higher degree of risk, provided they are comfortable with the risk that is necessary to grow investments more ambitiously. Solutions can include absolute return or multi-asset funds, which generate returns from a diverse range of securities.

However, it is never wise to overlook unknown and unplanned-for outgoings, with a medium-risk approach often suggested. This ensures funds and products can accumulate value gradually, with less potential for losses that could mean a healthy back-up fund isn’t worth the expected amount when an emergency occurs.

Building Legacy Planning Into Retirement Strategies

Legacy planning can be perceived as sombre, but it is an essential element that relates to the assets you leave behind for your loved ones and the generational wealth you are expecting to help provide for the financial needs of your family.

Depending on the number of years between now and retirement, and the complexity of your estate, this may be a straightforward or highly involved process, but it makes sense to think through how you’d like your assets to be distributed, to whom, and to consider the tax implications involved.

If you are assured that your assets, pensions and income will easily provide for the retirement you expect, you may still be able to make considerable improvements in your tax efficiency. This can ensure that all allowances and exemptions are claimed and preserve wealth that will provide for your loved ones for many years to come.

This also applies to expatriates living around the world. There have been considerable reforms to UK domiciliary-based inheritance rules, which extend to the inclusion of pension benefits and life insurance products in the scope of inheritance tax, and changes in other countries that could mean inheritances are worth much more or less than originally anticipated.

As always, the best way forward is to consult an independent wealth management professional who can assess your financial status, retirement plans and balance of assets. Chase Buchanan Private Wealth Management provides personalised advice about whether you are on track for the retirement you anticipate, or could benefit from strategic changes, diversification or asset rebalancing to structure your portfolio in line with your objectives.

Our highly qualified and regulated advisers are always on hand to provide further information and to help you ensure you have more than sufficient funds for a healthy retirement, whether you intend to retire in just a few months or are creating a portfolio for the future.

All investments carry risk, including the potential loss of capital. You should carefully consider whether investing is suitable for you, taking into account your personal circumstances, financial situation, and risk tolerance.

*Information correct as at September 2025