ICR120: 7 ways to make your money last in retirement

It’s official, we are all living for much longer! The latest data shows more than half a million people over the age of 90 living in the UK. So how can you make your money last until you reach your 100th birthday?

In this episode of Informed Choice Radio, Martin talks about 7 ways to make your money last in retirement. There is also a roundup of the latest personal finance news and an update from the world of Informed Choice.

7 ways to make your money last in retirement

Last week, the Office for National Statistics published some very interesting figures which confirm that we are, as suspected, all getting older.

The headline was that half a million people in the UK are now aged 90 and over.

In fact, the ONS estimate that 556,270 people living in the UK are aged 90 and over.

By way of comparison, this is up from just 194,670 people back in 1985, 30 years before the current set of data.

The main driver of population ageing in recent decades has been improving mortality at all ages, but particularly at older ages.

Life expectancy is a big deal when it comes to your personal finances, here’s why.

We all know our date of birth, none of us can predict our date of death. This makes it really hard to plan for our finances in the future, because we don’t know how long we need to make our money last in retirement.

In this episode, Martin discusses 7 ways to make your money last in retirement, until you celebrate your 100th birthday and receive a telegram from The Queen.

The seven strategies Martin talks about are:

1 – Secure your basic income needs with a guaranteed and inflation linked income.

2 – Stick to the 4% rule.

3 – Don’t retire too early.

4 – Retire in stages.

5 – Age-proof your property

6 – Keep your investment portfolio simple

7 – Stay fit, healthy and active

Personal finance news update

-As much as £38bn could be lost if the UK leaves the single market, according to a report commissioned by TheCityUK.

-Bank of England analyst Jonathan Fullwood has said that the financial “gobbledygook” used by banks risks perpetuating a “great divide” between them and consumers.

-More than 300,000 pension savers a year are being left to fend for themselves when they retire.

-The FTSE 100 index of leading UK company shares closed just short of its record high on Tuesday, at 7,074 points.

-A petition to ban pension and investment cold calling has exceeded 1,000 signatures.

Get answers to your personal finance questions

Do you have a personal finance or investing question for Martin?

Email martin@icfp.co.uk or ask on Twitter @martinbamford.

You can call our dedicated podcast voicemail line on 020 8144 2745 with your question or visit www.speakpipe.com/InformedChoicePodcast to leave an online voicemail.