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MoneyWeek article - Is 2024 a good year to retire

Journalist: Marc Shoffman, Freelance

ended 12. December 2023

Helloo..

 

I am writing a piece for MoneyWeek looking at if 2024 will be a good year to retire.

E.g what should retirees be considering if they plan to retire and access their pension next year?

What influence should high interest rates or the prospect of cuts have on their decision? Should people grab an annuity before rates fall?

What impact could falling inflation have?

What else should retirees being considering?

Kind regards

Marc

2 responses from the Newspage community

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Editor
Ross Lacey
Director & Independent Financial Adviser at Fairview Financial Management
Our view is that every year is a good year to retire; as long as there's a plan and the numbers work!

The plans we build for our clients make the assumption that the year they retire will be a "difficult" one, ie. in the midst of a stock market crash or some other crisis. Using this kind of approach means we have an all-weather strategy for dealing with external factors outside of anybody's control, and our clients have more confidence they can still do what they want.

We've seen many examples of people who have almost all of their investments/pensions fully invested with little provision for what they'll do if the values plummet just as they are about to retire. Equally, there are those with very little invested but lots sitting in cash, and the real prospect of seeing their purchasing power get decimated by inflation leaving them struggling sooner than they think.
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Joshua Gerstler
Chartered Financial Planner at The Orchard Practice
If you can afford to retire then 2024 is a great time to do it. Don't put it off - life is too short! Annuities are certainly more of an option than they have been at any point in the last decade and we are having more conversations about these. Although they provide a guaranteed income, a lot of people don't like the idea of not having the flexibility to access their money whenever they want to. If you are planning to retire in 2024, make sure you have run your numbers, stress tested them against inflation, factored in any care costs in the future as well as included a buffer for unplanned events.