If you’re going to live to 100, you need to check your pension plan

Informed Choice chartered financial planner Martin Bamford was quoted in the Independent on Sunday yesterday, in an article about living to 100 and the implications for retirement income planning.

With continued rising life expectancy, Martin was commenting in the article on the importance of securing a suitable level of income in retirement.

An ageing population will make it even more challenging for the state to provide a reasonable level of income in retirement.

“It will not be possible to rely on the state in the future for anything more than a breadline income,” says Martin Bamford of Informed Choice, an independent financial adviser. “This means that we all have to make our own provisions for retirement income, or accept a much lower standard of living in later life.”

Commenting on how to go about building the necessary level of retirement income, Martin stressed the importance of diversification of income sources:

“The best retirement income plans are usually the combination of different things, including private, occupational and state pensions, investments, cash savings, property and a phased approach to retirement. Relying on one source of income in retirement is usually a bad idea,” says Mr Bamford.

You can read the article in full here.