Is your retirement income, keeping up with inflation?

By John Cossons, Mortgage and Protection Designer.

With the ever-increasing cost of living, is your retirement income keeping up? 

We are all feeling the pressure of the rising cost of fuel to heat our homes and keep our cars moving, along with the relentless increase in the general cost of living. You may have a small, mortgage that was manageable but, with increasing interest rates, is becoming increasingly hard to service without impacting your lifestyle.

When you are still working you have the opportunity to increase your income with a pay rise, doing overtime or changing your employer. However, once you retire your income is pretty much set and it can often start to reduce in real terms due to inflation.

There is possibly one asset that you have that has historically outpaced inflation and tapping into this resource could be the way to ensure that you have enough money to continue with a reasonable lifestyle for the foreseeable future.

What are the options?

Releasing some of the equity that is tied up in your home could relieve the pressure.

With an equity release loan, you could provide yourself with an additional income stream or the funds to improve the energy efficiency of your home or to upgrade your car to an electric model.

Equity release loans allow you to pay what you can afford and vary your payments if your circumstances change. The interest rate is fixed for life, and you are not required to make any payments. However, as any unpaid interest is added to the loan and rolls up many people choose to pay all or some of the interest if they can.

There is an option to take a lump sum in advance and then draw down additional funds when they are required. You would only attract interest on the funds released now and any further drawdowns would start to attract interest, at the prevailing rate, when they are taken.

How Anstee & Co can help you maintain your retirement income.

We are a firm of Independent Financial Advisers (IFA’s). This means that the financial advice we provide is unbiased and from the “whole of the market” We look at all the financial solutions available to you. Not just an equity release mortgage.

Remember that equity release is a long-term financial commitment and is not right for everyone. So, it is often a good idea to involve your family before making any decisions.

Additionally, we are proud members of the Equity Release Council and are directly regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Why not arrange a face-to-face meeting to find out more? Also, we can come to your home, or we can meet you at one of our meeting rooms located at:

• Kettering, Northamptonshire
• Bedford, Bedfordshire
• Market Harborough, Leicestershire

Why not arrange a meeting today to obtain a personal illustration and to see how we can help you secure your retirement income? The initial meeting is at our expense and is without obligation.

If you have any thoughts on this article, “Is your retirement income, keeping up with inflation?”, then we would love to hear from you.

Finally, the information contained in this article is for information purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Anstee & Co. is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

These products are lifetime mortgages or home reversion plans. Equity released from your home will be secured against it.