For those who have spent all or most of our lives as self employed, the State Pension may not have been uppermost in our thinking as we made plans for our retirement. Indeed, it’s more than possible that other priorities have prevailed in some years and contributions have been missed. But the new State Pension […]

Yes, most of us own our own homes. But is that the only option for our later years… or even the best one? Tony Watts OBE looks at the renting option, and the impact it could have on your annual income. The British are, it has to be said, pretty wedded to the notion of […]

In the RetireEasy LifePlan we ask you to make a few basic assumptions in order to enable the program to calculate your future finances. But what should you put down for future rates of inflation, or returns on your investments? Of course if you knew that precisely, you’d be earning a fortune as a financial […]

How has the Budget affected the pension scene – and how might these and future changes impact your long-term retirement prospects? Mark Soper reports. Pensions – usually the most yawn-inspiring of subjects – have not been out of the news in the last few months. After the hullaballoo surrounding pensions freedom, arguably rushed in to […]

Investors in buy to let properties, including the large numbers of those in or heading towards retirement who have become landlords in recent years, might well be feeling a little bruised after the last Budget. By Tony Watts OBE. After many years of enjoying runaway returns, the Chancellor – in his first Budget of this […]

The new pensions freedom (writes Mark Soper) will enable millions of us to tailor the way we generate a retirement income – although the full panoply of choices to achieve that are not quite yet in place! Your ability to take up to 25% of your funds each year and invest them in vehicles other […]

According to recent research (writes Tony Watts OBE) carried out by the consumer watchdog Which?, one third of over-55s have so far been contacted by potential fraudsters since the Government’s pensions reforms have come into force. There are now serious concerns amongst experts that over £1 billion of hard-earned savings will be lost in the […]

While the media have given the new pensions freedoms headline treatment for some time now, it seems as though the very people who SHOULD be keeping savers informed aren’t doing that good a job of it. Here at www.RetireEasy.co.uk we’ve just conducted a detailed survey with a 1500 tranche of our subscribers. We reckon our […]

Pensions freedom is now with us: but those carrying debt should be additionally cautious about rushing to cash in, argues Tony Watts OBE. Hardly had the day dawned on new Pensions Freedom when the first person to break cover and announce their plans has been dug out and featured by the media: a 57 year […]

What is the current rate of inflation? asks Tony Watts OBE. Read the headlines and you’d assume it was 0.3% in January 2015. But it’s more complicated than that. Much, much more complicated. That 0.3% stat refers to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Many of us still think of RPI (Retail Price Index) as the […]