Described by The Investors Chronicle as the “holy grail solution” for anyone wanting to take control of their retirement finances, RetireEasy.co.uk has proved to be the online tool of choice of thousands of people heading towards the day when they will depend upon their pensions, investments and savings. But how does it work? And, critically, would it work for you?

Let’s start with a comparison. If you have your investments and pensions managed by an IFA, they will ask you what you want your retirement to look like: when you plan to give up work; how much you want to draw down each year during your retirement; whether you need to find funds for other family members and so on. They will then crunch the numbers through have some very clever software that will help them propose a package of financial products to achieve your targets.

Retireeasy.co.uk is an independent, web-based retirement planning tool, in fact the only one of its kind and sophistication, that does pretty much everything the IFAs’ software programs do… except that YOU are in direct control.

It’s also simple and intuitive to use – and costs just a few pounds a month.

Retireeasy.co.uk was designed specifically to enable users to understand how much (on their current trajectory) they will have available to live on in every year of retirement and how long their money will last. Knowing that enables the user to either start saving more, work longer and/or spend less… or relax knowing that their finances in retirement are one less thing to worry about.

Moreover, you can at any time you wish (day or night!) check up on how your plans are faring and explore other future scenarios. What happens if you have to leave work earlier than you’d hoped? You need to pay for elective surgery? Or an offspring needs a helping hand?

If your circumstances change, or you want to consider some different life options, a few minutes’ work will give you all the answers… at-a-glance.

Planning your retirement finances, step by step

The RetireEasy suite of LifePlan products is web-based and designed to be intuitive and logical to use by anyone with even basic computer skills. The programs take you through the required inputs of your finances in a step-by-step fashion that makes it user friendly at all stages.

Importantly, at the same time the LifePlans are comprehensive and can model extremely complex situations.

You start by entering your personal details (and your partner’s, if applicable). You will then be prompted to make some basic assumptions: such as how much you want to have to spend each year in retirement and then forecasts of inflation, yields and growth of investments and assets, etc. Since the program is designed to run for up to 40 years from retirement, it is clearly impossible to know for certain what some of these figures should be and so the assumptions can be refined at any time based on experience to date and changed expectations.

The “Couples” version (which costs the same as the Singles one) includes separate tax tables and the ability to allocate all assets – including pensions, investments and income between the partners.

The program will then guide you through the financial inputs required to produce the reports and charts that will illustrate your financial future in retirement. These include details of:

• Your pensions (including State Pension, final salary, SIPP or SSAS and private pensions)
• Your home, any other homes and mortgages
• Potential downsizes
• Possibility of a Lifetime Mortgage
• Investments, including tax free ISAs and National Savings; stocks and shares, bonds and other taxable investments
• Property investments such as buy-to-lets and commercial real estate
• Other assets such as a caravan, boat etc. that might be sold at some point to bolster income later
• Debts and loans
• Income in retirement, whether full or part time
• Anticipated future income – perhaps from an inheritance or business sale
• Future additional expenditures such as grandchildren’s’ school fees
• Annual growth in desired income or one-off reductions in later life
• Provision for funding care and/or care home costs

In all these categories you have the opportunity to ‘Add more’ fields – whether that be pensions, investments, incomes and so on. And each individual pension or investment can be allocated different yields and growth rates, if required.

Your future finances at a glance

Having completed the inputs – which can take upwards from just 30 minutes depending on complexity and the ready availability of the relevant information – you will be presented with a series of easily-understood charts which will illustrate your income, assets, and liabilities in every year of retirement.

You will also see a snapshot on every page showing when your liquid funds will run out, meaning you would need to reduce your outgoings or sell any fixed assets.

If the chart showing when “the money runs out” is sooner than you’d hoped, you can then make an informed decision to, perhaps, save more prior to retirement or delay it for a while, reduce your desired income, plan a downsize or take out a Lifetime Mortgage at some point in the future.

If the money looks like never running out, you can simply relax… perhaps think about helping out a family member… or even think about taking that cruise you’ve always promised yourself.

How much is peace of mind worth?

If you haven’t tried RetireEasy, take a look now. It could change your life and end “retirement anxiety” by putting YOU in control of your future.

And if you previously used RetireEasy to get a snapshot of your situation, now might be the perfect time to come back and stay on top of your retirement finances.

RetireEasy is available via monthly subscriptions from £5.99 per month, it’s cancellable at any time, or via an annual discounted premium form £60 per annum. And it’s entirely secure and confidential.