There is now no doubt that we are in a period of great uncertainty – all the more reason to revisit and update your ReireEasy LifePlan.

Donald Trump is teetering on the brink of triggering a trade war, with who knows what end game. How that would affect the UK is impossible to predict but, as part of the EU we would be vulnerable to any of the tit-for-tat tariffs being threatened, although the US could aim its toughest measures against Germany since it is already felt that that country is trading unfairly by benefitting from the relatively depressed Euro. If this results in lower exports for the UK, we could be looking at a return to recession with redundancies and therefore lower demand for our crucial service industries leading to further redundancies…

The FTSE 100 has fallen below its 1999 peak! How much further can it go and what does this mean for the value of our investments? And if it bounces back, how will that affect us individually as retirees or potential retirees?

Russia is increasingly flexing her muscles and just might take reciprocal action; possibly to include limiting the UK’s gas supplies, potentially ramping up energy costs.

Inflation is still too high here at 2.7%, although it seems to be trending down, which would suggest that interest rates will remain subdued for some time.

Sterling is at its highest level for many months against both the dollar and the Euro, again helping to limit inflation. But, to me appearing to defy gravity.

And then there is Brexit! We are making one concession after another, so weakening (if you are a Brexiteer) or strengthening (if you’re a Europhile) the prospects for the British economy.

This is perhaps the biggest cause of uncertainty for us at home. Will there be a hard or soft Brexit, will London’s financial market be hit by a massive move to the EU, and what will be the effect on the UK’s trade with our erstwhile partners?

Bottom line is that any, or all, of these unknowns (not forgetting the unknown unknowns) can seriously derail our (not to mention the global) economy and that would seriously hurt our own personal prospects.

The only way to understand the implications for us as individuals is to be able to model and compare every single outcome. That’s impossible, but with a RetireEasy LifePlan at your fingertips you can get a much better understanding of the impact (or otherwise) of significant movements in stock values and interest rates. And, because you are modelling these scenarios over up to 40 years, your long term finances may well be a lot less volatile than you might expect. It’s dead easy to do with RetireEasy’s portfolio of cash flow based LifePlan products.

If you have RetireEasy Premium, you will be able to save and compare scenarios. That way you will always be in possession of the information you need to make educated decisions about your future and to make some sense of this volatile world as it affects you personally