Part one: planning to make your dream retirement a reality?

It’s often difficult to imagine what the future will look like – especially when you’re young! It’s even more challenging to plan effectively for a future you can’t imagine while the immediate issues and responsibilities you face on a daily basis take up most of your time.

For some, retirement might feel like the end of an era – a time to slow down and settle for a quieter way of life but with many of us living longer, healthier lives maintaining that full and busy lifestyle when we eventually stop working is fast becoming the norm. It’s worth remembering that you will still be the same you when you retire but with the added benefit of not having to go into work every day!

So let’s think for a moment about what you really want your retirement to look like, and some of the aspects of your daily life that you may currently take for granted. What plans do you need to put in place to make your dream retirement a reality . . ?

Maintaining your current lifestyle

Do you have an active social life, enjoy dining out, weekending with friends, have hobbies and organisations that you belong to? These are the things that make you, you and likely bring you a great deal of pleasure! Having more time to spend on them once you retire is truly something to look forward to, but it’s worth remembering that you will need to factor the associated costs in when you’re working out your later life budget.

Take a look at the cost of living example below. It will give you a good idea of just how much prices have risen for some essential living costs over the decades:

1978	£14,054	17p	£3.60	£2,760
1998	£73,261	71p	£10.03	£12,500
2008	£211,119	£1.04	£1.04	£15,800
2018	£255,325	£1.19	£13.60	£21,164

Prices taken from the ‘Back in the day’ website which uses data from ONS, the AA, Nationwide Building Society and the National Archive.

Whatever retirement looks like for you personally, you can never save or plan for it too early. 4me has a wealth of interactive tools, short videos and a comprehensive library to help you with planning for the future. Find out more about how 4me can help you here.