Over-50s focus on retirement income as new year begins

While January is a popular time to plan the annual family holiday or to establish a new health regime, it appears the UK’s over-50s are just as likely to spend this month giving themselves a financial workout.

Research from Saga Investment Services shows that just under half of those aged 50 and over plan to spend time sorting out their finances in January.

Over-50s will spend hours planning for retirement this month

With the ISA season approaching, this could be why almost half of over-50s have set aside six-and-a-half hours to review their finances and retirement income in January. People in their fifties planned to spend five hours doing so in January, many of whom may be taking advantage of the new pensions freedoms.

Apart from sorting out their finances, the biggest focus for over-50s in January is less surprising, with a little over four-and-a-half hours devoted to planning a holiday. A quarter of health-conscious people said they would spend almost four hours planning for a healthier lifestyle and one in seven said they would spend January focusing on a new hobby.

Sally Merritt, head of product, Saga Investment Services, said: “While it’s heartening that people put as much thought into their finances as their holiday, we know the majority feel unprepared in the run-up to retirement and sometimes daunted by the prospect of getting to grips with their finances.

When we think about retirement, most of us simply hope to continue to do the things we love after we stop working and one of the best ways to make that happen is to review your personal finances to make sure you’re on track to reach your goals. But it’s all too easy to put it off until a later date.

“It sometimes helps to look at your finances in bitesize chunks and we’ve tried to make it easier with our Look Ahead tool, which enables you to put in some simple information about your pensions and savings and the sort of retirement you want and then lets you know if you are on track to achieve this.

“The new year is the perfect time to think about the things you’ve been looking forward to doing – like planning your holidays or taking up a new hobby – but it can also be a great time to do the things you’ve been putting off, like getting in shape, or reviewing your personal finances.”