"Daddy, the lady at dancing class had toes coming out of her eyes and coming out of her ears!".
That's what 4 year-old Emily told me yesterday through rampant giggles, and I'm not one to disagree with her! One big observation of recent years as a parent - is the wonderfully wild imaginations that kids can have. Depending on what they may have been absorbing recently, whether it's Harry Potter stories or something lighter, such as 'Cocomelon' nursery rhymes, their minds can take a perfectly mundane daily event or encounter and turn it into a wild and scary thing. It's a wonderful privilege to see and hear it in action. The tangible impact of their imagination running mad are little or none, at least in the short term! The imagination does not usually cause an action or event to occur.
However, the same cannot be said of the imagination of us adult investors, particularly in the face of actual horrific world events, and subsequent detailed coverage of market movements. Reading the home page of any media outlet over the past week may well have had you terrified about your finances, even on days when the markets movements were up! That is their intention - to keep you clicking and reading. Clicks = Revenue, never forget!
This week we kick-off our podcast series where we share the journey of listener and client William Lacey, as he exits full-time employment.
This is a topic close to many listeners’ hearts, and William has offered to help us share insights that will help others.
William will join us every 6/8 weeks over the coming 12 months.
Each episode will see William and Paddy discuss William’s thinking, actions, priorities, concerns and outcomes as he transitions from full-time running his business.
This week hear his background, where he is right now, and the topics that are next on his list to clarify and decide-on.
Aside from deciding to actually accumulate money for your post-work living, the decision about 'when to take my pension benefit' is the biggest financial life decision that many of us will need to make. It is akin to breaking open the cookie-jar that we have been diligently accumulating for decades. For many, it is an emotional and financial conundrum, that I hope to help with. A combination of academic research and supporting people in this phase of life has given me some insights that I share here, and which I hope will be even somewhat helpful to you. No single article can address all that needs to be considered fully but the aspects we'll explore today in this questions of 'when to take my pension' are;