Why Digital Advice is the key to making pension planning easy-peasy
11 Oct, 2022
How can you get the most out of your retirement and make your money last as long as possible? That's the million dollar question.
It's all about looking at how much money you already have saved up and how much you'll need to fund the retirement you really want.
But planning for your post-work years can be a bit of a headache, so if you'd like some help to make your ideal retirement a reality, Digital Advice could be just what you're looking for.
What is Digital Advice?
Never heard of Digital Advice? You're not alone! Digital Advice is a hybrid of traditional, in-person financial advice and the digital, Do-It-Yourself option. It's a new and largely online way to get advice on money matters - on topics as wide-ranging as retirement planning to budgeting to starting out with investing - which uses high-tech algorithms to crunch your numbers and provide you with step-by-step guidance on how to manage your finances.
But don't be fooled by the name! Many Digital Advice services have real, actual human beings on hand to help you along the way. These professional financial advisers can be involved as much or as little as you want. So whether you want to sort your money out without speaking to a human adviser, or you're looking for some face-to-face human support with a more complex query, Digital Advice offers you the best of both worlds.
And what's more, Digital Advice is often significantly cheaper than the traditional advice route! It makes for an increasingly popular method of getting advice on planning for retirement and could give you the helpful nudge you need to pin down your retirement plans once and for all.
Digital Advice for retirement planning: What are the advantages?
So what makes Digital Advice so appealing? Here are a few of the pros of using Digital Advice that are making it an increasingly popular route for pension planners:
Get holistic advice and guidance from the comfort of your home
No need to do any complicated number-crunching - the computer does it for you!
The option to speak to a real financial adviser if you want
Simple, straightforward to use and quick solutions to your questions
Cheaper alternative to traditional, in-person advice
How has Digital Advice helped people like me plan for retirement?
Let's take a look at how Digital Advice has helped real people to plan for their retirement.
When 61-year-old Karen was made redundant after a recent divorce, she wasn’t sure whether to seek new employment or retire. Did she already have enough to leave the world of work, or did she still have some saving to do?
Either way, Karen knew what she wanted out of her retirement:
To live life to the full in the early years
To have enough money to support her daughter
To have enough money for holidays and home renovations
But as she hadn't dealt with her finances in much detail in the past, Karen wasn’t sure if she had enough pension savings to take the big step into retirement.
I knew what I wanted from my retirement. What I didn't know was whether what I had meant that I could take the plunge now, or whether I'd need to stay in work a little longer, and how much I could afford to spend in the years to come.
That's where a Digital Advice service was able to help, calculating that Karen needed an annual income of £17,000 to afford the retirement she wanted. But she also wanted to make sure that her income would last as long as possible, so she could keep supporting her daughter and going on holidays for many years to come.
Wanting further advice on how to make the most of her retirement income, Karen was paired with a financial adviser, who helped her to 'shape' her retirement plans to suit her unique needs - Karen could use £17,000 a year up until she reached 65, at which point she could reduce her annual income to £14,000 to make sure her savings lasted up until the age of 95.
Karen was able to plan for a retirement that allowed her to live life to the full for the first few years and also support her financially for as long as she needed. With all of this in place, Karen felt she could confidently wave the world of work goodbye and put her retirement plans into action.
I really valued having that extra bit of support from an adviser when thinking about my future. Ultimately, it meant I felt more in control of my finances and could confidently make the decision to wave the office goodbye.
Compare Digital Advice services
Interested in Digital Advice but not sure where to go? We're here to help. Head over to our Digital Advice compare table to see the Digital Advice services on the market, how we (and their customers) rate them, and what we think each one could help you with the most.
Not sure if Digital Advice is right for you?
Digital Advice can help you sort out many money matters, but you may be wondering if your needs are better suited to traditional, in-person financial advice.
Traditional advice may be better suited to you if...
You prefer to discuss your finances face-to-face with the same adviser
You need bespoke advice, such as help with inheritance tax or estate planning
You have complicated pension matters to sort out
If you've decided that traditional financial advice is the better option for you, check out our professional advisers to see who can help!
