Podcast #47: The Dangers Of Trivial Pensions......And How To Avoid Them!

When It Comes To Pension Planning We Will Get Our Just Deserts: Deserts is apparently the plural of 'desert' which is 'that which one deserves'....honestly I always assumed it was to do with the jelly & ice-cream type of desserts.....but had never given it much thought in fairness! The same is most certainly true of Pensions. It would be hard to put it any more simply than I am about to now; You will only get a lot out if you put a lot in. If you are haphazard about your approach to funding for retirement then it is quite likely that the benefits you get from yours may be haphazard too. Coming at you 'live' (and sideways) from Kenmare!   Blame Your Advisor: It may seem a bit pomp of us but your advisor (assuming you have one!) is absolutely at the coal-face of ensuring you know exactly where your level of income in retirement is headed. As we like to harp on about here 'begin with the end in mind' , otherwise what's the point in beginning! If you find out upon retiring that your income is a million miles (or euros!) off what you were expecting, then much of that blame falls on your advisor. Now, if your advisor had been trying and trying to get through to you that you need to x,y & z in preparation for retirement yet you were only willing to do a,b & c then it's on you unfortunately! So I Have A Pension, What Could Possibly Go Wrong!? Imagine for a second that you are all of a sudden telegraphed onto a perfectly good aircraft. You are sitting beside an open door of the aircraft at 12,000 feet with a parachute strapped to your back. Yer man is shouting at you to jump out the door and to pull the parachute chord in 15 seconds. What is your first thought right now......................? While I have yet to test it in clinical studies I guess a lot of us think about that life-saving piece of equipment strapped to our back......will it open, will it work right, was it packed right, how fast will I descend......a whole host of concerns might enter our minds..... Learn more about trivial pensions, and how to avoid some key mistakes when it comes to pension planning & financial planning in Ireland. Thanks for checking it out. Paddy Delaney QFA | RPA | APA | Qualified Coach