Retirement Planning the Offshore Way

Written by R.L. Williamson


Retirement Planningrepparttar Offshore Way

Why do so many of us constantly pushrepparttar 112391 thought of retirement planning torepparttar 112392 back of our minds?

Reluctance…!

1Reluctance to save for an event that seems so far off 2Reluctance to tie in to an inflexible pension scheme 3Reluctance to put a large portion of our current income out of reach forrepparttar 112393 long term

But in terms of retirement planning, putting off until tomorrow that which you could get done today will end up costing you very dearly.

Every month you delay your retirement savings planning, you significantly reducerepparttar 112394 value of your future potential retirement fund. Or put another way, every month you delay your retirement savings planning you significantly increaserepparttar 112395 amount that you will need to invest to achieverepparttar 112396 same level of retirement income than if you’d started today.

If a 25 year old and a 35 year old were to start saving for retirement at 55 andrepparttar 112397 25 year old invested £300 a month towards retirement,repparttar 112398 35 year old would have to increase his contributions to £803 a month to achieverepparttar 112399 same potential returns.

Atrepparttar 112400 state retirement age of 65repparttar 112401 average man will have some 19 more years to live andrepparttar 112402 average woman, 22 years. You will have to support yourself without work and, very likely, without state income.

This means that you will spend 25% to 30% of your life in retirement.

You will need substantial sums of money to support yourself in retirement inrepparttar 112403 manner to which you will have become accustomed throughout your life to date.

Recent figures show that individuals aged between 25 and 44 are saving 1/3rd ofrepparttar 112404 amount they should be saving in order to support their current lifestyle in retirement.

In most countries you are forced to make your own pension provision if you want to have any chance of a comfortable retirement. The value ofrepparttar 112405 government pension that you could once rely on is diminishing every year.

Ready to Start Planning?

If you’re an expatriate you are in a more privileged position than most – chances are you’re enjoying a higher salary and extra benefits as a result of working away from home. Furthermore expatriates have greater freedom when it comes to making investment decisions: they are not necessarily restricted byrepparttar 112406 same regulations that domestic investors experience.

An Infinity Mortgage ?

Written by Jenny Barclay


Here in Spainrepparttar concept of a mortgage period of 20 or 25 years is something new. The general feeling byrepparttar 112390 banks is that want their money back more quickly than banks in countries in which they are accustomed to longer periods. The borrowers are also accustomed torepparttar 112391 idea thatrepparttar 112392 guiding principle is to pay offrepparttar 112393 mortgage as quickly as possible.

First Timers

The problem for all those people starting out onrepparttar 112394 property ladder isrepparttar 112395 amount of money that has to go out each month to putrepparttar 112396 roof over one’s head. At least this is true forrepparttar 112397 early years, but not necessarily as the4 years go by, sincerepparttar 112398 advent of inflation. Cases that we studied showed e.g a couple, whose monthly income was £400, having to pay £150 per month in mortgage payment. Althoughrepparttar 112399 interest fluctuations since then have meant varying payments, as a percentage of their current monthly income of £2,000 per month,repparttar 112400 mortgage does not now seem so horrendous.

Varying interest rates

The mistake made by many lenders in boom times is to conveniently forgetrepparttar 112401 possible variation in interest rates duringrepparttar 112402 early years. While a doubling ofrepparttar 112403 payment inrepparttar 112404 case mentioned above would not be a disaster now, had it occurred duringrepparttar 112405 early years it could have lead to foreclosure, and them losing their dream home. In our study we found various examples of interest rates going from 3% to 16% in very short periods of time. Mayberepparttar 112406 lenders should have insisted on doingrepparttar 112407 relevant calculations, assuming a high rate, to check ifrepparttar 112408 borrowers could affordrepparttar 112409 payment duringrepparttar 112410 first few years inrepparttar 112411 event of this occurring. Askingrepparttar 112412 potential borrower would not necessarily have produced a sensible result, as many that we spoke to said, “It’s OK, we’ll manage somehow.” Unfortunately, for thousands of borrowers, this turned out not to berepparttar 112413 case. One case showed an initial payment of £269 per month, on an income of £800 per month, which ballooned to £690 per month on an income of £900 per month, with devastating consequences.

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