We illustrate how planning ahead really can make a difference to the choices you have in later life, especially if you need care.

Assess your current lifestyle

When beginning their financial planning journey, many clients underestimate just how much they spend on day to day living. Larger expenditure such as mortgage, car loan, school fees, main holidays, etc, are no surprise, but they soon discover it’s the little things that mount up. By separating the necessities from the nice-to-have, a clearer picture emerges as to what expenses will be around by the time you retire; this enables you to gauge what ‘nice to have’s’ you’d like to retain, once employment income ceases.

Decide when you’d like to retire

Most of us have a retirement age in mind, usually based on the current State Pension age of 67. However, the majority of my clients with a financial plan, aim for 57 onwards, the age most of us can begin drawing our workplace and/or personal pensions. 

The Government has legislated for the State Pension age of retirement to rise further from 67 to 68 between 2044 and 2046, affecting those born on or after 6 April 1977. Further rises beyond 68 are not yet legally decided, but are widely expected to be considered in future government reviews, due to ageing and financial pressures.

Add to this, the fact we’re all living longer lives. The Office for National Statistics Life Expectancy Calculator¹, shows life expectancy at 67 for a female as 88, and a male as 85. However, 1 in 4 females have a chance of living to 94, and males to 92. By selecting a date you’d like to retire, this gives you a meaningful timeline to set your goals to achieve the financial freedom you’d like.

Imagine what your retirement will look like

This is an important aspect of the planning. Some clients see retirement as the freedom to spend more time with family and friends taking life easy, others have set goals – exploring the World, whether cruising, buying a camper van and touring, maybe planning regular long weekends in the UK or Europe. Some plan to downsize and set up a new home to release capital and enjoy whatever life may offer. How do you see yours?

Undertake cashflow planning

Many clients, keen to ensure they have enough funds for the retirement they envisage, undergo cashflow planning to establish where they are now. This not only shines a visual light on your current financial position, it also enables the staging of life events such as a wedding, funding university fees, special holidays, etc, identifying any money gaps along the way.

What really makes a difference?

When imagining your long-term future – in my experience more difficult in your 20s and 30s – we should include how many years we could spend in retirement.  I only need look to my parents and the early retirement opportunities they enjoyed from 55. This was down to the fact they began saving into a pension in their early twenties, not because they thought about future retirement, more that the companies they were employed by had an auto-enrolment pension scheme in place.

But as a rule, the younger you start paying into a pension the better. Compound interest (interest on your interest) means the longer your money grows within your chosen fund, the more opportunity it has to offer you a comfortable financial future.

Where are you financially today?

When any of us look at where we are today, we may be shocked to learn how little income our savings will provide.

The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) analyses the cost of living each year to give savers a general figure to enable them to develop their own personal targets. They separate out their calculations into Minimum, Moderate and Comfortable standard of living, for both singles and couples. The PLSA’s latest figures,² released in July 2026, illustrate a single person will need £13,900 a year to achieve the Minimum living standard. For Moderate, they would need £32,700 a year, and for a Comfortable lifestyle, £45,400, which includes a two-week holiday in Europe and several UK mini breaks.

Can I avoid selling my home?

And of course, living such long lives also comes with challenges. Many of us will need care, a considerable cost with the price varying according to where you live and the type of care you need. You won’t have to sell your home to pay for help in your own home, but you may have to sell your home to pay for a care home, unless your partner carries on living in, and there may be other ways to pay care home fees if you don’t want to sell your home straight away³.

So it’s important to discover where you are financially now. This gives you more opportunity to maximise savings in a workplace pension pot, make regular payments into an ISA, understand what other ways we could invest, and take full advantage of any tax benefits open to you.

Have any questions?

You can find out more about our Lifestyle Cashflow Planning Service here, and read our testimonials to discover how we help our clients manage their financial journey.

Lifestyle planning is just one of our areas of expertise, so do get in touch if you’d like a no obligation chat to see if I’m able to help.

The value of an investment with St. James’s Place will be directly linked to the performance of the funds selected and may fall as well as rise. You may get back less than the amount invested.

Auto-Enrolment products are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Sources

1  Office for National Statistics Life Expectancy Calculator July 2026

2  Retirement Living Standards, Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association, July 2026. All figures quoted were developed by the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University on behalf of the PLSA.

3  nhs.uk July 2026

SJP Approved 31/07/2026