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One of the toughest aspects of ageing that will impact almost all of us in one way or another is the gradual deterioration in our cognitive functions.
So how do you future proof your retirement finances, that is the subject of this article from Vanessa Glennie of the Lifetime Retirement Income team.
You can read the original article here: Memory fails, bills don’t – future-proof your retirement finances Or you can read the article published in full below and tell us what you think in the comments section.
* The stories are based on a scenario involving Lifetime Retirement Income customers or prospective customers, the names and details have been changed to protect privacy.
Memory fails, bills don’t – future-proof your retirement finances
A mild annoyance
Mary*, a retired teacher, always prided herself on her sharp mind and excellent recall, so found it unsettling when her memory started failing her.
"I found myself unable to remember the names of former students and started misplacing my keys and struggling to recall dates or what I’d talked about with friends even if it had only happened the previous week.
“It was more frustrating than anything, especially being a retired English teacher and having to get used to not having the right word on the tip of my tongue when I needed it! And I started feeling more stressed about money and whether I was spending too much, when I’d always been quite on top of budgeting, even before my husband passed away,” she said.
Mary’s experience will probably resonate with many seniors grappling with age-related cognitive decline, which tends to show up as mild but noticeable changes in memory, as well as in the ability to reason and process complex information. Annoying, but not disastrous.
Or a challenging diagnosis
For others, however, the deterioration is more severe. Having had a job in the finance industry, Steve* had always enjoyed managing his and wife Diane’s* money.
“He just loved getting into his office, shutting the door and spending hours at a time researching investments and playing around with his spreadsheets,” Diane says.
“We used to joke that playing with money was his version of golf.”
Little surprise then that Steve felt confident he could manage their money once they’d both retired and keep them in good financial stead for the rest of their lives.
Diane says things were going well and they had a fantastic standard of living to begin with.
But then things started to go wrong for Steve.
“He started to experience some cognitive decline - it was quite subtle at first, just forgetting little things here and there, not shutting drawers or doors. Getting things a bit muddled.”
The flow-on effects
By the time Steve had a medical diagnosis and was ready to hand over the financial reins, things were in a pickle. And Diane just didn’t know where to start.“He’d been forgetting to pay bills and his accounting no longer made sense. There were errors everywhere. I didn’t even know about all the assets we had in the first place!
“I felt like I was in the middle of a financial maze. And how was I going to look after Steve, unravel this financial mess and learn to start managing the money as well? It was terrifying. I started to worry I wouldn’t be able to make the money we had last the distance. I just felt so unprepared for the job,” Diane said.
Reality check
Whether it’s simply being a little more forgetful and slower to get the cogs firing, or being confronted with a dementia diagnosis, the reality is that it’s harder for all of us to make complex financial decisions as we age. And there are few things in finance more complex than generating a sufficient income in retirement that lasts as long as you do.
In a recent study of the global pension industry, experts at Mercer and the CFA Institute offered six recommendations for improving retirement outcomes, one being that it’s imperative private pension providers recognise that cognitive ability declines with age and bake this into their retirement income products.
Specifically, such products “should not require retirees to make ongoing decisions throughout life and the benefits provided should be relatively stable and sustainable”.
The good news is that Lifetime Retirement Income was founded to do exactly this.
So its important to find providers who can future-proof retirement for you and your love ones . Lifetime Retirement Income understand this and know that managing retirement finances can be a challenge, especially as we age and life gets more complicated. So their products are designed to provide a stable, long-term retirement plan, with the inbuilt flexibility to adjust to changing needs.
With annual reviews and options for joint accounts, they can offer peace of mind and financial stability, so you can focus on making the most of your golden years.
Have you thought about Lifetime Retirement Income to look after your money in retirement?
If you’d like to find out more about any of our retirement income solutions, including Lifetime Income, Lifetime Home and Lifetime Invest, their locally-based income specialists are on hand to chat.
So click on the button below and contact Lifetime Retirement Income to find out more.
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