Planning your retirement? Our pension drawdown calculators can help you.

Helping you save and plan for retirement is one of the most important things a financial adviser can do for you.

Living comfortably in the present, while having confidence that you can afford your desired lifestyle in retirement is a tricky balancing act, but a good retirement plan can ensure your aspirations are realistic and achievable.

Whether you opt for an Annuity or Flexi-Access Drawdown, at Credencis, we have pension drawdown calculators that can help you.

And the importance of advice doesn’t stop once you retire. Managing your pension income – especially if you opt for Flexi-Access Drawdown – can be tricky. We can help there too, so get in touch.

Before the introduction of Pension Freedoms in 2015, an Annuity was the go-to option when taking your pension income.

You can take up to 25% tax-free cash and use the remainder of your fund to buy a regular income. You choose the frequency of payment, as well as any ‘extras’ such as a spouse’s pension or an increasing payment to counter the effects of inflation.

Once you have settled on your Annuity, it’s unlikely you will be able to change it. It is inflexible and can’t consider future changes in your circumstances or needs.

But it is a regular and stable income, and this makes budgeting in retirement easier. An Annuity pays for life, so you’ll have no concerns about running out of money.

Use our pension calculator to input how many years you are away from retirement and the amount you think you can afford to contribute. Our calculator will let you know how much you could expect to receive at retirement.

If you already have pension pots, you can also add their values.

You can also state how much you’d like to receive at retirement. Our calculator will let you know if you currently have a pension shortfall and how much you would need to contribute to make up that shortfall.

Speak to us and we can take a holistic view of your finances and help put a realistic plan in place to get you where you want to be.

Drawdown has been around for some time, but Flexi-Access Drawdown arrived as part of Pension Freedoms.

As with an Annuity, you can take tax-free cash up to a maximum of 25%, but, unlike an Annuity, the rest of your fund remains invested.

You can then make withdrawals as and when you like, giving you the freedom to decide how much you need at one time, and how much is left.

Flexi-Access Drawdown gives you enormous control over how and when you take your pension. If your fixed costs are covered elsewhere, you might use drawdown to cover discretionary expenses, like holidays.

You are squarely in control of your pension income, but the emphasis is on you to budget responsibly.

Ensuring you don’t run out of money, especially during periods of market volatility, can be tricky. Try our calculator and then speak to us.

Input the number of years you are away from retirement; plus the amount you’d like to designate to drawdown. You can also stipulate how much you’d like to withdraw each year.

Our calculator will confirm the amounts you can take and provide a graph to show how much of your fund will be used up over 20 years.

With Capped Drawdown, you take tax-free cash (up to the standard 25%) and the rest is invested to provide you with an income. That income is taxable and can rise and fall with the stock market. It is not guaranteed to pay for the rest of your life.

The amount you can take as income is capped. Your maximum income amount, calculated using Government Actuary Department (GAD) rates, is reviewed every three years until you reach age 75, after which it is reviewed annually.

If you exceed the cap, you are then considered to be using Flexi-Access Drawdown. Once this happens, you can’t go back into Capped Drawdown.

Enter all the relevant details into our Capped Drawdown calculator and it will tell you the maximum amount you can receive each year, without exceeding the cap.

Capped Drawdown is complicated and once the cap is exceeded there’s no going back, so speak to us if you’re unsure about any withdrawals you plan to make.