How much Income do I need in my Retirement? 

This will obviously depend on your needs at the time, although most people have the concept that they need only a percentage of the income they received when they were working.  
Although your mortgage will have been paid off and any children will have now ‘flown the nest’, your quality of lifestyle will have improved as you benefit from a higher level of disposable income in your later working life. So with lesser financial burdens, the income you become use to prior to retirement is not normally something you would want to reduce drastically when you do finally retire.  

Establishing the sources of potential incomes in retirement would be a starting point. What State Pension can you expect? Will you be entitled to the full State benefit? Do you have any Employment Pension benefits, either from your current Employer or from previous employments? Do you have any Personal Pension provisions? Do you have any rental incomes from any investment properties you own? Do you have an Equity stake in a business, whereby you may sell your share or continue to receive an income? Have you been able to build up an Investment Portfolio, which again you may be able to draw income?  

In addition to this, ‘Timing’ will be of great importance, because you will find that different provisions will become payable at different times (i.e. a Company scheme may start to pay a pension before you receive your State Pension). One of the most important ‘Timing’ issues is if you are married/partnered. When one of you retires, will the other partner continue to work, or will you retire together?  

By seeking Independent Financial Advice you will be able to fully establish all your provisions and options, so as to ensure that you have no shortfalls in your income and to provide the most efficient way of deriving your retirement income.

January 2006

Stephen Le Fondré 
Director // Synergy Financial Services Ltd
Regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission

Your Most Valuable Asset - by Stephen Le Fondré 

What would you consider to be your most valuable Asset? Your Car? The contents of you Home? Your Property?  

One Asset that is often undervalued is the ability to earn an ‘Income’, and if you lost your income due to sickness or disability, what would be the effects. Could you afford to maintain your Lifestyle if you only had the State Benefit to depend on, or would you need to drastically cut back on your expenditure? Could you afford your Mortgage, your Rent, the School Fees, your Holidays, etc, - the repercussions could be truly devastating.  

So what value do you put on your income? Well if you are a 30-year old planning to work to age 65 on the Jersey average salary of £27,000pa, you would have the potential to earn £945,000, and if you included average earnings increases of 5% per annum that figure would be £2,560,580. So, could you afford to lose your Income, or is your most valuable Asset worth protecting?  

By seeking Independent Financial Advice, you can set up a provision, which in the event of Illness, will mean that you can maintain your quality of lifestyle, so you won’t have to worry about your income, and then you can then concentrate on more important things in life – like getting better.  

October 2005  

Stephen Le Fondré 
Director // Synergy Financial Services Ltd
Regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission

The Importance of Building up Savings - by Stephen Le Fondré

Building up savings is never easy, especially when there are so many other financial commitments to consider, but it is such an important part of financial planning. Having an accumulation of Savings, makes all the difference, in that instead of relying on short-term borrowings (e.g. credit cards, overdrafts and personal loans etc), to cover an expense, one has funds readily available.  

One of the main benefits of having accumulated Savings is that one doesn’t have an ongoing expense of paying off any short-term borrowing, which can, in some cases, work out quite expensive.  

Savings can be built up over the short-term using bank accounts, or over the longer term using various investment contracts, where the main aim is to get the best return on your monies.  

Seeking Independent Financial advice will assist you in setting up affordable Saving strategies, to cover both short-term and long-term expenses (e.g. Car purchase, Holidays, deposit for house purchase and the all important Wedding!).  

And always remember “You have worked hard for your money; now make sure your money works hard for you”    

August 2005

Stephen Le Fondré 
Director // Synergy Financial Services Ltd
Regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission

Your First Big Step on the Property Ladder -  by Stephen Le Fondré

When setting out to purchase your first home, there are many aspects to consider. But one of the most important must be ‘Affordability’.  
Affordability in mortgage terms is very simply how much you want to budget, on a monthly basis, towards the purchase of your new property. Before you start making unrealistic offers and getting caught up in bidding wars on a property that may seem to be your dream home, do your homework first to establish how much you can realistically afford to borrow.

By initially setting your perimeters, and more importantly sticking to them, will assist you in not over-committing yourselves to what will possibly be your largest monthly outgoing and largest liability that you will ever have to finance.
Seeking Independent Mortgage advice will also provide you with all the available options, so that you will be able to purchase your new home with confidence.

Happy house-hunting!

July 2005

Stephen Le Fondré 
Director // Synergy Financial Services Ltd
Regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission

The Importance of Planning Your Financial Journey - by Stephen Le Fondré

As with any journey there is a need to plan your route so as to reach your destination safely and in the most cost-effective way. This principle also applies when considering your long-term financial objectives.

We all know that feeling when travelling abroad and have driven many miles in the wrong direction, just because not enough time was given to planning the journey properly. But with a car journey though, it is easy to turn the car around and head in the right direction, however, with long-term financial planning you normally only have one go, and if you get it wrong, there isn’t usually a second chance.

Take planning for your retirement as an example, to delay making a provision, or having inadequate provision, will result in arriving at ones retirement with insufficient income.  The quality of your income in retirement dictates the quality of your lifestyle. A poor income will give you a poor lifestyle, a great income will give you a great lifestyle, you decide.

Take Independent Professional advice on your options, now. It is important to start planning early and making the right decisions and provisions now so as to ensure that you arrive at your retirement destination financially secure.

Always remember though, having to turn a car around on a journey is an inconvenience, arriving at your retirement with insufficient income, would be a disaster.

June 2005

Stephen Le Fondré 
Director // Synergy Financial Services Ltd
Regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission