10 Ways to Boost Your Retirement Income.

Are you confident that your retirement income will enable you to enjoy a comfortable retirement?

The good news is that baby boomers are living longer than their parents. Many are expected to live for 25 - 30 years past their retirement age.

The bad news is that the majority of baby boomers have not saved enough to meet the rising cost of living during their golden years. Their pension will not stretch far enough to meet the escalating costs of healthcare, food and utility bills.

Baby boomers with defined contribution pension funds and who are planning to retire soon will be hit by a triple whammy effect of:

• rising inflation resulting in higher cost of living
• market volatility leading to poor fund performance resulting in a smaller pension pot to purchase their lifetime annuity, and
• historically low annuity rates resulting in buying lower incomes for life.

Their dream of taking early retirement is dashed. Many feel that they are forced to carry on working until they are in their 70's.

Those who have to live only on state pension or social security will have to start saving now to supplement their retirement income when they finally give up work. It's never too late to save for your retirement.

If you've taken the initiative and planned for your retirement at an early age, congratulations. You should give yourself a pat on the back as you are in the minority.

Retirement planning usually involves regular reviewing of your retirement plan to ensure that your pension pot is on track to provide you with the level of retirement income you will need for a comfortable lifestyle in your golden years.

10 ways to boost your retirement income

1. If you already have a company pension in place, you can save more money in an Additional Voluntary Contribution (AVC) plan. This can be your company's own AVC or you can invest outside your company by contributing towards a Free Standing AVC (FSAVC). The management charges in your company's AVCs are normally lower than the charges in the FSAVC.
2. Save in an Investment ISA or a Cash ISA. All your gains from an investment ISA and interests from your Cash ISA, are free from UK tax.
3.Save in a flexible stakeholder pension which is a money purchase pension. The monthly payments are also low (as little as £20) and you can decide to stop and restart payments whenever you wish to suit your financial circumstances.
4. You can defer taking your State pension. Defer taking your taking your pension until a later date will boost your pension when you retire.
5.You may have joined pension schemes of previous employers that you may have forgotten about. You need to do your homework and trace your forgotten pension schemes.
6. Do you qualify for pension credit? The pension credit guarantees that your income does not fall below £137.35 per week if you're single or £209.70 if you have a partner.
7. Your pension provider may not offer you the best annuity rate when you decide to buy an annuity. You should use the Open Market Option to shop for the best annuity in the market. This can help to boost your retirement income by thousands of pounds over the rest of your life.
8. If you have health problems (e.g. if you're a smoker or if you've a terminal illness) you should disclose them when you're shopping for an annuity. You'll usually get an enhanced annuity which will boost your retirement income considerably.
9. Top up you state pension by buying back missing NI contributions. Those retiring after 6th April 2010 will need 30 qualifying years of contribution to receive a full state pension. So if you can fulfil this requirement by the time you retire you need not bother to top up you NI contributions. You can find out how much state pension you're entitled by contacting the State Pension Forecasting Team on 0845 300 0168.
10. You may decide to retire later and this will help to boost your retirement income substantially when you buy an annuity at a later date.

The key to maximizing your retirement income is to start saving for retirement as soon as you commence work when you are in your 20's. You should take full advantage of tax allowances and your employer's contributions, as they are free money, to boost your pension pot.