A free talk on pensions is being delivered on Wed 6th April at The Claremont Hotel at 5:15. It will cost you nothing, nobody is selling anything - it is purely intended to give you information to help you to understand your options, to know what questions to ask, what are the benefits and what to be careful about where pensions are concerned. This is a subject that many people shy away from for a number of reasons: it’s hard enough to deal with the financial implications of today; we believe we are too young; it all seems so complicated or sometimes there is just general apathy: another day/year will be soon enough. But the truth is that burying our head in the sand for any reason is no longer an option. The free financial planning workshops held over the last few months have talked about the need to plan for our future, and retirement planning is part of this. Ask the majority of retired people (even those with a good income) and most still wish that they had started planning earlier in their life than they did. In fact, ask people above the age of 40 and though retirement may be 30 years away they are wishing the same. Think about this: 40 years ago when people retired they had a life expectancy of about 3-5 years. Now that expectation is anything up to 30 years - the money you save for your retirement MUST go much, much further than it used to. If you haven’t planned for your retirement then IF you have paid your full National Insurance Contributions you will be entitled to a full state pension (it will be pro-rated amount if you have not). At present the full state pension (with the Manx supplement) is ?145.30 per week (which is some ?47 more than the adjacent isle). Could you live on that amount? If not, then you NEED to make provision to have some further income on retirement. Also, the age of retirement for both sexes is on the move, and with the older generation beginning to outnumber the younger generation we have to wonder how long will the state pension continue to be even this generous? Hopefully, if we think about these issues, we may pay a little more attention to planning our retirement, and one of the main instruments doing that is a pension. Unfortunately, that’s a word that seems to send everyone running to the nearest hiding place. I understand that pensions seem complicated, but then so is anything if we don’t have enough knowledge to make informed decisions. With just a little more information, you would also know the benefits that can be gained… like paying less income tax, for example. I promise: no forms to fill in, no sales pitch: just a helping hand by way of information from well-informed people. Take your first step to better understanding the issues and contact TLC on 664789 or info@tlc.co.im and reserve a space. It will be an hour well spent. Ends