This week is supposed to be Pension Awareness Week. September is a particularly popular month to be aware of everything from Sourdough to Urology, from Sexual Health to Balance, from Jeans for Genes to Hygiene.
Now, somewhat bizarrely, is also time for The Great British Spring Clean, rescheduled thanks to Coronavirus. Charity PRs love these awareness days, weeks and months that pass most of the rest of us by.
One thing that shouldn’t pass you by the older you get is the subject pensions so it’s good to see the current focus on this all-important topic. Over the last few years I’ve managed to unearth a long lost pension and then spent a painful few months trying to consolidate a few small pension schemes.
At various points in my pension journey I’ve wanted to seek advice from a financial expert but have either been put off by the cost or felt that I couldn’t trust the advice as being truly independent.
By way of example when you search ‘Pension Awareness Week’ online almost all the information is provided by companies that want to get their hands on your pension money. Sadly the supposed free advice services are so vague or risk averse to be virtually useless.
That’s why I was so pleased to discover an excellent website with a wide range of really useful articles about pensions, some frankly I wished I’d read a few years ago.
The site is called rest less – not sure about the name after another night of poor sleep though I get the double meaning – but the content of the site really impresses me.
It covers of topics of interest to the over 50s, some of which I will review in future blogs, if the other parts of the site are as useful as the pensions section I can see me becoming that little bit more restless!
The part of the site headed pension basics covers the following:
- How to get advice on your pension
- How the State Pension works
- How much should I save for retirement?
- Don’t let scammers steal your retirement
- Pension Credit explained
Additionally there are other sections packed with useful information under the headings of approaching retirement, your options at retirement and managing your money in retirement.
The best thing about the site is that at no point could I find a link through to some ‘advisor’ who inevitably, it seems, places their own interests ahead of those of their potential customers.