Following on from our earlier blog on how we see our future selves, inspired by research we conducted with just under 1,700 MyEva users earlier this year; we have delved deeper still and addressed the scary elephant in the room - ‘Will I have enough money to live on when I retire?’.
Part of our mandate is to make financial advice accessible and affordable for everyone, so simplicity is always key when it comes to making this happen. Enter, MyEva’s three-step process to answering difficult and often scary questions like these:
Step 1: Take the financial health check
Step one can be daunting in itself as it means facing-up to the realities of our own financial situation, as well as potentially asking questions about any ‘associated debt’ attached to our partners or the people that we flatshare with.
Even if we’ve been careful with our money and those around us have good financial habits, there are other external factors that can cause anxiety about where we’re at in relation to our goals. The dreaded midnight scroll on Instagram keeps us awake and silently comparing ourselves to whoever is flavour of the month, whether that be Love Island’s Molly-Mae Hague, who is thought to command over £7,000 from advertisers for a single post, or our investment banker cousin!
According to a report into earnings across the UK, women’s earnings peak during their thirties (£558-£613 a week) and men’s peak at £544-£680 per week when they’re in their forties. Taking statistics like this into account when we’re evaluating our own pay packet could serve to demoralise or even send us into a tailspin if we haven’t quite reached those figures at the ages specified.
Ultimately, MyEva makes it easier to be honest without allowing panic to set in. There is, more often than not, plenty of time to turn things around before retirement if we can work out how much we will need to live on past pensionable age; then factor-in things like travel and increased leisure on top of that. Take your financial health check now.
Step 2:See your priorities
After your health check, MyEva will save you the bother of creating yet another Excel spreadsheet and convert your answers into a digital checklist, which you can log in and see any time.
The checklist includes points relating to all aspects of your financial future (and present), like, ‘Who will receive my private pension when I pass away?’ and ‘Build my savings buffer’ and, based on the things you haven’t ticked off, MyEva will send you nudges and reminders by email.Ever the practical ones here at MyEva HQ, you won’t simply be given a list of things to do and be sent on your merry way - quite the opposite, in fact! We have a team of regulated human advisers, both internally and ones who form part of our trusted external network, to answer your questions and set specific actions in motion.
Step 3: Get regulated financial advice
MyEva is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) under the name ‘Wealth Wizards Benefits Limited’. The FCA is responsible for regulating the UK’s financial industry, so you can be assured that the adviser we might signpost you to is being held accountable and encouraged to operate with best practice guidelines in mind.
One thing we seem to talk about every day at MyEva HQ is the ‘advice gap’ - regular readers of our blog will have no doubt come across this term before. This phrase is common parlance in the financial services sector and describes the fact that too many working people are not seeking financial advice; mainly because they don’t believe it’s for them or that they don’t earn enough to partake in it. It also appears in conversations around a lack of new recruits to the financial advice profession, which will have a negative impact on future generations who might find it harder to find someone offering the service in their local area - this is already happening in less densely-populated areas of the UK.
The wealth of free financial information available via blog posts like our’s and other online sources are mostly designed to help stimulate thought and conversations around money and how far it will stretch in later life. Informal advice and articles can only serve to support a detailed, personal and realistic plan from a regulated adviser when it comes to retirement planning. That’s why (unless you have 100% of your finances in order and you’ve already achieved all of your dreams) it’s more than likely MyEva will connect you with a human adviser who will help you tick off all the items on that initial checklist IRL - now, where’s that vision board?
See if MyEva recommends you speak with a human adviser
Learn more about MyEva
MyEva is a digital financial wellbeing expert designed to support employees with their financial wellbeing by helping to improve their financial situation with independent personalised guidance and advice.
To learn more about how Employers can support the financial wellbeing of their workforce, explore www.myeva.com, email linda.anderson@wealthwizards.com or complete the form below.
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