How to Save Your Retirement Plan in 2023 

👀 Please watch until the end before diving into all the tools... I’m not sure the RU-vid Algorithm will reward me for sending all this traffic off the platform!

You should get a medal for putting together the cashflow model spreadsheet! It's 'literally' changed my life - and I mean literally. You have stopped me being so paranoid about not having enough money in retirement and it means I can enjoy more while I'm younger without feeling guilty about spending some now. Thank you so much👏🥇

Hello James! I've been a portfolio manager in Canada for 5 years and a former journalist covering the stock market for 16 years. Congratulations on your well-crafted capsules.

I am shortly to retire...your advice about getting your money to work hard is Soooooo true..I was great (ish) at saving but really, Cash ISAs...what was I doing. I am also shocked at impact of divorce and lack of knowledge has on people so busy sharing your, and Meaningful Money, videos, whilst trying to not to bore my friends!! Great stuff, thanks

Excellent Advice as usual James. Thank you for your insights and guidance.

You're amazing James, thanks so much!

Happy new year James. Thank you for your work.

Thanks James - both your videos and this tool are very helpful. Even better if .... when subscribing for tool updates I was allowed to select both yes AND no, rather than yes OR no. Letting you know in case you're getting confusing subscription answers :)

Thank you James! These videos are truly brilliant! I've been meaning to look into my finances for a few months now. In the last 2 days i have fixed my mortgage, consolidated my pensions, and started paying into a Vanguard Life Strategy fund.

Thanks for the spreadsheets they are very useful and compliment what I have currently

Great tools thanks James

Cheers James and fair play for working on this over Christmas!

Been eagerly awaiting this video!... First! 😊

You would make the worst tiktoker ever James. You don't use any of the required buzzwords and phrases like "make money fast" "Crypto" "to the moon" "AMC/GME" "buy my course" "self made millionaire" "secret tip to make millions within 1 year". All you do is set realistic expectations with fact based logic and develop tools (for free!) that any other normal person would make sure to monetize and sell to their audience. Who the heck does all this in this day and age....you do, and I couldn't appreciate your content more. Thank you for saving my life and sanity, and of many others that have clicked on this video! God Bless.

James, thank you so much for creating these valuable tools.

Thanks James. Your advice is a major contributor to me having set up a Vanguard SIPP and setting up a direct debit to pay in a fixed monthly amount. I'm committed to a 'set and forget' policy. Keep up the great work. Your videos provide lots of valuable information. Thanks again. Happy investing everyone.

Happy New Year 2022 James! Thank you for your very informative video. You are the best!

Fantastic video and thanks for the tools

Thank you James. Another outstanding video. I have only recently discovered your videos, they are a huge help. I am finally taking action - got my plan, now I just have to execute it ! Thanks again for producing such excellent content.

Thanks!

I’ve fixed some funds on some stocks and I’m keeping a positive mind, It’s eye opening how most stocks can make you rich over the next 12 months alone with Life-changing returns.

Absolutely brilliant James. Thank you so much x

You need to really think what you want to do in retirement. If you enjoy work then defer retirement. If you want to travel the world then don't leave it too late as once you get to over 60 everything becomes more of an effort! Time can never be made up. Live for the moment but plan for long term. This channel is brilliant. Great video. 👍

I love your channel James. Thank you so much for doing this

Thanks James, great content being able to consider partners position on the spreadsheet is very helpful.

Thank you James - inspiring, informative, integrity.

Really informative, great video mate!

I caught Covid over Christmas and was bored in isolation so decided to use the time to do some research on investing. Found your post on Reddit and have been bingeing them all week! Just wanted to say thank you for the kick up the arse, I’m still working on my financial knowledge but your videos have made it all much easier to face and digest. Have just set up a Vanguard 80% Life Strategy Fund for now and will be seeing how that goes 😁 keep the videos coming

Well done James, and thank you. I did my own noddy excel tools this time last year, but yours add many layers & I’ll get stuck into them instead. Cheers!

Great video, and thanks for sharing these tools. So many people just hope that it'll all work out but don't put the small amount of effort in to check they're on the right track. Retirement isn't an age, it's a financial situation!

Thank you for sharing so much useful information, the government really could do a lot more to help people in this area. If you have not covered it (I need to check) could you advise how to get personal information like this? I have no idea how to find a trustworthy financial advisor.

Hi James, would you be able to expand your cashflow plan by adding new investment tabs i.e. crypto, nfts, gold, diamonds? Thanks. Keep up the great work!

Very insightful - Your channel deserves 100x the amount of views - you'll have 1 mil subscribers before the end of 2022 ; willing to bet on it mate, good luck.

I will neither confirm nor deny that I enjoyed this video.

Thanks so much for sharing this James. Refreshing to have someone like sharing useful things that aren't buried behind a 'paywall'

Legend! Thanks James. I’ve built my own but it is verrry basic, this look awesome. Cheers!

Very insightful content James, thanks for sharing.

Thanks for all your videos. They have helped develop my understanding! I had a question, why is it some FAs only advise residents of UK?

As others observe (read the comments ) this channel is utterly brilliant. Some of the videos need to be watched twice (to let the content sink in ) . Strongly recommended.

Just spotted a bug in the cash flow sheet, the headings are out by one; so at 50 it displays the 51 value, 51 the 52 value etc. This is because the X-axis starts at column A and the Series start at column B.

Hi James, brilliant tool but when I increase my pension value, say from £200k to £700k the model runs out of money much sooner without changing anything else? I have other pensions incl my partners added in, could their be a glitch in the tool? Thanks Simon

Hi James, loving your channel. Would love to hear your thoughts on Bitcoin Happy new year, A fellow James

Thank you for another brilliant video James. I have only just discovered your channel recently and your videos have prompted me to evaluate my own financial arrangements, something that I have been putting off for a long time. I work in health care and your comment on personal health really resonates with me. I work in a very wealthy part of London and on a daily basis I meet those who lead successful careers with financial independence yet fail to invest in their own health from an early stage, both physical and mental and it doesn't matter how many millions they make if they don't get to enjoy it. For future videos, one suggestion that I might add is perhaps financial advice on getting married and combining finances e.g. what to combine, what to keep separate, pre-nup, mortgages etc. I appreciate it's very context specific but would appreciate some general advice on the 'key things' to discuss prior to a marriage, thanks again James!

Hi James - my employer keeps upping the ECR for the DB scheme I've been in for 20 years because they are underfunded. Im now being asked to pay 35% of my salary for the same benefits I've always been promised, and they have also capped salary rises at 2%. I guess there comes a point when it may be worth considering moving to the company's dc scheme and putting my whopping 35% in there. In this scenario I guess I could keep my db part as deferred... or maybe transfer it into the dc scheme. Job to know. Great channel!

James .. what's your thoughts on 2022 .. do you think we should do something to protect our pensions with inflation / possible crash etc. Thats a lot to think off ,so perhaps a video ? Love your advise

Hi James, Many thanks for the cashflow model, excellent , I just can't see where inflation is taking into consideration in the model? Obviously the values change but just wondered where its factored in ? Cheers Andy

Hi, hope you will enjoy your new year eve. What impact you think Libor transition will have on investment and savings?

James one feature I would like to see in a future version/will try and add on my copy of the cashflow sheet is partial retirement.

I don't normally comment but I found your channel today and love what you are doing :)

Hi James. Thank you for these hugely informative, sensible and well scripted videos. I wonder whether you might consider a video on a subject which is rarely, if ever, covered? A small but significant number of people are still fortunate enough to retire with a DB pension (crash proof and inflation linked) together with a lump sum (from either their DB pension lump sum or linked AVCs, or both). What to do with the lump sum / AVC at retirement? Assuming the family's monthly expenditure is adequately covered by the DB pension income then the conventional 60:40 portfolio for retirees seems unnecessarily cautious and growth inhibiting. I understand such an investment portfolio for folk totally dependent upon their investment fund for a lifetime of income in retirement (although your other video about the risks of being too cautious - £600k pot needing to generate approx. £40k p.a. for a couple notwithstanding), but when the core income requirement is covered by the DB pensions then this approach doesn't seem appropriate? Many such retirees will have geared their DB pension choices to leverage their lump sums because they're usually tax free (25% of total DB fund value) and are then seeking to invest for the long-term in a manner which is more tax efficient than paying that income tax on what would have otherwise been the higher DB monthly pension income. Yet there's almost nothing out there on the internet or RU-vid that helps retirees with what I term a 'hybrid approach to finances in retirement'. Assuming that the DB pension income is accompanied by a sensible sum held in cash, would it not be reasonable to invest the remaining lump sum in a 100% stocks & shares fund (e.g. Vanguard Life Strategy 100% S&S), perhaps using tax wrappers like ISAs, small £4k p.a. post-retirement SIPPs (until age 75) and maximise both partners' tax allowances? Excess money could initially be placed in a General Investment Account and transferred to the ISAs as each tax year passes as a shelter from CGT and income tax in the longer term? I get that investing in equities is for the long-term and that, for most folk in retirement, the need for income drawdown necessitates the flexibility of avoiding equities being sold during market downturns but, if core financial expenditure is covered by the DB pension income, such an investor would rarely need to instruct a 'distressed sale' at an inappropriate time. So the conventional advice at / approaching retirement of moving equities into bonds seems inappropriate for this type of retiree. Would you agree? Maybe a little video for such folk (almost everyone in UK local government pension schemes and the Principal Civil Services Pension Scheme), plus others who remain members of private sector DB schemes which are closed to new members / deferred members etc. Thank you again - in all honesty, you should receive a fee from Pension Wise and the UK Government for your public service here!

Hi James, great informative video’s… thank you. Am I being daft, I can’t find your spreadsheet tool. All the best. Steve 😮‍💨🇬🇧

Hello James, found your channel a few weeks ago. I think it is great what you are doing. I downloaded your Cashflow Plan and have spent some time modelling with it. In general, I think it does a great job and love the amount of time it has saved me. I did notice an issue with the calculations. I am 9 years older than my wife - so I put my age as the primary person and my wife's as my partner. The issue I found is that joint retirement expenditure stops when I am 96 as opposed to when my wife is 96. So, that means there is 9 years of missing expenditure in the model. This was easy to fix by making my wife the primary person and then me as the partner - as she has the longer life span. However, I thought I would mention it as I think you need to explicitly highlight that the person with the youngest age should be set to the primary person. The difference between flipping the ages was that the first model had a robust amount of investments left over whereas 'flipping' the ages meant we modeled to run out of money when my wife was 86. Hope the feedback helps. Thanks Peter

Thanks James, I will take time to go through the tools you have kindly made available to us. Hats off to you🙏 hope you had a good Christmas and wish you a happy 2022 when it comes with lots of good content 😀

Hi James. To the point. I have a 20K + interest cash ISA producing 2.2% interest! I haven't used my Isa allowance this tax year. You have persuaded to look at "stocks & shares ISA's". I wish to place 20K in this, plus my existing cash ISA? Thanks, John

This is amazing! Brilliant content and so useful. I’m rubbish in excel and this cash flow you built saved my life. Thank you so much 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Hi James, I imagine you get a lot of people sending you requests for editor access to your sheets. You can edit the Google Doc URL so at the end it says /copy rather than /edit. Now, when someone opens it, they will be automatically prompted to make a copy of the doc and you'll have far fewer share requests :)

Great advice James 👍 but how do I get hold of your retirement planning excel spreadsheet ?

Hi James I can’t seem to see the spread sheet ? Thanks Graham

Hi James thanks for the access to your spreadsheets. Can you please advise how to input on the Cashflow Plan where you may have a situation where you have a Defined Benefit pension in place and a Defined Contribution pension? In my case, the former has run until this year and then going forward until retirement it's just the latter. Many thanks

James - Great to talk to you prior to Christmas looking forward to working with you and your team in the new year - Great video now is always the right time as none of us have a tardis

Hi James, really love your videos, they've certainly helped me think more strategically about preparing for my retirement. I have downloaded your cashflow model to try and assess various scenario's, however I have a question which I hope you can help me with. I have a Superannuation government final-salary based pension, which has a current annual value quoted on my most recent statement, which I can linearly extrapolate to what I might expect to have at my retirement age. Which figure therefore do I include in your model (cell D19)? If I put the current figure in, the liquid asset profile drops to zero at 67 (why?), yet stays above £40k if I use the extrapolated figure. Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated. 👍

I live in the USA you should broaden your investment knowledge...some of your videos are relevant in my feed and are of interest to me

Hi @james shack wonder if u could help, I have a defined benefit final salary pension with 800k in the pot, what are my options? Am I able to take a 25% tax free and then a drawdown of about 2k a month . Any advice be greatly appreciated

Outstanding stuff James. Your tools are brilliant and an excellent free public service. Thank you so much. 👍👍

Do you have to buy an annuity at 75yrs old or does it depend on what type of pension you are in?

The scale of the graph goes wonky for me if I put in more than x,000 a year in C13. Any ideas?

James, great video as ever. I’ve enjoyed your videos on vanguard lifestrategy funds and wondered if you could do a short video on the tax status of lifestrategy funds? I am assuming that any investments in a lifestrategy fund (which has an interest in the US stock market) held within a UK ISA would not require a US tax declaration such as a W8 BEN? I’m assuming the fund managers would deal with this but it’s VERY difficult to find out on the web so viewers may find that useful???

Really useful spreadsheet - thanks James! Hope you don't mind but I took the liberty of extending the idea a little by adding a Monte Carlo simulation similar to Timeline's. I don't think RU-vid will allow me to post a link but let me know if you're interested.

Inflation is going to be a killer if its allowed to carry on like it has been, poorly performing pension investments are going to be useless next to worthless in some cases. I've just closed a few investments that were underperforming and will be moving them over to vanguard and HSBC.

How is the sheet dealing with BTL investment property. Many people have significant cash in that and it forms a key part of retirement planning. I note the entry for rents but that’s only half the picture.

Another brilliant informative post James. I’m a recently retired 62 year old. Will I be able to get some benefits from your spreadsheets in the same way as someone earlier in the process saving for their retirement. Keep up the great work. :) All the best for 2022!

Hi James, I must be missing something as I can’t find the links to spreadsheets that you mentioned.

Hey James, I have a Wombat stocks and shares ISA that i enjoy and its working well for me. Am i able to continue using that and open a Vanguard LifeStrategy fund also?

Brilliant video James! Has definitely got me thinking about my finances. Keep up the good work 🙂

Hi James. Every year I do my projections for the next year and action those OK, yet somehow underspend so have some cash in hand. Best home for that? Am doing everything else and running 4 accounts (bulk pot, crystallised, stocks ISA, cash). Presently just roll extra forward and draw less...

May I ask a question. Almost every video I watch is about future retirement, but I have only come into a lump some of profit from downsizing my house. So no debt, no mortgage but a relatively small pension. At 69 is a Vanguard LS fund a good thing to make some growth ……I don’t have 30 years to go but would really like to make my money work for me over the ne g 10/15/20 years ? I feel as if I am in a ‘left out’ category ! Many thanks for the most interesting videos, and by the way I have no other investments only the lump sum in a savings account.

hello James I tried to book the 20 min conso with you but you r very busy, no availabilities there any other way?thanks

Recently discovered your channel. you good advice explained simply and clearly. Keep it up. A video I'd be interested in seeing is how to draw your income most tax efficiently after retirement - e.g. say retiring at 65 (SP age 67) and requiring a net income of £17K per year, with 50K in ISA's and 120K in a SIPP, is it better to draw the pension first or the ISA, or a combination of both in order to be tax efficient?

Could we reverse the question?: Instead of asking "am I saving enough?", and you asking back "for what?", the question should be: "if I am saving X, then how much will that give me at retirement?". IE: to use your own parlance, "how big of a house can I build if I have X amount of bricks?" See the difference? Then we would haver an idea of how much *more* I might need to save per month etc?

Hi James would you recommend clearing my debt, before I start investing? As I am going to invest in a index fund for retirement

Hi James. This is useful. I've started to use it and am trying to understand how it calculates CGT for 'Other Investments'. In the Assumptions tab, cell B23, it uses the figure of -5%. I can't however find where it uses this value when completing its calculations. If you could quickly point me in the right direction that would be great. Many thanks.

The key point is what to invest in, now at all times highs with every man and his dog claiming a crash is imminent, that could have a big impact

Hi James! Thanks for the great video and tools! I’ve left the pension blank as my husband and I are based outside of the UK but still investing in an ISA. But I’m seeing it pulling money from pension for our retirement income. Can this be resolved?

Thanks James, your spreadsheet is tidier than mine! Could you add functionality to include "one off" income/expenditure into the sheet. For example, tax free lump sums from DB pensions, endowment maturity, profit from sale of investment property, lump sum mortgage settlement. This would help improve accuracy. Thanks

Hello - how do I get the files to download? Happy to sign up for your newsletter ... but the website doesn't work ...

Looking forward to getting stuck into this sheet tomorrow and having a play around. Thanks james for both the insightful videos and in taking your time to create such a relevant tool, as I was exploring buying access to one of the pretty expensive professional tools.

Thanks for doing all this work James. I've been inputting the details into the cashflow plan to compare it with my own excel spreadsheet (though at the moment I can't get yours to fit, but I can't work out where the 'error' is either!). One thing I think you are missing is how to model one partner in a couple dying (which is 100% inevitable at some point). In my own planning it is clear that this really inpacts the total assets needed if it happens in the first few years. But another great video by the way.

Hi James- love your channel and watch allyour videos. I have tried to download your various XL models, but the page won't allow me to enter my email address. Have you taken it down please?

Hello James. I am using your cashflow plan spreadsheet, but I am having trouble finding a sensible range of values to enter in the assumption box for 25year returns for global stocks. I followed the link but cannot find which asset you used to select 7.5% as the central value. At 7.5% I have a legacy that lasts forever, but at certain lower values I die alone in a ditch at the age of 71. If you could let us know what the upper and lower interquartile returns are, then that would be very helpful. Thanks.

Thank you James. I have been procrastinating with my pensions for the past 30 years. The crunch has come (I am 55!!). I have been on the CII web site & action now being taken.

James - where can i download the cashplan excel spreadsheet please?

Any chance there is a U.S. version of that spreadsheet?

Totally agree, many of us spend too much of our life working and building for a comfortable retirement but don’t allow enough time to enjoy ourselves. I am 53 and planning to retire when I’m 55 and can access my personal pension. I currently have £510k with a well known pension provider. Should I consider telling them to start moving money into more secure holdings like bonds and out of stock?

How do I access this spreadsheet?

So many people where I work have no idea of their pension. The size, the funds or lifestyle they are in. It is a joke!

Thanks for sharing the modeller it’s really useful. I was trying to work out whether it increases the income in retirement by inflation. I couldn’t see that it did, can you clarify. If it doesn’t, is this something you could add?

Hi James! Many thanks for the cashflow model. Most useful. The only issue i have on the spreadsheet concerns tax. How do i add annual isa withdraws (as part of annual retirement income) without that element counting within the personal tax section. Currently it showing a tax bill (which I dont believe is applicable from an isa) and also deficit on retirement expenditure Am I missing a trick here???!!! Many Thanks Julia

Hi. Have signed up for newsletter but how do i then download the cashflow model. On a mac but have excel

What about "you will own nothing and you will be happy"?

Been playing around with the cashflow model spreadsheet and really confused about something about adding part time work income, are you aware of this possible error?