Taking responsibility for own pension forecasting

sandsy

I also use a spreadsheet for my pension forecasting.

On the front page, I input:
- my current age
- the value of each pension pot and ISA (or amount per annum at point of leaving for my deferred FS pension)
- no of qualifying years for state pension, expected state pension age and current state pension level (haven't updated it yet for flat rate pension)
- the age at which I might crystallise each pot to take a lump sum
- the age at which I might take an income from each pot
- my key assumptions
- charts which show graphically the total income I can derive at each age

I have another sheet which has annuity factors at each age and drawdown factors so that I can choose whether to annuitise or take an income with each pot. I also have the up-to-date revaluation factors for my deferred final salary benefit.

Then I have a separate sheet for each pension pot, taking information from the front page and projecting each one forward to the relevant ages.

I do the same with my partners pension pots.

Everything is in real terms. My growth assumption is a net of charges real rate of return. I have exchange rates (and overseas income drawdown factors) built in for my overseas pension pot.

I can easily change the ages at which I take the benefits and immediately see the impact on my projected real income in the charts.