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Britons splash the cash soon after retirement
23 July 2008 12:00
People tend to overspend in the first year of their retirement, according to a new survey, which may owe something to their failure to plan ahead or seek financial advice.
Over one in four pensioners admit to spending more during their first 12 months after giving up work than they did subsequently, Prudential's poll found, with expenditure typically exceeding that of later years by fully £8,000.
Yet one in five retirees who did this came to regret it, while although nearly one in three claim to have set a retirement budget, a similar proportion took a far more ad hoc approach and just one in six consulted a financial adviser on the issue of pensions.
Prudential's Gary Shaughnessey expressed concern over this failure to plan adequately and warned retirees not to underestimate their own potential lifespan, but to manage their money carefully and ensure they still have funds available in 20 years' time.
The impact of rising life expectancy was also highlighted in a recent report by the Centre for Economic and Business Research for Life Trust, which estimated that retirement now costs an average UK household £413,000.
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