We’ve heard this week that inflation is up rather than down. Whatever the reasons (and if you’re the government, those reasons will of course be external factors over which they have no control blah blah) an unwelcome side effect is that interest rates are likely to stay higher for longer, and the last cut will be the last cut for a while. That’s good, of course, if you have money on deposit, but also for annuities, terrible value for ten years or more with interest rates at or close to 0%, looking much better now; if your circumstances make them a good idea. They’re a good idea if you want or need a guaranteed income with no risk, and really, only in those circumstances. Your pension pot, less the tax-free cash which you’d usually take and bank, disappears in return for that guaranteed income and you’re then on a bet with the annuity provider, which hopes you’ll keel over sooner rather than later, while you, of course, will get best value if you make it to treble-figures. Which more and more are, which is another reason this annuities may not be such good value as once they were.
“How to get rich in 2025”
Who wants to be a millionaire? Well, if you’re one of the 35% of the UK population renting long-term or of the 20% officially living in poverty, the answer’s ‘yes, please’.
