Planning for Retirement with Skipton

By Smilinglikesunshine @smilinglikesuns
Having just turned 40, the prospect of retirement is becoming more real for me. I have worked for many years and paid for my NI contributions. We had also paid for private pensions but stopped once we started living abroad. I had a big gap whilst looking after the children. I was adamant that I wanted to be at home with them during their early years. Having done another training during those years,I only returned back to work last January. As I work part time,my NI contributions are low. 
In the meantime, we also started to pay for another private insurance about two years ago. This is again in my home  country. As you can see, I feel somewhat prepared for retirement but at the same time I feel that there is room for improvement and I need a helping hand.
This is where retiresavvy comes in. Mumsnet Blogger Network have asked me to review the Retiresavvy portal from Skipton Building Society, which aims to demystify the subject of retirement. I wanted to do it as I  am aware that I need to put some time to work on this subject for the best possible outcome that will affect the whole family.
The website is very user friendly. I like the question it asks you:
How prepared are you for retirement?
You then tick a box that applies to you: Unprepared,half prepared and fully prepared. In the next page, you get things that you are advised to consider for a better outcome.

retiresavvy say "We want retiresavvy to drive awareness of the issues facing retirees and those planning for retirement, and be a strong and positive force for change. " On a mission to achieve this, they try to make the website very clear, jargon free as the pension issues are very hard to understand.
The website has many articles on many aspects of the subject that are useful both for people that are planning retirement and those that have already retired.
There is also a forum that you can register to chat with others.
I personally found the Jargonbuster and FAQs very informative. There are also  real retirement stories  which I found quite interesting as real people give tips about things they wish they had known. Financial things aside, there are also tips about adapting to retirement, staying healthy and keeping busy in retirement. 
Do check them out as well as the social media channels of retiresavvy. They are active on Facebook, Twitter  and other channels. They also have informative videos on Youtube. It is never too early or too late to think about retirement and I hope you find this website as useful as I do.
I was asked to review retiresavvy.skipton.co.uk by Skipton and the Mumsnet Bloggers Network. All views are my own. I was entered into a prize draw to win vouchers as a token of thanks for blogging. View other blogs on this topic here: http://www.mumsnet.com/bloggers/retiresavvy-portal-what-our-bloggers-thought
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