How much can you spend after you retire?

Investors need to change the way they approach taking an income from their pension to get more from their money in retirement.

Retirement planning used to have two distinct stages. You'd invest in assets that were expected to grow over the long term. When you neared retirement age, you'd sell those investments and either buy an annuity to lock in a guaranteed income or switch into other assets such as bonds or high-dividend shares that would pay you a fairly steady income from your portfolio.

Today, it's not so simple. Annuity sales have fallen sharply since the flexible-access options for pensions came in two years ago. People are choosing to keep most of their pension funds invested and simply drawing down a portion of their income as needed, in order to take advantage of the opportunity for long-term tax-free growth within the pension.

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Cris Sholto Heaton

Cris Sholto Heaton is an investment analyst and writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2006 and was managing editor of the magazine between 2016 and 2018. He is especially interested in international investing, believing many investors still focus too much on their home markets and that it pays to take advantage of all the opportunities the world offers. He often writes about Asian equities, international income and global asset allocation.

Cris began his career in financial services consultancy at PwC and Lane Clark & Peacock, before an abrupt change of direction into oil, gas and energy at Petroleum Economist and Platts and subsequently into investment research and writing. In addition to his articles for MoneyWeek, he also works with a number of asset managers, consultancies and financial information providers.

He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and the Investment Management Certificate, as well as degrees in finance and mathematics. He has also studied acting, film-making and photography, and strongly suspects that an awareness of what makes a compelling story is just as important for understanding markets as any amount of qualifications.