At retirement you probably get the biggest lump sum you will ever receive, so what do you do with your Lump Sum – save or spend

The advice is to invest it, but we also need to think what is right for the individual.

My husband reached 60 about 18 months ago. He worked for Royal Mail and alongside a monthly pension he also got a lump sum of 3 times this annual pension.

I intend to work to 70 and beyond, and over the years will gradually work less.

What we want to do for now is to live life. We obviously will want to have enough money to live on in proper retirement, but we also want to have some great holidays.

Too many people we know have saved for their retirement and had all sorts of plans for things they will do when they retire. But then they, or their partner gets seriously ill and the plans never happen.

They wish – if only

So, we have taken a different view. Let’s make sure we have enough money saved, but also make sure that we enjoy life for now.

My husband was a Postman for most of his working life, so he hasn’t got an enormous pension, or lump sum. But over a lifetime he’s saved, and we have other investments that we don’t intend to touch till I’m 70.

So, we spent his lump sum. We revamped our kitchen to make it suit our life and we went on a big holiday.

Lump Sum – save or spend we bought a new kitchen

Our kitchen wasn’t right for us- it had a peninsular unit cutting the room in half, and we like to dance so we wanted much more floor space. We also love the 1950s (we have a 1968 car, called Dugsy), so we now have a beautiful 1950s inspired kitchen that meets our needs and over 10 years will have given us so much enjoyment we see this as an investment.

Lump Sum – save or spend: we had a 6 week holiday

We also went on a 6-week holiday starting off with a week in Cape Town and then sailing on the RMS St Helena to the island of St Helena. We stayed for 23 nights, had to wait for the ship to come back, and then got on the ship to Ascension Island and spent 3 nights there before flying into Brize Norton on a RAF Plane. Talk about memories!

We all differ, but I wanted to share that sometimes spending is the right thing to do.
What about you what will you do with your Lump Sum – save or spend?