A stress-free guide to retirement
Investing your pension when you retire does not need to be difficult, writes Robert Laing
I’ve just gone through a rite of passage we all have to experience at some stage: retirement. I found it very trying, so would like to share some of the harsh lessons I’ve learnt with you, dear reader, who I assume is 20-something and thinks this is something that will never happen to you. I’m retiring at a relatively young age, 55, and would have retired at 50 if anyone had told me I could. Nobody did, which is why I’d like to share my wisdom with you. I’m leaving my job voluntarily, a rare luxury for a middle-aged corporate wage slave in the modern era. Many people my age working in the information technology media industry find themselves suddenly herded to the human resources department like lambs to the slaughter and ordered to fill in a form asking confusing questions such as whether they want a "life annuity" or a "living annuity". Under SA’s pension laws, you can take only a third of your pension as cash immediately, provided this does not come to more than R500,000. Further...
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