As a hospital doctor who has dedicated their career to caring for others, a long and prosperous retirement is the least you deserve.

Like all things in life, retirement can come at a cost – but with the right support and guidance, there’s no reason why you can’t achieve your post-work aspirations.

To check how retirement ready you are, here are some essential planning considerations from Wesleyan Financial Services, a leading provider of lifelong specialist financial advice to GPs and their families.

We’ll look at how much you might need, how to plan for the retirement you want – and why now’s the time to start thinking about it, whatever stage of your career you’re at.

How much do you need to retire?

Let’s start with the golden question.

According to the government-backed Retirement Living Standards, an individual needs around £31,300 per year for a moderate retirement, and more than £43,000 per year for a comfortable one.

If you’re part of a couple, £43,100 per year affords you a moderate retirement. You’ll need £59,000 per year to truly enjoy your later years in style.

These figures provide a useful starting point for working out what you’ll need for retirement, but in reality, it depends entirely on the kind of retirement lifestyle you want to lead, and how early you plan to stop work.

That’s why as you approach retirement, it’s not enough to know there’s money in the bank. What you really need is a post-work plan.

Visualising your future finances

At the heart of any retirement plan is affordability – how much you might have, how much you might need, where that money will come from and how you can grow those income streams further.

People often make the mistake of basing their retirement needs on their current outgoings, but you may see a dip in your outgoings in later life. Your mortgage is likely to be paid off, and your children may have fled the nest, education already paid for.

Equally, there are new, exciting things to save and pay for – with a whole lot more leisure and travel time on your hands.

Financial advice can help you make sense of this complicated picture of ins and outs, with financial forecasting tools potentially playing a powerful role in helping you retire.

There’s nothing quite like seeing your future in numbers to bring things to life, and to help you understand how to allocate your money in the right place, at the right time.

At Wesleyan Financial Services, our financial advice is led by your specific needs, so the tools we use will vary – but they typically include forecasts such as cashflow modelling, pension projections and bespoke reports, including the Wesleyan NHS Pension Assessment Report.

Backing you all the way with specialist financial advice

At Wesleyan Financial Services, we have Specialist Financial Advisers dedicated to medical professionals. We’re here to back you all the way to your dream retirement – with specialist knowledge to show and explain your options at every stage.

That’s why we’re an approved financial advice partner of medical industry bodies like RCGP, FMLM and RCOG.

To find out more about how we can help you, and to book a full financial review today, just visit wesleyan.co.uk/doctors-retirement.

Wesleyan Financial Services Ltd (Registered in England and Wales No. 1651212) is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered Office: Colmore Circus, Birmingham B4 6AR. Telephone: 0345 351 2352. Calls may be recorded to help us provide, monitor and improve our services to you.