Martin Lewis tells anyone over 50 of 2 big ones | UK News

Martin Lewis has given key advice to anyone who is over the age of 50 and explained key actions people need to take. On his BBC Podcast this week the personal finance professional fielded a call from a listener aged 49 on what they need to do at this age to secure themselves financially – and if there are any modifications needed.

The Money Saving Expert founder said there are two ‘big ones’ people need to bear in mind of and also one type of help which ‘only becomes available’ at 50. The caller said they have been on the verge of 50 and was questioning if they needed to do something pressing.

Martin explained there have been a quantity of areas people need to bear in mind off over life insurance coverage, mortgages and pensions. Mr Lewis said: “I’m 53 so I’m in a relatively similar boat to you, a few years older. There’s nothing hard that is happening at 50. But you’re now 17 years away from state retirement age, I don’t know whether you will stop working, or not and we start to get into the perspective, sorry this is going to sound really depressing, where things that rely on being cheaper because you’re going to live a long time or be a long time with your good health span start to get more expensive.

“There are some easier ones to look at here. Term assurance. It’s a life insurance product that you would get to protect your loved ones in the event you were to die. Now the simple one to explain is level term insurance, that’s when you get a fixed amount of protection that will pay out if you die within a set time.”

Martin requested if the caller had youngsters, and he said one had just began college and the other is 16. Martin said: “OK so actually what’s quite interesting there is your dependants are nearly not dependent any more or you’ve only got five or six years of that. I presume you have a partner as well, who you want to protect. Who’s the primary earner, you or your partner?”

The caller said they earned around the same. Martin said: “That makes it all fairly simple because the usual rule is you’ll shield 10 occasions the very best earner’s income. So if you earned £10,000 a yr and I hope you earn more, then it will be £100,000 that you’ll shield.

“The purpose I point out that one is a lot of degree time period insurance policies, you’ve got a fixed value and the longer you permit getting one, and I’m not sure you need to get one – you’d have to look at your own funds and what would occur if you have been to go away. The longer you permit it to get one, the more costly it will get.”

“You have other things like private medical insurance if you were going to get that, it gets a lot more expensive as you get older, but it’s quite difficult to do anything about that because premiums are reviewed each year.

“The two big ones, though. Mortgage.” Martin asked the caller about mortgages and he explained he’d had to fix it after the Liz Truss budget sent rates soaring. He said: “That cost us hugely, and part of the reason I’m asking is that when we did that, we looked to extend the term of the mortgage, and I was told that a 25-year mortgage would mean I was beyond state retirement, and therefore I couldn’t extend the term longer than we wanted to. We’ve got about 17 years left.”

Mr Lewis said: “That’s not a hard rule that’s a lender rule. So there are other people who may not have done that. There are people who have mortgage terms that extend into their 80s and it’s something I would have gone to a mortgage broker with.”

The caller ended up fixing for five years and Mr Lewis added: “One of the things I say about fixing is don’t look back in anger. If you made a decision based on financial security, knowing exactly what you were going to pay and budgeting ability, then that’s quite useful.”

He added: “The final thing is pension provision of course, and where you are with your State Pension. There is one interesting thing that will happen at 50. It’s the only think I could think of off the top of my head that actually changes at 50 and that is once you hit 50 you’re eligible to talk to Pensionwise to get one on one guidance about what you’re doing on your pension situation.

“You’re still a yr from it at the second. It’s definitely price considering at this level whether or not your pension provision is enough and I settle for that you’ve received mortgage prices and two dependent youngsters and all of those issues that they stretch the household funds. You still have fairly a long time yet to get that pension money in and a pension is still a comparatively environment friendly approach to save for your retirement residing.”

Martin gave one remaining warning: “You know the scary thing about hitting 50? Once you hit 50 you’re nearer 100 than not.”

To use Pensionwise click on right here. To hear to Martin’s full podcast click on right here.