Watford & Bushey Estate & Letting Agents

Mr Cole Turns 65

My Dad turned 65 this weekend, which provided ideal opportunity for a bit of a family gathering. My brother and I and took advantage of the opportunity for some Bus Pass related gags, like you do. Not to be outdone, Dad fought back highlighting that at his age he's entitled to have an opinion on everything (which he does) and advising us he's forgotten more than we've learnt.

Mum looked on, as all her boys verbally jousted, with her usual look of incredulity. Meanwhile my 10-year-old daughter Kasia trumped us all by embarrassingly mentioning that Grandpa seemed to need to go to the toilet an awful lot. He conceded that as he got older he needed to go more and more.

So the Cole clan had a smashing afternoon, but that night I was left pondering a few things. I think 65 is one of those threshold ages that makes you reflect and certainly it made me think about what provisions I’ve made for the future. Dad's in great health and looks to have many years ahead of him in which case financially he needs to have planned well in advance. How should I / we be planning for retirement in this day and age?

We're told the economy won’t be able to sustain State Pension levels in the future as more people live longer. Returns on Private Pension policies in recent years have been shocking at best and leaving cash in the bank is no longer the impregnable safe bet we thought it was. What about the property market then, is this not a better option? The downside is obviously that equity value can go down, as we have witnessed over the last 18 months, but in the long term, few would argue that property is likely to increase in value solidly. That's not my main point though...

The trump card is that at least in a bad market / recession / credit crunch the income you derive from a residential property investment becomes easier to secure. Most of you know that when less people buy, more of them rent. So it becomes easier to find and keep tenants and often the monthly rental prices increase. As far as I can see it's the one investment type that in a downturn has a distinct up side. Next week I will highlight how the Government could use this logic to make a real difference to the housing market and simultaneously help plug the pension shortfall gap we know future generations will encounter...

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View from the Cole-Face

Mike Cole of Imagine Imagine owner puts the property world to rights with his weekly ‘tongue in cheek’ editorial column.

40 and Counting....

I have had the dubious pleasure of reaching the mid life age....

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