When planning your finances, we all need to accept that there may be a time when we will need to have those decisions made for us by someone we trust. A power of attorney is a legal document that lets you appoint one or more people (attorneys) to help you make decisions or to make decisions on your behalf. This gives you more control over what happens to you if you are no longer able to make your own decisions.
You can use give your attorney the power to make decisions about:
- finances – paying your mortgage, selling your house, investing your savings or buying items you need
- health and care – what you should eat, or what type of medical treatment you should have.
Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.
How you spend in retirement
In early retirement we typically spend as much as we do in during our working lives. This amount slowly decreases as we become older. However, care fees mean our spending rapidly increases at the end of our lives. As more of us are requiring care and for longer, this is more of a consideration than it has been in the past and impacts retirement planning in early retirement years.