Guides
The questions people ask before they plan
No fluff and no hedging. Where the honest answer is “that depends”, we say what it depends on.
No fluff and no hedging. Where the honest answer is “that depends”, we say what it depends on.
If you only read two, read what a Plan actually looks like and the assumptions behind it. Between them they tell you whether any of this is for you.
A worked example of the Financial Plan: a real-shaped couple, their projection, what broke it, and the ninety days that followed. Invented people, real arithmetic.
Growth, inflation, life expectancy, tax — exactly what we assume in a projection, why, and how to change them. Published, because a plan you can't interrogate isn't worth having.
The honest answer to the most-asked question in personal finance — why the big round numbers are usually wrong, and how to work out yours in about ten minutes.
What stopping at 60 actually costs compared with 62 or 65, why the gap years before the State Pension dominate, and how to find out where you stand.
The 4% rule, where it came from, why it's shakier than people think in the UK, and what actually determines a sustainable withdrawal rate.
For owners whose retirement plan quietly depends on a company nobody has valued — what the options actually are, and what each does to your plan.
How much it is, when it arrives, why your forecast may be lower than you assume, and how much it's genuinely worth in a plan.
Sequence of returns risk, explained without the jargon — why two people with identical average returns can end up in completely different places.
The 25% is not use-it-or-lose-it, you don't have to take it in one go, and the arithmetic is closer than people expect. What the decision actually turns on, with a worked example.
The four numbers that decide it, why a business changes the arithmetic, and a worked example of a £3.15m estate — including what the 2027 pension change does to it.
Four pots from four old jobs and one question. What combining actually changes, the guarantees that vanish the moment you transfer, what the charges really cost over ten years, and where the law makes advice compulsory.
The six-times-salary rule everyone quotes at 50, why it tells you almost nothing about your own position, and how to work out the number that actually matters — with a worked example.
The most common either-or question people ask in their fifties, worked through properly — what tax relief, guarantees and access actually do to the arithmetic, with a real comparison on £500 a month.
Scotland runs six income tax bands, not three, and the 42% higher rate starts at £43,663 — over six and a half thousand pounds below where the rest of the UK's 40% band even begins. What that actually costs on a pension withdrawal, with a worked £80,000 example.
Most people arrive holding one specific worry rather than a general interest in retirement planning. Find yours.
Read can I afford to stop at 60 first, because the cost of going early is almost never what people expect and the years before the State Pension arrives dominate everything. Then the State Pension guide, which is the other half of that arithmetic.
How much do I actually need works backwards from what you spend rather than forwards from a round number, and explains why the familiar rules of thumb give such different answers.
The safe withdrawal guide, then why the order of returns matters. The second one explains the risk that decides most of these outcomes and that almost nobody is told about.
What happens to my business when I stop. For a lot of owners the business is the largest item in the plan and the only one nobody has valued.
The tax-free cash guide, which has more folklore attached to it than any other question here. It is not use-it-or-lose-it and you do not have to take it in one go.
What an inheritance tax bill actually looks like, worked through on a £3.15m estate. Business owners should read the bit about the £2m taper, because business property relief does not reduce the estate for that test and a lot of people lose £140,000 of allowance without being told.
Should I combine my old pensions. Four facts decide it — the charge, whether anything is guaranteed, any exit penalty, and what moving it would give up — and the answer is genuinely different for each pot rather than one verdict for all of them.
How much should I have saved by 50 explains why the six-times-salary rule you've seen quoted tells you almost nothing about your own position, and what actually decides the number.
Every assumption we use is published, and a worked plan shows you the finished article before you spend anything on one.
Overpay the mortgage, or pay into the pension? works through the arithmetic properly, including the one thing — an unclaimed employer or company match — that decides it outright before anything else is considered.
Scottish income tax and your retirement drawdown. Six bands instead of three, a 42% rate that starts over six thousand pounds earlier than the rest of the UK's 40%, and what that costs on an £80,000 withdrawal.
These guides describe how the rules work and what different choices do to a projection. They do not recommend products, providers or a course of action, because Buzz is not authorised to give regulated advice. Where a decision genuinely needs one, the guides say so.
The projection runs in your browser in about a minute. Nothing is sent anywhere and no email is needed to see the answer.
Thirty minutes with a planner to work out whether you need a Plan at all. Some people leave that call having been told they don't.
One written document — every year to 100 with the tax done properly, what breaks it priced in years, and the ninety days after. £1,500.