Retirement is one of life’s biggest milestones, and one that you will usually be planning for decades. As an expat, you have an added layer of complexity to your retirement planning, especially if you have pensions or other assets in different jurisdictions. 

Even if you have already begun saving for your post-work years, it’s important to ensure that your plan is thorough and covers as many eventualities as possible. This can help you to avoid a nasty shock in retirement, particularly if you’re planning to retire abroad. 

Read on to discover how to plan for unforeseen challenges and keep your retirement goals within reach.

Unrealistic expectations about retirement can create challenges later on

Your expectations of retirement can shape how you plan for the future and how effective those plans might be. 

In its fifth Great British Retirement Survey, interactive investor discovered that self-employed people are some of the most financially vulnerable when it comes to retirement planning. The survey results showed that 76% of self-employed people aren’t setting anything aside for their retirement, and 38% don’t have a retirement strategy at all. 

Additional findings showed that many people are overestimating the amount they are likely to inherit from their relatives. Most were expecting an inheritance that is double the value of the average inheritance. 

For the 12% of people who said that their inheritance would play a role in their retirement plan, this could create significant difficulty achieving the goals they have set themselves for retirement. 

Another study reported by Pensions & Investments found that 65% of people think they may be working until they are 65 or older, or that they may never retire. In reality, the survey found that 56% of the respondents retired sooner than they expected, often as a result of health- or employment-related issues. 

Worryingly, only 31% of pre-retirees had considered how they might replace their income if they needed to retire earlier than expected. 

As you can see, unrealistic expectations about retirement can create blind spots in your plan and lead to unforeseen challenges in your later years that could have been avoided. 

Financial planning can help, but only a minority are taking this opportunity

A helpful way to avoid unforeseen challenges derailing your retirement plan is to speak to a financial planner for guidance about creating an effective strategy. 

Despite this, many people don’t consult a planner at all before they retire. In fact, according to a report from HSBC, less than half of British expats had sought pensions or general financial advice in the five years up to 2023 (43% and 36%, respectively). 

This could be for a number of reasons, including: 

• They may consider financial planning to be the preserve of the wealthy
• They might feel that they do not have enough assets to be eligible for financial advice
• They might have a lack of confidence in financial advice, especially as many offshore financial advisers have a poor reputation. 

Without specialist advice, it could be more difficult to achieve your goals as an expat

Evidence reported by Standard Life and Royal London shows that taking financial advice can help you to feel more confident about your finances as well as providing a helpful boost to your pension savings. 

Since this is true across all income levels and backgrounds, everyone can benefit from consulting a professional for help. 

In fact, people who have taken retirement advice expect to retire on average three years earlier than those who haven’t. 

For expats, specialist advice about your retirement is key to ensuring you’re prepared for retirement. A trusted partner with the required expertise could help you to avoid incurring additional costs, falling foul of tax rules, or retiring without sufficient funds to meet your needs, especially if your home country typically has a lower cost of living than Hong Kong. 

As such, it’s clear that by not taking financial advice, you could be less likely to achieve your long-term financial goals. 

Knowing your starting point can help you to create an effective plan for retirement

To build an effective plan, as well as understanding where you want to go, you need to have a clear picture of your starting point. 

Our free scorecard can help you to understand how financially prepared you are for retirement. From this, you’ll be able to identify the next steps for you in building a retirement plan to support you in Hong Kong. 

Sign up here for your free scorecard

Get in touch

If your retirement is on the horizon and you’d like help preparing your finances ahead of this life change, please get in touch.

Email info@bmpwealth.com or call +852 3975 2878.