These Tips are based on frequent, or newer questions that we get.
We can’t give you advice, so can’t tell you what you should do. We can help you get the most from Guiide by understanding how to use our tools better.
Many people now ask us – I’ve gone past retirement date, but haven’t retired?
We can help you if you are before retirement (not accessing pension pots yet) or after retirement (accessing some or all of your pension pots). The key point is we need to know when you have crossed over to get things right.
1. Original plan
So you built a plan with us some time back. You thought I am going to aim to start taking money from my pension pots from March 2026. That is what you used for your target retirement date.
Life goes on, you don’t start taking them and you think. “I am going to go back to that Guiide site and look at a new retirement date”
2. Time marches on….
Time waits for no-one and you’ve now gone past March 2026. Its June 2026 as I write this.
As you log in using your username and password the system will recognise your previous target date is now in the past.
It will send you to the You page. In that page it will ask if you did retire in March 2026.
If you did , just say yes and everything is all good at that point. Guiide will now always build you a plan from next month whenever you come back. It doesn’t matter about the past all that matters is what you have now and the future.
If you didn’t just say no and it will let you put a new target retirement date in. But….
Many people miss this message, the system then assumes you did start taking your pots in March. You then message us and say…… I can’t change my retirement date?
3. You page settings
On the You page there is a settings icon in the top bar. If your plan says you have retired and you haven’t just click this icon and it will ask if you want to switch back to being before retirement date.
Just follow the steps, you may need to refresh afterwards or go forward and back in the plan, but you will see you can now edit the target retirement date to a future date.
4. The tax free cash question
If you are before retirement date the question ask Do you want 25% of your pension pots as a tax free cash as a lump sum at retirement?
If so we take 25% out and you can add some or all it back in as Another Lump sum at retirement date if you plan to use it towards your retirement income (rather than spend it or pay off debt).
If you are after retirement it says Did you take 25% as a tax free cash lump sum at retirement?
We don’t take 25% out as its already come out, we just now know the remaining pot is fully taxable income. If not, 25% of each payment is tax free.
What if I took some of the 25% or only accessed one pot, so haven’t taken the full 25%?
In this case just contact us at contact@guiide.co.uk. Once we know the details, we can usually work out a good workaround to model things as closely as possible.
Again, hope this is helpful and more tips coming soon!
