QUESTION:
Will my income stay the same throughout my retirement?

ANSWER:
Not necessarily and again there is a huge choice of plans to consider. If you want the highest possible income now then a fixed payment deal will probably provide it. But as you may well be living on this money for the next 30 years you need to be aware of the risks. Inflation may soon eat into the purchasing power and a deal that looks good today may not look so generous in, say, 2017. So consider a pension annuity where your income will rise in line with inflation, or one that goes up by a pre-agreed amount each year. At the start both will pay less than a level income deal. But in the long term they could offer better value.