Retirement is often associated with greater freedom and the opportunity to enjoy the rewards of decades of work. But for many people, the transition from earning a regular pay cheque to relying on pensions and savings can feel less like a gentle glide and more like standing at the edge of a financial cliff-edge.

A YouGov survey of 6,224 UK adults found that 55% reported that they were concerned about running out of money in retirement and, among these worried respondents, 63% were under 50 years old.

However, the good news is that avoiding a financial retirement cliff-edge isn’t about having extraordinary wealth – it’s about making informed decisions before and throughout retirement.

We spoke to Susan Hope, retirement expert and business development director at Scottish Widows, who shared the following nine practical steps to help you build a retirement plan that can weather life’s uncertainties and give you greater confidence that your retirement years will be defined by peace of mind rather than financial stress.

1. Understand what state pension and credits you are entitled to

“Make sure the cornerstone of your financial retirement income is covered by the state and you’ve got everything you’re entitled to,” advises Hope. “If you go onto the HMRC app you can find out really quickly when your state pension age is and what you are due to get.

“Another important thing to look at on the app is a year-by-year breakdown of your national insurance contributions.”

Hope recommends going back through your working years to make sure that you’ve got credits for every period because if you weren’t working due to unemployment, illness, or were caring for someone, you may be entitled to national insurance credits.

They help ensure you qualify for certain benefits, most notably the state pension, during periods when you weren’t working, were earning too little to pay National Insurance, or were claiming specific benefits.

2. Locate any lost or missing pension pots

“I have a huge bee in my bonnet about the £31 billion of untraced pensions that we have in the UK,” says Hope. “Go back through your LinkedIn or your CV and make sure that none of that £31 billion is languishing somewhere, because that is your money to have.”

Once you know the name of your previous employer or your old pension provider, you can use the government’s free Pension Tracing Service to help find lost pension pots.

3. Look at the UK’s different retirement living standards

“I think it’s really useful to look at the UK’s retirement living standards, because that will give you an idea of how much you’re going to need in retirement, depending on what type of retirement you want to live,” recommends Hope.