Retirement income is the reward - or penalty - for one's saving decisions over the years. But now there is much more choice available.

In the current environment, with such low rates of return on annuities, given where interest rates are, many people opt for a portfolio of products to cater for different spending and saving needs.

While pension freedoms released people from the necessity of buying a pension, it has since become clear that having one's entire pension savings invested in the stock markets may not be so satisfactory.

The security of knowing one has at least some guaranteed income, to cover the essential bills, helps many of those in retirement to sleep at night, while knowing they are able to benefit from some of the uplift from the stockmarket, if they stay invested through drawdown.

In this guide, we look at some of the issues relating to retirement income.