“My husband and I were not able to save towards our retirement as we would have wished, but now, at ages 73 and 74 we have both been able to find employment and have been saving as much as we can. Where can we invest with reasonably good interest and is “safe” for people our age?” writes Geraldine.

Maya replies: This requires a bit of a balancing act between growth that will outpace inflation and security given that your investment time-frame is not as long as the typical retirement saver.

If you were in a position not to touch the money for five years then you would look at a low risk prudential fund (balanced fund) with around 40% – 50% in equities. Coronation, Investec, Prudential and Allan Gray all have good balanced funds.

If you want to be able to access the savings in a shorter time period, financial adviser Gregg Sneddon says an income type fund like the Coronation Strategic Income, Prudential Enhanced Income or the Atlantic Enhanced Income would all produce returns of around 7% to 9% which would at least keep you ahead of the inflation curve.

Sneddon also says that a retirement annuity may actually work for you, as odd at that seems. The funds would fall outside of your estates, there is no capital gains or dividend tax issues and you would qualify for tax deductions. I would suggest you get advice on this as it will also depend on your current income and tax rate as to the ultimate benefit.

If you go the retirement annuity route only consider a flexible unit trust linked retirement annuity. You can for example invest into Coronation, Investec and Allan Gray via their retirement annuity platform.