What do you want from your retirement? To just make ends meet or to enjoy your hobbies and desired lifestyle? This is a critical question as the answer could influence what you do now.
Although retirement might seem some way off, you’ll be much more likely to have the kind of retirement you want and deserve if you act sooner rather than later.
Setting a clear goal of what you want in later life can be hugely motivational, giving you something tangible to work towards and driving you to take the necessary steps to ensure you have a steady and secure income.
It’s likely that you’re already contributing to a pension if you’ve been auto-enrolled into a workplace scheme. We’d recommend you pay as much into this as you can as early as possible, partly because it gives you more time to build up a sizable pension pot, and also because a private pension is more expensive and you won’t get employer contributions.
In short, the earlier you can start planning for retirement, the better, so you can enjoy this special time of life to the full.
How Much Should I Save?
There is no right or wrong answer to this, as everybody’s financial situation and wider circumstances will be different. But there are two popular approaches that many pension savers take.
Some will follow the common rule that you should save half your age each year until you retire. So if you’re 30, you should be aiming to save 15 per cent of your income, and if you’re 40, save 20 per cent, and so on.
Others will choose the option of saving four times their age, so if you’re 25 years old, you’d be putting £100 a month into your pension. This encourages you to get into the habit of saving, starting with a fairly modest amount, and get used to increasing your contributions over time.
The approach you take should depend on your specific circumstances and your financial goals.
Why Start Early?
There are five good reasons why you shouldn’t delay when it comes to planning for your retirement.
Keep Track of Your Pension Planning
Having visibility over your pension is really important, so you know what you’re saving and have a good idea of how much you can expect to receive from your pension in the future.
With the Creative Pension Trust Member Portal, understanding your progress is easy.
We can help you trace and claim old pension pots you may have lost touch with as you’ve changed jobs over the years. You can also get a forecast of how much you could expect to receive from your pension in the future.
That gives you a good starting point so you can work out how much to save today.
