Thinking about a pension but have yet to do anything about it, fear not… There are options (Credits: Getty Images)
Do you have a plan for your retirement?
It’s not always a pleasant thing to start thinking about, especially if that time currently seems very far way.
Of course, the younger you start the better, but, whether you’ve started early, left it late or have other ways to fund your life after you stop work, it is vital to have a financial plan that works for you in later life.
Here, we speak to three women taking very different routes…
The early bird
Starting a pension as early as possible can make the route to retirement easier thanks to the miracle of compounding, which means that money put into your pension early will make a much bigger difference to your final pot than any you put in later. As an early bird, ensure you make the most of your advantage by maximising your contributions, particularly if your employer is chipping in.
Laura started paying pension after she became a mum
Laura Pomfret, 37, learned the importance of pension savings early, when she had her first child at 23.
‘It was unplanned and I was a young solicitor but being a parent makes you selfless. You have to look after someone else for once. I worried about how I was ever going to put my child through nursery, so I went on a financial wellbeing journey.’
After overpaying her debts and building some savings, Laura turned to her pension. ‘After maternity I went back and paid my pension, which reduced my salary, but it had to be done. Later, when I’d bought a home, I absolutely whacked up my pension contributions, to nine or ten per cent of my salary. That means now my pension is really good.’
Laura lives in Manchester with her husband Carl and three children Ava, Albi, and Ally. She recently left her career as a lawyer and started a financial wellbeing community for women site called Financielle. However, she ensures she continues to contribute as much as she can to her pension and encourages her husband to do the same.
After more than a decade of making pension contributions, she says she can now see that her money works ‘while she sleeps’, growing over time thanks to the miracle of compounding.
‘I literally did nothing special. It was just time and keeping doing it,’ she says of her pension pot. She urges other young people to get started on their pensions as soon as possible.
‘If you’re paying Netflix and you’re paying Spotify and you’re paying the golf club, you should be paying your pension,’ she says.
The mid-life maximiser
Even if you haven’t managed to save into your pension at the early stages of your career, having a plan at a later stage can pay off, especially if you take a multi-pronged approach to building assets for the future.
At 43, Kate Flounders knows she needs to have a retirement plan, but as a self-employed …read more
Source:: Metro
