Pension planning and retirement planning is complex and it can be difficult to know where to begin. Growing your pension pot is the best way to towards achieving a comfortable retirement and the amount of income you need after
you stop working.
With the right knowledge and financial advice, you can make the most of your pension and investments.
Here are 5 steps to help you grow your pension pot and make the most of your retirement.
1. Track down your old pensions
The first step to retirement planning is understand how much you have already saved for retirement. Many people have several jobs in their lifetime and start a new pension at each job.
It is important that you track down any old pensions that you have accumulated over the years. At Four Wealth Management, a financial adviser can help you find where your old pensions are held. They can also analyse how the investments have been performing. They could be invested in default funds and we can check if they are allowing you to make the most of your investments.
Book a no-obligation meeting to track down your old pensions
2. Outline your retirement goals
At Four Wealth Management, a financial adviser will sit down with you and work out what your short and long-term goals are at retirement and then aim for you to have sufficient income to support yourself after you retire.
When you retire, large expenses such as your mortgage are likely to already be paid off. You should start by calculating what your likely essential expenditure will be at retirement so that you know what the minimum amount per month you can live on will be. Then you should add in your discretionary expenditure such as holidays or other luxury purchases to work out how much you would need per month for the retirement lifestyle that you want.
Setting your goals early will give you more time to plan. Investing more into your pension each month over a long time period will mean your pension has more time and potential to grow in value.
3. Invest in a diversified portfolio
If you are looking to grow your pension pot then investing in a diversified portfolio is essential. Diversifying your investments means spreading your money across different asset classes such as stocks, bonds, cash and property, to help minimise risk and maximise potential returns. You should aim to diversify your pension portfolio so that it includes a range of assets and sectors.
This approach can help you maximise returns while also helping to reduce the amount of risk you are taking with your investments should the markets take a dip. A financial adviser at Four Wealth Management will have already established your aims and goals for retirement so they will know what time frames you are working with for your pension investments. They will recommend a diversified portfolio that meets your attitude to risk and time frames.
Book a no-obligation meeting now to help you achieve your dream retirement
4. Increase your pension contributions
Now that you have calculated how much you have already saved for retirement in various pension pots, established your retirement goals and calculated how much income you want to receive each month you can see if there is a shortfall.
It is likely that you will need to increase your pension contributions to help towards your pension pot being big enough when you come to retire. The more that you contribute when you are younger, the more flexibility you have with regards to choosing when you retire and achieving your retirement goals.
Making small increases to your pension each month will add up over time.
If you are employed, you will also benefit from employer workplace pension contributions. You should check your employer scheme and make sure you are making the most of your workplace pension contributions. Some employers offer to match higher employee contributions.
5. Review your pension regularly
It is important to keep an eye on your pension pot and regularly review your investments and performance to check your pension pot is on track.
At Four Wealth Management, you will get an annual review meeting with your financial adviser. Your financial adviser will proactively manage your pension pot and the underlying investments. If there are any changes that they feel you should make before your review meeting then they will contact you. Your adviser will also advise you of any changes to tax legislation which might impact your investments. Continual monitoring and adjusting of your pension investments will help keep you on track towards your dream retirement.
Book a no-obligation meeting or call us on 0117 973 0500
The value of an investment with St. James’s Place will be directly linked to the performance of the funds you select and the value can therefore go down as well as up. You may get back less than you invested.
The levels and bases of taxation, and reliefs from taxation, can change at any time. The value of any tax relief depends on individual circumstances.
