Save to enjoy the fruits of your labour
Are you finding life busy at the moment? This is most probably the case. Perhaps you're working hard and building a career. You may well be bringing up a family. You'll also have friends, hobbies and a social life. So you'll have a lot going on.
That means you're probably not thinking much about your retirement. Why would you? It seems a long way away, and you've a lot of things you want to do in life before then. But it's actually never too early to start thinking about life after work. You could spend decades finally being your own boss – taking up new pursuits, enjoying extra holidays and spending more time with the family.
Many people see their retirement as a time when they have the opportunity to enjoy themselves more than ever before. But to be able to do that, you need a good income – and that means making sure you have a decent pension to live on.
The earlier you start putting money away, the more you're likely to have to enjoy yourself with when the time comes. And there's never been a better time to start saving for your future, thanks to a new law just introduced which means employers have to enrol millions of workers into a pension scheme and pay into it too.
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Valid until: Friday, May 31 2013
Employers have to automatically enrol workers who...
are not already in a workplace pension scheme
are aged 22 or over
are under State Pension age
earn more than £8,105 a year (2012-13 tax year, this figure may change each April) and
work, or usually work, in the UK.
You may well find you've just been enrolled by your employer into membership of a workplace pension scheme. If not, then it's likely that you soon will be. Under automatic enrolment, a small amount of your salary is taken every month and placed in a pension scheme where it will be invested to eventually provide a regular income when you retire.
But the really good news is that your employer and the government both help you by paying in money too. When you make your monthly contribution, they top it up, so your total pot grows more quickly.
This means that it's a fantastic way to save.
In most pension schemes, your pension pot is put into various types of investment, such as shares (shares are a stake in a company). This is because in the long run it usually gives a better return than a savings account. Over the years, the value of investments can go up and down. But even if the value goes down in the short term, it is likely to recover in the long term.
In fact, on standard assumptions, for more than 95% of people, the expected increase in income is greater than the cost of their contributions, even after taking inflation into account. Most people will actually get back far more than this.
You don't have to be in this new workplace pension scheme – you can tell your employer you'd like to opt out at any time, and your monthly contributions will stop. But it's well worth thinking hard before you do that, as having a good pension could make a real difference to your quality of life in retirement.
If you do withdraw from the scheme, then you may well have only the basic state pension to support you. The full amount for this tax year, 2012-13, is £107.45 a week for a single person. While that's a good foundation, many people will want more.
Your money – and the top-up cash provided by your employer and the government – will be put into a good pension scheme which meets strict qualifying criteria. It's also your boss's responsibility to do all the paperwork on your behalf. That means you can sit back, enjoy life and let your investment gradually build up. There really isn't any catch. What better way to protect your future?
For more information, visit www.thisisdevon.co.uk/payas yougopensions.
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