Going to work can feel like a chore sometimes, but those tough days should feel worth it when it comes to retiring and you can finally enjoy all those savings you worked so hard for.
Saving for your pension can seem like a daunting task, but it’s important to start putting as much money away as you can so you can afford to retire when you want.
The earlier you start saving the better, as this will give you plenty of time to build up a decent nest egg which will accrue interest over time, helping you to add some easy extra cash.
There’s also the option of paying voluntary contributions to fill in any missing years in your National Insurance record, or you could opt to delay your pension to allow more time to put money in the pot.
But there is one other simple option to add some easy extra cash to your pension pot that you might not realise.
Research carried out by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) identified several life choices that can have a detrimental effect on your retirement fund, with one major mistake costing people £100,000.
The IFoA warns that people who don’t take advantage of extra employer contributions risk losing up to £100,000 from their pension savings.
According to the Pensions Act 2008, every employer in the UK must put certain staff into a workplace pension scheme and contribute towards it in a process called ‘automatic enrolment’.
Any employer who has at least one member of staff has certain legal duties and must pay at least three percent of their employee’s ‘qualifying earnings’ into their staff’s pension scheme. Under most schemes, it’s the employee’s total earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 a year before tax. Total earnings include:
Employers must then deduct contributions from their staff’s pay each month to put into their pension pot.
Most employers will allow staff to increase their contributions above the minimum three percent and may offer the option to ‘match’ the extra money staff put in up to a certain limit, meaning you can easily benefit from a bigger boost to your savings.
Employees are advised to speak to their HR department or pension provider to see what extra contributions are available.
