Do You Want More Money For Your Retirement? Here Are 8 Ways To Boost Your Retirement Savings

It is always nice to have a bit more. More travel, fun, and time with the people you care about. Your retirement is the ideal time to do more of the things you enjoy doing.

However, doing these things requires more money. Therefore, having a bigger pension pot could mean the difference between enjoying your retirement and just struggling by. Read on to discover eight ways to boost your retirement savings, so you can do more of the things you want. Obtaining competent and regulated financial advice will assist you in planning for retirement; check out Portafina.

Eight Ways To Boost Your Retirement Savings

Remain in your workplace pension scheme.

You will likely be automatically enrolled in a workplace pension scheme if you are an employee. That means around 8% of the value of your pay goes towards your retirement funds.

Only half this amount is paid from your salary, with the other half coming through employer contributions and tax relief. Therefore, you would lose a considerable amount of money each year if you opted out of your employer’s pension scheme.

Regularly check your pension plan.

If you already contribute to a pension scheme, that is an excellent start to your post-working preparations. However, just paying into your pension plan is insufficient.

You must review your pension regularly to check that it is performing as expected and that the management charges have not risen too sharply.

Minor percentage differences in charges and performance can have huge effects over time. For instance, paying an additional 1% in management charges could reduce your pension pot by around £27,000 over its lifetime. Similarly, a 2% performance improvement could boost it to £54,000.

Of course, checking pensions can be a complex business. Therefore, you may feel more comfortable using a regulated financial advisor to help you with this matter.

Maximise your State Pension entitlement.

Although the State Pension won’t be sufficient to fund your retirement by itself, it is an excellent supplement. Therefore, you should maximise the amount of State Pension you will receive.

To qualify for the full State Pension, you must have made 35 years’ worth of National Insurance contributions. Although these do not have to be consecutive years, any gaps will reduce the amount of pension you receive.

Locate any lost pensions.

As unlikely as it may seem, you could have some pension plans that you have lost or misplaced. Having multiple jobs throughout your working life is a prime example of how this might happen.

You will move to a different workplace pension scheme when you change jobs. Although you have stopped contributing to an old scheme, the money within it remains yours.

However, losing track of old pensions is easy as you no longer see the contributions coming out of your pay each month. The longer you leave it to locate these old pensions, the more chance they have of becoming eroded through underperformance or high management charges.

Claim your maximum tax relief entitlement.

Tax relief is one of the most significant benefits of saving in a pension scheme. Therefore, you should ensure you maximise your tax relief entitlement.

You do not need to worry about this if you are a basic rate taxpayer, as this is taken care of automatically. You will need to reclaim your tax directly from HMRC if you are within the higher tax bracket.

Make top-up payments to your pension.

Making regular top-up payments to either a personal pension or a workplace scheme will significantly boost your funds in the long term. You can make top-up payments regularly, either in small amounts or one-off larger payments. Even small amounts will benefit from compound interest growth over many years, giving them the chance to increase substantially.

Carry forward your annual allowance.

You can pay up to £40,000 per year into your pension pot without any tax implications. This amount is your annual allowance and includes your employer’s contributions.

You are allowed to carry forward any unused allowance from three previous years. However, to do so, you must have used up all of your allowance for the current year.

Speak with a regulated financial advisor.

Although you might think you have all your retirement finances in order, it is always a good idea to seek professional financial advice. Indeed, on average, those who seek guidance have around £27k more in their retirement pots than those who do not.

Therefore, consider speaking with a regulated financial advisor. They can assess your entire retirement financial plan and present you with the best options to achieve the lifestyle you want and do more things you enjoy.