SJP Status of pension

A lot can happen in a few years and it’s important to regularly review your retirement objectives, especially if you have changed jobs as you move through your career.

Your personal circumstances can also impact your future retirement plans, such as taking a career break, raising a family, buying or moving house, marriage or divorce, or changes to your health.

So, if you are looking for information on what you should be focusing on with your retirement plans, the following pages should help, or contact us to find a St. James’s Place adviser near you.

Are your pension savings on track?

Your earnings will change over time as you move through your working life, and it’s important to try and make sure your contributions towards retirement keep pace.

If your earnings have increased over the years, it’s likely that your standard of living has also changed, and will continue to do so in the future. You’ll need to consider this when you think about how much income you would like to live on in retirement.

Here are a few thought starters:

Reviewing your contributions
Career breaks
Have you changed jobs?

The value of an investment with St. James's Place will be directly linked to the performance of the funds selected and may fall as well as rise.  You may get back less than the amount invested.

The levels and bases of taxation and reliefs from taxation can change at any time Tax relief is dependent on individual circumstances.

Have your retirement plans changed?

Your plans for retirement, like anything else in life, will need adjusting and reviewing as you get older. It’s likely that, with buying or moving house, a growing family, career breaks, job changes, and possibly health issues, that your circumstances will have changed over time.

Everyone’s circumstances are different, however there are some common areas to focus on:

Resetting expectations
Resetting expectations

Are you helping other generations financially, such as putting money aside for children? Or perhaps caring for older parents or grandparents? 
Accommodating extra outgoings may mean modifying your own retirement plans.

Financial advisor discussion investments with client
Investments

If you’re retiring later than planned, do you need to rethink your investment strategy? Is it suitable for your revised timeframe? Is your mix of assets diverse enough?

Couple discussing mortgage
Mortgage and debts

Is your mortgage on track to be paid off as you enter retirement? Do your retirement plans allow for continuing to repay credit cards or loans?

Your health is another factor that could affect your retirement plans. Poor health can happen to anyone at any time, and mean that you have to bring your retirement forward, or end up working longer to support a loved one.


All of this needs considering when reviewing your retirement plans. A change in your circumstances can not only affect how much you need to save, but also when you might want to start accessing your retirement savings.

It’s worth remembering that retirement doesn’t have to be a fixed age anymore. You can continue to build and grow your retirement wealth for as long as you wish, until you feel ready that you have saved enough to put your retirement plans into action.

What is the cost of delaying making contributions?

There may be occasions where you decide to delay contributing towards your retirement savings. There are many reasons why this might happen, but inevitably it means that you will need to do some catching up in the future to keep you on track for your retirement goals.

To help show what effect this could have, the example below looks at paying into a pension for 30 years, alongside delaying for 1 year and 5 years respectively.

The assumptions used are:

  • Saving £3,000 per year (gross) over a 30 year period

  • Average growth of 7% per year (assuming a 4% growth rate and a 3% inflation rate)

A delay of 1 year would make a difference of over £22,000, and a 5 year delay would be over £100,000.

Although this is a very basic example, the principle remains that the cost of delay increases dramatically within a short space of time. Your St. James’s Place partner will be able to help you to find the best ways to tackle this.

These figures are only examples and are not guaranteed - they are not minimum or maximum amounts. What you will get back depends on how your investment grows and on the tax treatment of the investment.  You could get back more or less than this.

cost of delay

The value of an investment with St. James's Place will be directly linked to the performance of the funds selected and may fall as well as rise. You may get back less than the amount invested.

The levels and bases of taxation and reliefs from taxation can change at any time and are dependent on individual circumstances.

SJP Approved 05/04/2024