Planning for Your Retirement – Pension

You may have already passed the mile-stone that is your 30th birthday, or maybe fast approaching it, either way, this article should provide you with some invaluable advice for determining how best to plan for your retirement at the life stage that begins with your 30’s.

This phase of life is one of the most exciting; families are starting, marriage is well on the cards, financial stability is now within reach, there is no denying it now, you are a fully-fledged adult. It could even be that you are now acting like one too, especially if you are beginning to take your financial responsibilities seriously, as you must be to have discovered this article in the first place. You may even have set up house with a partner, have children and maybe even a pet.

At this stage in your life, you may feel that you left school a long time ago now, but when you are thinking about retirement you feel yourself to be even further away from that period of your life, and technically you are, but it is those steps that you begin now which will help you to feel secure in your capacity to retire comfortably in the future. Planning for your retirement during your thirties is an important task to undertake, and the following considerations will help you to give yourself the best possible financial foundation for your future:

Firstly, you are probably in receipt of the highest levels of income in your life thus far, although this will be offset by the increases in your expenditure too. In all likelihood, you have or are planning on having a family; this will mean that your household budget will be growing alongside your budding family.

Your grocery bill is set to get larger with the increase in the number of people arriving in your family, and it is only set to increase as they get bigger. The size of your mortgage has probably increased too, as you upsize in order to accommodate the growing brood, not only this, the cost of taxes associated with the size of the property will also increase, as will the utility bills that you pay. And this is all to be expected.

Conversely, your annual income has probably increased significantly since the time when you were a young twenty-something, trying to build the foundations of your working and home life. If you live with a partner, you will probably be feeling the benefits of living with another adult in terms of the reduction in financial burdens, after all there will now be two of you to share the increase in life costs. You may also be in receipt of tax credits, given that you now have children to support. All in all, these life circumstances, which are the usual avenues that individuals follow during their thirties, will mean that it is just as much of a challenge now to find the money to make savings than you found it in your early twenties.

Secondly, it rarely gets any easier, so find the resources now to begin saving up for your retirement. The eternal optimist would have assumed that by the time they reach their thirties the time for saving will be nigh. In terms of securing a comfortable retirement, your thirties are a critical period. Each year that you defer making savings towards your retirement will affect you twofold, not only will it affect when you will be able to retire, it will also affect the level of comfort you can expect to retire in.  If you have not yet begun contributing to a pension in Ireland, then the time to begin is definitely upon you by the time you reach your thirties.

If you have been making regular contributions, is there any way in which you can find any extra money to increase your contributions? Instead of booking that luxury holiday, could you opt for one closer to home this year? Every additional amount that you manage to save is going to help to increase your levels of comfort when it actually comes to taking your retirement.

Finally, and possibly most importantly, maintain your focus on the long-term goal. In your thirties, you may still have another 30 or 40 years left in employment; this means that you have a very long-time to plan and save. The earlier you start, the greater the rewards and you may even be able to retire early if you keep your plan on schedule. A positive, happy retirement is more than on the cards for the diligent saver who begins to take their retirement seriously from their early thirties.

This article is based on the author’s own observations and research and is not associated with any 3rd party organisations.