My company let us buy shares at a reduced rate, something we would never have known if it hadn't of been for one guy asking. I pay £150 each month into this over 3 years which equates to £5400. The share price we bought them at was £12.42, they now stand at £23.45. You do the maths, we can do this every few years as well and this companys share price just continues to rise each year as they get bigger and continue to take over other companies. The company is Virgin Media. I would encourage everybody to ask their employer about similar schemes as they might be available but you just don't know about them.
Some sound advice here my only added suggestion is don't put all your eggs in one basket, housing markets, stock exchanges crash. Also for you young ones start early may not seem important now but the longer you pay in the less painful it is.
If you buy the shares through a company employee share ownership scheme it's very tax efficient - the cash you spend should be deducted from your gross/pre tax salary i.e you don't pay tax on the money you use to buy shares. If you keep shares bought through these schemes for 5 years, you can also sell them tax free. And of course you get dividends on them. On the downside you are fulfilling Thatcher's dream of the UK becoming a shareholding nation, where workers have a 'stake' in their companies. Of course this stake, even collectively, is a tiny fraction of the overall shareholding, so it doesn't make much difference to company decisions, but may make you more reluctant to challenge them. In the interest of transparency, I am delighted to take the shares my company offers me. Occupational pensions, some stock/share investments, judicious insurance, property investments if you can afford it and a modest amount of saved cash should, as Uber say, all be considered. But get yourself some proper financial advice from at least 3 different sources. share prices can go down as well as up etc etc
Thanks mate there's some sound advice there, I'm going to be 30 this year and have had it drilled into me the importance of saving for the future. I'm hoping to get into property next
I'm 52 next week and really only started taking an interest in this stuff once I turned 40. If you put a plan in place now and stick to it you will be in a very good place in a few years. Then again you might drop dead, and all the money you saved, which could have been spent on Ferraris and exotic holidays, will go to others. Tricky stuff, make sure you live a bit as well as prepare for the future. Of course the only real answer is to earn loadsamoney so you can have everything. If you can kick a ball you are the right age range for QPR to give you £70k a week........
My father made me start a pension at 18 when I started working. Been paying in monthly ever since. Yes I could have paid a mortgage off on another property with the amount I've put in for the past 27 years but the key here is regular contributions whether into a pension / trust / isa / property. I've not 'missed' the money as such but its built up well by now. The last few years have seen my pension fund take a battering but I got my 2012 statement through yesterday and its recovered 13% in the period which is very good. I would reccomend getting plenty of independant advice as your own personal requirements need tailoring. The main thing is starting as early as you can afford to without curtailing your fun
Key message from any IFA will be to ensure that you have a spread of investments / savings, and to keep a decent amount of readily accessible cash And remember that past performance may not be a guide to the future (particularly relevant as an Rs fan!!) Easy of course when you have plenty of money to save; not so easy if you're financially stretched every month
Surrey I am an IFA and all of the above is excellent advice I have highlighted one really important line plus I would like to correct Uber on point No. 2 If you have access to an occupational scheme, then your employer is obliged to make a contribution too. Employers are not obliged to contribute to all schemes although 97% do, however they are obliged to provide access to a scheme as I work in the Netherlands now this may have changed in the past couple of years and I've missed that info, so stand to be corrected Uber. One other piece of advice is to remember to review your various scheme's on an annual basis over the years I have come across far too many people with good intention have started saving for retirement and think the job is done, but forget to factor in inflation and pay increases i.e. If you earn 30K now and base your future income on a percentage of that say 50%=15K and you end up earning 90K you need to based the 50% on your last income e.g. (50%=45K) you will be disapointed if you have not made regular increases or indexed your plans from the beginning. In my opinion it is the after service that a good IFA earns his salt, good luck.
Sorry to report on a rather sombre note - I turn 60 this year and following the economic crisis starting in 2008 my personal retirement savings have almost totally evaporated from a peak of $575,000 and I am mired in debt. In hindsight I wish I had heeded an article I read in early 2008 which suggested to cash out of the stock market before the China Olympics that year. I have five kids (all girls) aged 11 to 20 with the older two in university, so lots of onging expenses in the forseeable future. Fortunately I do have a reasonably secure government job with 25 years in that pays $65,000/annum - if I were to retire age 60 I would receive a cash retirement allowance of $30,000 plus $2500/mth pension + state pension, if at age 65 allowance around $35,000 plus $3000/mth pension + state pension. So right now not a very bright retirement future to look forward to, and at my age no real time to make the money back (no money left to invest anyway, as almost all goes to pay bills and service debt) - I feel like a hamster on a treadmill. But I do have my health, as does my family. To improve my health and try and shed a few pounds since blood pressure, blood sugar and bad cholesterol all creeping up, I have returned to regular swimming and am still able to pound in 75 continuous laps per session. I am 3rd generation R's and would support the team to hell & back, whatever league division we were in. Our games, especially when a decent performance and result, allow me a small moment of pleasure to take my mind off all these more pressing issues.
Sorry to hear Kilburn but indeed health is wealth.. My reference to "if it goes t*ts up there will be time to make it up" was based on somebody starting ealry and can take a few more risks and start swapping to cash the closer to retirement they get.
It's a fair challenge, Flanman. I was guilty of being a little over-simplistic, but by and large the auto-enrolment provisions that are being phased in should in time capture the majority of employers. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19760421 http://www.out-law.com/page-10518 There are still many, many employers that are simply burying their heads in the sand about these changes, so I'd recommend employees ask questions if they've not received any staff briefings on the subject yet.
Were you managing that savings pot yourself Kilburn, or was it with a fund? If the latter get some legal advice, as they should have shifted the vast majority of it to safe cash as you neared retirement age, to avoid exactly what happened.
Thanks for the info Uber by the way my message should have read "I stand to be corrected" as I don't pretend to know everything and not as it looks as if I am telling you to be corrected, that was a mistake and no offence meant in any way.
None taken, old sport. In fact, even having put it in bold, I still read it in the way you intended. If you hadn't pointed it out, I'd have been none the wiser! Now, I'm all grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!
In 2005, after many years of seeing my retirement savings portfolio decline every year being "professionally" managed with poor fund selections, declining fund prices, large transaction/service fees etc. I opted to self manage my investment portfoilio leading up to retirement. From 2005 until early 2008, I grew an equity investment portfolio from $37,000 to $575,000. I recall in early 2008 reading an investment article suggesting to cash out of equities prior to the China Olympics - such sage advice, but didn't heed it. In late 2008 as the economic downturn kicked in and equity prices declined in a massive way, I attempted to catch a falling knife by borrowing at low interest rates, buying more stock, but my equity investments, in mining, oil, pharmaceuticals and defence sectors kept falling and a few stocks I held were even delisted from stock exchange trading and/or sold for a pittance leaving me with next to nothing. So in short, my current situation and mess I am in is mostly my own fault - I had it all and lost it, big lesson learned - I wanted to provide for a secure retirement and for my children's university education etc. but as it is, I will just have to keep working for as long as I am able to pay for everything. Still have about $120,000 net equity in the house, but carrying around $250,000 in other debts. One final word of advice I would add - NEVER ever turn your home into an ATM to borrow against.
