The latest YouGov poll has found that a disappointing 29% of people have confidence that contributing to pension plans is the best way to save for retirement. The survey conducted in association with NS&I for Financial Planning Week, which ran from 21st – 27th November 2011, found that only 36% of men thought they were the way forward whereas women were a lot more sceptical with only 23% agreeing.

Pensions and in particular retirement planning have been extremely topical subjects of late and not necessarily for all the right reasons. We are all aware that State Pension age is gradually increasing and under current plans it will increase to age 66 by 2020.

Taking control of your own destiny in order to ensure that you can afford to retire before age 66, should that be your desire, is therefore of the utmost importance. Those of you who already use our financial planning services will be well aware that even for the youngest of clients, we promote retirement planning from the outset of developing anyone’s financial plan.

The cornerstone of any retirement plan is money efficiency: not spending it today, so that you can spend it tomorrow.  The “tomorrow” being in retirement.  The more you don’t spend today (when your income is higher) the more you have to spend in retirement (when your income is lower). Be warned though, there is more than a grain of truth in the adage: if you pay in an amount you won’t miss into a pension, you’ll get a pension you won’t notice.

If you haven’t put a pension plan in place it’s never too late.  Now is always a good time to seriously think about starting pension contributions. Act now so that you regain control over when you will retire. Do you know how much retirement income you want and when you want it?  The plan starts with answering this question.

If you haven’t already thought about how you are going to fund your retirement, don’t leave it too late. Why not get in touch with the team here at Proposito so that we can help you achieve your retirement ambitions.