It’s better to start now - don’t think it’s too early or too late.

We all like to be mindful and live in the moment. Because it’s stressful to always be worrying about the future, right? Wrong! It’s stressful to worry about the future if you’re not prepared for it. Especially when it comes to money. We’ve all heard that mantra about having the courage to change the things you can, the serenity to accept those you can’t and the wisdom to know the difference. Well, saving for your later life is absolutely something you can change, right now. And it will surely bring you added serenity further down the line!

The statistics are shocking. A third of Brits are doing nothing to save for their old age. Yet we all look forward to retiring and spending our autumn years (which these days could amount to almost half our life) chucking back the mimosas somewhere sunny. So how are we going to get there?

The two main reasons people bury their heads in the sand about all this is that pensions are scary and daily life is expensive. Well here are Vestpod we’ve taken big baby steps (is that a thing?) to prove that pensions aren’t actually scary at all. You’ll know from reading our past articles on this subject that pensions are in fact your thoughtful best friend! They are literally just ways of saving money in a tax-efficient manner. And however much or little you earn, your spare pennies are better off growing in a pension fund than going towards payments on a fancy car, or sitting in a current account ready to be exchanged for a £30 weekend brunch. And you don’t even need to wait until you’re ancient to start cashing it in: 55 is the norm these days.

“BUT I HAVE NO SPARE MONEY!” We hear you cry. Sure. Modern life is hideously expensive. We get it. Only yesterday you had to part with £4 for your morning coffee, £3 for your fav magazine, £10 for a Uber-ride and a tenner for lunch. Oh. Right. So maybe you could have got to 1pm without spending any of that money? And if you budgeted down like that a few days a week that could be a couple of hundred pounds for your pension pot every single month. Which, over the many dozens of months between now and silver-haired mimosa-land, adds up to a pretty sizeable sum, if you include tax breaks, employer contributions and compound interest.

If on the other hand you’re close to retirement age than you’d like to admit, yet you haven’t saved much, there’s no need to panic. Start saving right now, in any way you can! And you’re never too old for a side-hustle… in fact, the older you are, the more excellent skills you have to capitalize on, whether it’s decades long experience of caring for babies / dogs / iguanas, or being the only person in your company who knows how to fix and old fashioned bicycle. So embrace that growth mindset (remember when we wrote about that? It’s a Good Thing. It really works) and you’ll feel the confidence growing and the fear going, as you look forward to what could be the most fun, independent and brave years of your life.

Photo by Bradley Wentzel on Unsplash.