All The Small Wins Add Up To Something That Can Become Big

There are so many stories these days about people who have made it BIG and are now enjoying a lifestyle that most of us would envy.

But ask yourself “how long did it take that person to achieve the result?”

I've worked in Finance for years, mainly Pensions, and it doesn’t take a genius to work it out, there are too many people in their 60s, 70s and 80s who all want a comfortable lifestyle, and too few people able to fund this.

Economies have largely been able to cope with this up until now, but Covid changed all that.

Many people are having to work longer, not something they planned for. Governments the world over have been hiding this from us, but in the last few years it’s started to get more urgent.

Over 30 years ago now, yes, over 30 years ago, I went for Dinner at the House of Lords in The Houses of Parliament, UK. It was the Pensions Management Institute’s Annual Dinner. The Speech given by the Host was unforgettable.

He didn’t ‘sugar-coat’ anything and said we were facing a very challenging future with people living longer and a falling birth-rate.

But hold up a second, in the 1970s and 1980s we were made to feel that our child was ‘over-population’. Now he was saying there are not enough young taxpayers to fund our retirements — hasn’t anyone looked at this sooner?

Well yes, they did but couldn’t come up with a practical answer that would be popular with the electorate.

A Phased Retirement

My suggestion was a phased retirement, but that didn’t go down too well. Employer schemes sometimes offer this, and of course, if you have a nice plump retirement fund you could do this for yourself. But to ask the Government to do it — forget it!

Retirement age in the UK is currently 67 years, up from 65 a few years ago.

My suggestion is that everyone should retire at age 65, and if the Country can’t afford it the pension could start at 50%, rising to 75% at age 66 and then 100% at age 67 — that way it could be fair for all, and not just penalise the younger ones.

But no, they wouldn’t hear of it, the government want to make everyone work longer.

Now, for some people this is a good thing, they like to work it keeps them young and involved. But many more no longer have the good health to do that.

What’s The Solution?

I was lucky enough to realise what was going to happen so I started to pay close attention to how I could save money in as tax efficient way as possible.

But I also looked at how I could grow a nice pot of money by making small savings.

There are several ways to do this:

Only buy things on ‘Special Offer’

Make a note of the time the Supermarket reduced food — they can’t freeze meat and fish close to the ‘Sell-by-Date’ but YOU CAN!

Look for the best deals for your energy supplier, Insurance needs, telecoms, etc.

Use Cashback sites and store loyalty cards

Sell unwanted items at Car Boot Sales or on auction sites such as e-Bay and Vinted

Become a ‘Mystery Shopper’

Sign up with your local Town Hall to work at the Elections

Hunt out all the ‘Try-Me-Free’ offers

Take part in on-line surveys that pay

Go ‘Coupon Collecting’

With the rise in property prices, many of the older generation bought ‘buy to let’ property for income, but this effectively squeezed younger people out of the housing market. The rental income supplemented their pensions, and many took the equity out of their main residence.

Holiday lets are also popular, and the way the tax works in the UK, any gains on the value of the property can be treated under ‘Entrepreneur Relief’ where instead of paying up to 60% of the profit in tax, the rate is a very palatable 10% tax.

I’m sure if you put your mind to it you can find lots of small ways to increase your finances, then you can spend the money on what you like.

Thank you for reading to … the End