If 2025 starts the countdown to your longest holiday — otherwise known as retirement — then there are lots of plans to make. Taking some time to get everything in order can really help you get the most from your retirement planning.
Taking small steps can make a massive difference to how much you end up with and here’s five top tips to get you started.
Tracking down lost pensions can potentially add thousands of pounds to your retirement pot.
It’s worth taking the time to sit down and make a list of all your employers and checking to see if you have pension paperwork for them. If you don’t, and you think you may have had a pension with them, then contact the government’s Pension Tracing Service.
Read more: What do people regret the most when they retire?
All you need is either your employer’s name or that of your pension provider. The service can’t tell you if you do have a pension with them but they can give you contact details so you can find out.
Once you’ve found your lost pensions it might make sense to consolidate them into a low-cost SIPP.
Having one overarching view of your pensions not only saves you time, administration and potentially cost it also gives you a true sense of what you really have, and this can have a huge impact on your retirement decision making.
For instance, if you have several small pensions, you may be tempted to take them as cash whereas if they are consolidated into one larger amount you are more likely to take a longer-term view.
However, before you decide to bring your pensions together, make sure you aren’t potentially incurring exit fees or missing out on benefits such as guaranteed annuity rates.
A full new state pension is currently worth just over £11,500 per year. However, many people don’t get this amount due to gaps in their national insurance record after time spent out of the workforce.
A state pension forecast will show you how much you are on track to receive and highlight any gaps. If you qualified for a benefit that comes with an automatic national insurance credit — like child benefit — during one of these gap periods, then you may be able to backdate a claim.
Read more: How to maximise your retirement income
You will need to move quickly though as the deadline to take advantage ends on 6 April 2025.
Check with the Future Pension Centre before handing over any money to make sure you really will receive an uplift in your state pension. If you were contracted out at any point, then you will have paid less national insurance which can have an impact on your state pension entitlement that may not be solved with top-ups.
